Gas supply to CNG stations, industrial units suspended

Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on Thursday morning suspended gas supply to 380 CNG stations and 600 industrial units for three and four days respectively in Faisalabad Region. Gas consuming industrial units, most of them export oriented and labour intensive textile units, will be closed for next four days, while electricity load-shedding is also increasing day by day.
Talking to newsmen, Chaudhry Salamat Ali, Chief Co-ordinator, and former Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA) North Zone said that during the last 80 days, gas had been supplied to industrial units for only 14 days in Punjab, resultantly the daily wagers, who had no alternative jobs, were facing serious circumstances.
No doubt, industrialisation plays an important role in the economic growth of a country that earns foreign exchange and also provides jobs to a large number of professional, technical people and labour force but in the absence of basic factor of production like gas & electricity, industrial productivity and efficiency are greatly hampered, he added.
Shortage of gas and 6 to 8 hour load shedding of electricity in the region were on rise that would result in the increase in number of more sick units, whereas Pakistan badly needed investment to run the wheel of the economy, he maintained. Chaudhry Salamat Ali said that unemployment in the country especially in Punjab was pushing up graph of the street crime. He also expressed grave concern over the murder of a jeweller and a shopkeeper by the armed dacoits.
Increasing incidents of Theft and snatching of vehicles were continuously going on. He appealed that industrialists and investors should be taken into the confidence before taking decisions, he added. He lamented that the government added 39 per cent fuel adjustment charges in current electricity bills and totally ignored the protest of the public. The timeline for the increase in the prices of petroleum products and electricity tariff were also raising questions because at a time when the whole Value added textile industry was suffering due to energy crisis and high cost of doing business, the raise in POL prices was bound to give a further blow to the industry.