Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has demanded of the government to implement decisions of Energy Conference 2012 and ensure adequate and equal supply of electricity throughout the country.
Speaking at the LCCI Executive Committee meeting held here on Saturday, the LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that despite a consensus decision taken at the Energy Conference on April 9, 2012 and a solemn pledge by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for equalising loadshedding across the country, the electricity consumers in Interior Sindh, KPK, and particularly in Punjab continued to suffer from unjust and prolonged loadshedding.
He said that the acute electricity and gas shortage had not only crippled trade and industry but also cast negative impact on the economy by bringing widespread unemployment and poverty. He said that the consumers of the efficient distribution companies with lowest line losses and highest bill collection were being treated unfairly. He said it was very unfortunate that loadshedding in Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Lahore is 10 to 18 hours while in Hyderabad 4 to 8 hours, Karachi 2 hours, Nawabshah 6 to 8 hours, Peshawar 6 to 10 hours, Quetta 4 to 8 hours, Rawalpindi 8 to 14 hours and Sukkur 6 to 8 hours.
He said that the recovery of the bills in Faisalabad is 99.8 percent, Gujranwala 98.8 percent, Lahore 98.1 percent while in Hyderabad it is 59.1 percent, Karachi 85.6 percent, Peshawar 78.4 percent and Quetta 41 percent. He said that the line losses in Peshawar are 35 percent, in Hyderabad 34 percent, Quetta 18 percent, Lahore 13 percent, Gujranwala 12 percent, Faisalabad 11 percent and Islamabad 10 percent. He said Punjab contributes nearly two thirds to the GDP of Pakistan. Punjab pays for 80 percent of electricity bills and gets only 60 percent of electricity units. Yet Punjab is being made the worst victim of injustice, he added.
The LCCI president said that the Prime Minister at the Energy Conference 2012 pledged to reduce and equalise load shedding throughout the country, yet the situation has not improved. "The Prime Minister also instructed the federal authorities to increase the gas supply to power generation companies, which has not happened," he added.
He said that awful prolonged loadshedding was hitting all sectors of economy including trade, industry and agriculture. He said that the LCCI had repeatedly warned the government of massive lay-offs and industrial closures if it failed to immediately stop power outages but people sitting on the helm of the affairs were playing the role of silent spectators.
The LCCI president said that government would not be able to control the situation triggered by the demonstrations and strikes called 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" he maintained.
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