Power outages: LCCI holds out 48-hour ultimatum
RECORDER REPORT
LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has given 48-hour ultimatum to government to end over 13 hours power outages otherwise a series of protests would be launched and the government would be responsible for the consequences.
LCCI President, Irfan Qaiser Sheikh in a statement said that protests would continue unless and until the government address this burning issue. He said that all the Punjab Chambers, Trade and Industrial associations have approached the LCCI to evolve a consensus and finalize a strategy to launch nationwide agitation campaign.
He said that government would not be able to control the situation triggered by the demonstrations by the angry industrial workers against their retrenchments as a result of these power outages.
"How the government would establish its writ and from where it would collect revenues to run its day-to-day affairs when the industrial wheel is coming to a grinding halt."
Irfan Qaiser said that the industry needs a continuous supply of electricity to keep the units operational and to complete the export orders well within the given timeframe but only because of the shortage of electricity the exports are not up to the mark.
He said that Pakistan had already lost a number of international markets and the new longer hour power cuts would further aggravate the situation.
The LCCI President said that cheaper and uninterrupted power supply is only way to achieve economic targets set for the year 2012 but neither the government is sharing its future plans to this regard nor paying any heed to the difficulties being faced by the trade and industry.
He also feared a surge in street crimes, saying that law and order situation is bound to aggravate in the coming days as repeated power outages in the industrial estates is jacking up the graph of unemployment particularly hitting the daily wagers hard.
He said that the most of industrial units had already reduced their working to single six-hour shift from the previous three shifts system. This had led to increased level of raw-material wastage leaving production process non-profitable.
The crisis in industrial sector is not only causing flight of capital and relocation of industrial units to the countries like Bangladesh and Malaysia but had also reduced government revenues drastically, he added.
Irfan said that it was very unfortunate that the government did not respond to the LCCI letter written to Prime Minister over the energy situation. He said that the electricity crisis has crippled the industrial and economic activities and made life a nightmare for the people. He said that the trade and industry had completely collapsed due to unprecedented prolonged power outages.
The orders are being cancelled and new orders have dried up and situation is immensely grim and serious due to unscheduled load shedding, he said.
The LCCI President further said that the whole society was in the grip of great frustration leading to crime and severe mental unrest. He further said that it is unfortunate that concerned authorities are totally oblivious of situation and subjecting the province to load shedding and power cuts of 15-18 hours whereas in other parts of the country load shedding was being carried out for a short time.
Business leaders from a number of trade and industrial associations, including Lahore Township Industrial Association, Ferozepur Road Industrial Association, Katarbund Road Industrial Association, Kahna Kacha Industrial Association, Anjuman-e-Tajiran Pakistan, Qaumi Tajir Ittehad, Anjuman-e-Tajran Badami Bagh Auto Market, Township Traders Association, Pakistan Auto Parts Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Anjuman-e-Tajran Urdu Bazar, Brandreth Road Traders Association on Monday contacted LCCI President and assured their full support over the energy situation.