Zahid Mazhar, Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Sindh-Balochistan Region Monday urged the federal government to supply uninterrupted gas to the industries of the province and divert the same to other provinces only after meeting the requirements of the industries of Sindh.
Showing serious concern over gas load shedding and low pressure, Zahid said that Sindh should not be deprived of its constitutional right in the supply of natural gas under Article 158 of the Constitution of Pakistan. Sindh is producing about 67 percent of system gas in the country and consuming lesser than the gas produced by it, even then the industries of Sindh are deprived of their constitutional right guaranteed by the Constitution, he added.
He said industries in Sindh are again facing problem of low gas pressure as well as closure of gas supply resulting in heavy production losses and delaying of export shipments. He further said that low gas pressure or closure of gas both are equivalent.
"We are thankful to the Chief Minister of Sindh Murad Ali Shah for letter to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan through which he has conveyed concern of the people and industrialists of Sindh over the prolonged gas outages across the province," he said.
Zahid Mazhar said that the continuous supply of gas with full pressure is the need of the hours as the government is keen to enhance exports for the prosperity and economic development of the country as the country has already suffered de-industrialization and decrease of manufacturing sector's share in the GDP from about 22 percent to 13.5 percent.
He also urged the Federal and Provincial Governments to issue instructions to SSGCL for continuous and uninterrupted gas supply to the industry of Sindh in general and export oriented sector in particular, otherwise the industries would be compelled to close their operations which will create irreparable losses to the economy.