Loadshedding: industrialists threaten to go on strike

Emergent general body meetings of all the industrial associations of the city will be held on Saturday to decide future line of action regarding load shedding being carried out in industrial areas of the city. The industrialists have threatened to close down their units and go on strike against the power utility for carrying out hours-long load shedding in industrial areas of the city.
The country will suffer irreparable losses if the government fails to persuade Karachi Eclectic Supply Company (KESC) to desist from carrying out load shedding in industrial areas of the city. The commercial and industrial hub of the country is experiencing one of the worst power crisis in its history as the KESC carries out over 8 hours load shedding daily, which is not only causing hardship to the citizens but also threatening closure of various large, small and medium industrial units.
The industrial sector is paying 98 per cent KESC bills regularly, but despite that the utility is carrying out 8-hour load shedding in industrial areas which would ultimately reduce KESC billing and push the company toward further financial crisis.
Expressing anger over the dismal performance of KESC, industrialists have urged the power utility to utilise its resources for generation of more electricity to end the scourge of load shedding. They said that Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) had increased gas supply from 130 MMCFD to 180 MMCFD to KESC, but despite that the utility was carrying out load shedding in the industrial areas of the city.
When the supply of gas was at 130 MMCFD, there was no load shedding in industrial areas and now when SSGC increased gas supply KESC started load shedding in industrial areas, they noted. Meanwhile, all industrial associations of the city have threatened to completely shut down their industrial areas if the KESC would not stop load shedding in industrial areas immediately.
In an emergent meeting of chairmen of industrial town associations including Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), SITE Association of Industry, Landhi Association of Trade and Industry (LATI) North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (NKATI, F B Area Association of Trade and Industry (FBATI), Super Highway SITE Association of Trade and Industry (SHSAI) and Port Qasim Association of Industry (PQATI) it was demanded that that as per government''s decision the industrial areas be exempted from load-shedding.
The present 8-hour scheduled and up to 12 hours unannounced load shedding has almost broken the backbone of Pakistan''s largest industrial sector and so far hundreds of millions of rupees and thousands of production hours have been lost, they added. They warned that KESC would be responsible if the hundreds of thousands of workers were rendered jobless due to industrial shut-down.
"The government should seriously take notice of the grim situation, otherwise it will be deprived of precious revenue to the tune of billions of rupees being generated by industrial areas," Chairman KATI, Syed Johar Ali Qandhari said. After the meeting of the industrial representatives he said that all the associations'' representatives have expressed their extreme reaction over the disastrous situation and said that they were unable to restrain their member industries from going on strike.
The town associations'' chairmen have unanimously decided to call emergent meetings of their respective general bodies on Saturday and would decide future line of action that could lead to strike in all such industrial areas if the load-shedding was not withdrawn forthwith. "We could resort to a complete shut-down from Monday if the government and KESC management remain unmoved," said Chairman SITE Association, Abdul Wahab Lakhani.
Former Chairman KATI, Mian Zahid Husain said that government should realise the gravity of the situation and exempt industry from power and gas load shedding if it did not want to lose huge revenues. The meeting was also attended by Faraz Mirza (Chairman NKATI), Muhammad Irfan (F. B Area), Riaz Ahmed (LATI), Muhammad Haroon (FBATI), Nasim Akhtar (NKATI), Qasim Ansari (NKATI), Shahid Javed Qureshi, Masood Naqi, Ehtishamuddin, Najmul Arfeen, Zubair Chahaya and Niaz Ahmed (KATI).