The government should exempt industry from power and gas load-shedding, enabling them to fulfil their export orders, President of Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) Mian Anis A Sheikh said on Thursday. He was talking to a delegation of Multan Economic Journalists Association (MEJA).
He was accompanied by the chamber's Senior Vice-President Khwaja Muhammad Hussain, former president of the Industrial Estate Board of Management Mian Iqbal Hassan and MCCI's Secretary-General Khurram Javed. As soon as the government exempted the industry from power cuts, they would run their closed units at full capacity, ending unemployment. He said that the worsening energy crisis was adversely affecting the export-oriented industrial sector, adding that it was equally hitting manufacturers as well as the poorer segments of the society. Highlighting the economic prowess of the region, he said that this area produced more than 10 million bales of cotton and helped the country earn billions of dollars through export.
Stressing the need for relief for industrialists, he said that in this epoch of economic war, most countries were providing concessions and incentives to their industrial sectors just to keep the economic wheel turning. However, he said, the situation was not the same in Pakistan.
Citing constant hikes in prices of petrol and electricity tariffs, he said that the country was facing a bleak economic scenario. Highlighting the importance of cheap energy, he said that the 3,600-megawatt Kala Bagh dam should be built on an emergency basis, adding that the dam would also serve as an alternate water reservoir. Mian Iqbal Hassan said that India was building dams/water reservoirs using cement from Pakistan. "We are happy that our cement is being exported to India."