Industrialists threaten to suspend production activities if uninterrupted power supply was not restored to industry

  • October 05, 2016
The local industrialists in an emergency called meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called upon the government to ensure within 24 hours at least 8-12 hours uninterrupted power supply daily to industry as it was not possible to continue production activities due to the frequent unscheduled power shutdowns.  
 
They said currently, power supply was suspended after every hour for one hour duration and in such alternate power supply shutdown, it was not possible to continue manufacturing activities as frequent loadshedding was developing faults in industrial machinery and badly affecting the production activities.
 
Addressing the meeting, Khalid Iqbal Malik, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that power crisis has been created perhaps due to non-payment of dues to private power producers and stressed that government should immediately clear their outstanding dues to improve the power production in the country. 
 
He said industry played vital role in the economic development and generating tax revenue for the country, but it was unfortunate that government was not paying priority attention to address its problems. He stressed that government should immediately arrange uninterrupted power supply to industry for 8-12 hours to normalize industrial activities, otherwise, the local industry would be compelled to shut down its production activities that would send a negative message to new investors, render hundreds of workers jobless and reduce tax revenue for the government.