Industry in Faisalabad region suffered massive production losses on account of forced closure of industrial feeders and forcibly cutting off industrial connections. As a result, industrial activities came to a halt rendering millions of workers jobless.
Talking to newsmen, Asghar Ali, chairman and Muhammad Asif, vice chairman Pakistan Textile Exporters Association criticised the forced closure of dedicated electricity feeders and disconnection of industrial connections by the FESCO authorities and termed it an anti industrial act.
Textile industry alone was suffering a financial loss of over Rs 1 billion daily in production loss due to sudden electricity cuts in order to meet domestic shortages, they lamented. Gas and electricity were basic fuels of the industry and their uninterrupted and adequate supply was crucial for the textile industry to fuel its production divisions, they said.
Industrial productions had already gone down by fifty percent because of gas suspension and the remaining is paying a very high cost for keeping the industry wheel on the run, they said. They said that the industry needs a continuous supply of electricity to complete the export orders well within the given timeframe but only because of the shortage of electricity the exports are not up to the mark. Energy supply and economic growth were interlinked and power suspension was hampering the pace of industrial growth in the country, they argued.
PTEA chairman Asghar Ali was of the view that non-serious attitude of the government was the root of the problem, which was negatively impacting the country's textile industry, which had an annual export turnover of 14 billion dollars and employed millions of workers. Severe shortage of gas and electricity have plunged the textile exports into disaster and textilesrs have left with no other option to shut down their units.
He stressed the need that alternate energy resources to be utilised in power generation on war footing basis to overcome the energy crisis because unavailability of electricity and gas coupled with high prices, industrial and textile sector is on the verge of collapse. Pakistan has enough power generation capacity of 20415 mega watt but the current production is just 7000 megawatt. Lack of long-term planning is the main problem behind the energy crisis which has paralysed the industry in the country, he said. Pakistan had already lost a number of international markets while the condition of both local and foreign investment is also precarious, he said and added that cheaper and uninterrupted power supply is only way to achieve economic targets set for the year 2013 but neither the government is sharing its future plans to this regard nor paying any heed to the difficulties being faced by the trade and industry.
PTEA officials demanded the caretaker government and officials of water and power ministry to took notice of the FESCO act of forcibly cutting off the industrial connections and forced closure of dedicated industrial feeders in Faisalabad and further demanded to ensure constant power supply to the industries especially export oriented for smooth running of industrial process and to save the jobs of millions of workers.