4-day gas closure: LCCI warns govt of massive protests

RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has warned the government of massive protests if the decision of four-day gas closure for the industrial sector in Punjab was not reverted to three days a week with immediate effect.

The LCCI office bearers had a meeting with the representatives of various industrial associations.

President LCCI Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said the decision to launch protest was taken to save the industry in Punjab, which was providing jobs to over 15 million people. "The government would have to reset its priorities regarding provision of gas otherwise situation would go out of hands." He said the new gas load management plan was a well-calculated and well thought-out conspiracy against the present regime and people sitting at the helm of affairs must understand the importance of the industry.

He said that discrimination with the industry in Punjab was sheer injustice that calls for an intervention of the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Even three days a week gas closure was unacceptable in the ongoing economic scenario as it was increasing the number of poor in the country and if it was extended to four days for a longer period, millions of daily wage earners would become jobless, he added. "The rise in number of unemployed would definitely give air to anti-government sentiments. It is not the industry only that would be suffering massively but the government would also be an ultimate loser on many front," he added.

Sheikh urged the government to immediately shelve the proposed "Industry Closure Plan" to avert industrial closures and resultant massive layoffs. "How can the industry afford to pay the all-time high mark up when there is no gas for the industry?" He said that there was a global phenomenon that the industry was given top priority whereas in Pakistan the sectors are given priority.

He said that around 40 percent of the industrial units in Punjab run on gas and gas suspension means no production by almost half of the industry and a loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer.

This discriminatory attitude of the government was not only denting its goodwill and reputation but had also put a question mark on its ability to manage and govern things. They said that the units in Sindh were getting an almost uninterrupted supply except loadshedding for two to three hours.

How the industry would be able to meet deadlines for export orders worth millions of dollars when there was no gas? What about the thousands of daily wage earners who had only one source of income? Above all, how the government would convince both the local and foreign investors for investment when it was unable to manage the supply of gas to existing industrial units. "Instead of coming up with some sort of relief package, the industry is being pushed to the wall. The gas suspension for four days a week is tantamount to throttling the industry to death," he added.