The ongoing outage of electricity has created serious problems for the common man and industrial units that are running for below the required level.

Government has not taken serious measures to overcome the growing electricity shortfall, resulting in a slow down of economic activity throughout Pakistan, Yassar Sakhi Butt, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has stated this in a statement.

ICCI President was concerned over a deteriorating electricity situation and strongly emphasized upon the Government to give immediate attention to run the existing units by removing faults and providing gas to power producing units. He said that the situation is getting more critical, as result of a poor planning and false promises with the nation.

Yassar Sakhi Butt was of the view that in case of further shortage of electricity which at present has almost reached to 5000 mw, would create serious problems for the students as they have started preparation for upcoming annual examinations.

He said that many businesses are entirely dependent on electricity but unfortunately long hours load shedding have negatively impacted their businesses and even it has become difficult for them to survive in prevailing environment.

ICCI President indicated that sudden electricity supply cuts have negatively impact the production process as well and export of value added textiles which was considered to be a major foreign exchange earner of Pakistan has also recorded a steep fall due to electricity load shedding. He urged the Government to take all possible steps for consistent supply of electricity to industries.

He called upon the Government to device a proper mechanism instead of adopting short-cut solutions on day to day basis to meet the electricity demands. ICCI President also urged the Government to accelerate its efforts for setting up new water reservoirs and dams on emergent basis to cope with the electricity crisis.

Yassar Sakhi Butt was of the view that high power tariff, a burden on businesses and consumers, could be reduced by utilizing the available water resources more efficiently as the water is the most viable and cheapest way to produce electricity.