While terming the discrimination in gas supply to the industry in Punjab a conspiracy against government, the business community has urged the government to withdraw gas suspension orders immediately.
The Pakistan Industrial Associations Front (PIAF) Chairman Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Vice Chairmen Iqbal Baig Chughtai, Shahzeb Akram, Vice President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry and former FPCCI President Iftikhar Ali Malik, Lahore Township Industries Association Chaudhry Zaheer Bhutta, and Chairman Ferozepur Road Industries Association Shahid Baig said that SNGPL decision regarding suspension of gas supply till further orders was actually a plot to kill both the industry and the industrial workers.
While expressing their surprise, they said that they were expecting good news on the part SNGPL but unfortunately the authorities had taken a totally otherwise step leaving the industrialists and the industrial workers in shock. Instead of taking corrective measures, they had worsened the situation further by stopping gas supply to the Lahore Township Industrial Area and other industrial areas.
"It is not the industry alone that is suffering badly but it is the entire economy that is facing unprecedented challenges." They said that the government was committing 'economic massacre' of the industrial workers by turning the province into a trading place instead of a manufacturing hub. They said that owing to wrong government policies, the sufferings of the business community were multiplying with every passing day and they were unable to cope with day-to-day challenges. The industry leaders said that the industrialists would not be able to pay their dues if corrective measures were not taken immediately, they added.
"The government is creating the future defaulters as nobody would be able to pay his banking dues when his industrial unit would be on the verge of closure, they said and added that the economic crisis would further deepen in coming days as industry had failed to fulfil existing export orders what to talk of any new orders. They said that those who were talking of economic revival in given circumstances were actually be fooling the masses as the situation had already gone out of hands and it would need special measures to control the situation.
They appealed to the Chief Minister Punjab Mian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif to play his role for early restoration of gas supply to the Punjab industry. Iftikhar Ali Malik, in a statement urged the government to revise its priority list regarding supply of gas to the consumers. "The government should give top priority to the industrial sector instead of domestic users as stoppage of industrial wheel means unemployment and heavy loss to government exchequer," he said.
He said that the government should restore supply of gas to the industry in Punjab in the larger interest of the economy as more than 60 percent country's total industry exists in Punjab and any harsh step is bound to backfire. He further said that 40 percent industry of India is running on LNG and the government should ensure availability of LNG by completing the projects in pipeline.
Malik said that the government must not rely on bureaucracy but should take its own decisions based on popular will. It is not the industry alone that has been put at stake but the entire economy is in deep trouble due to unavailability of gas, he said. He appealed the Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani to intervene in the matter and restore gas supply to the Punjab industry in the larger interest of the country.