The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has welcomed inauguration of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project and hoped that the project would proceed expeditiously. The LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar said here on Monday that the LCCI had already been pressing the government hard for procuring the required energy resource from whatever source suits to it to relieve the country of the mounting shortages of gas.
He said the LCCI was convinced that the Iranian source is the most feasible, financially as well as from the point of view of proximity and succumbing to any pressure would further worsen the already crippling power crisis. The LCCI President said that at present a number of industrial units had stopped their operations for gas and electricity shortage, let alone any new ones to come on line. The other sectors of the economy like agriculture are not immune from its impact. The economy, already in the doldrums, threatens to come crashing down, he said.
Farooq Iftikhar maintained that the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline would serve Pakistan's national interests and would go a long way in mitigating the energy issues. He said that an early completion of this mega project of national importance would be a great favour to the business community as its very survival is at stake at the moment. He said that an acute energy shortage in the province of Punjab, in particular, had not only jacked up the graph on unemployment but it had also dented the investment scenario beyond repair.