The cold weather severely impacted the business and industrial activities in Karachi, the commercial hub of Pakistan, as it witnessed the suspension of gas supplies for the past 100 days, adversely affecting the fresh investment of $3 billion in various exportable sectors.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, Zubair Motiwala, a renowned businessman, while representing the business community, said the industries of Karachi were deeply shocked and disappointed with the government for neglecting and ignoring the repeated appeals and press releases over looming the gas/RLNG crisis.
The government’s promises and commitments to assure the supply of gas to export industries appear to be an eyewash and a mere lip service. It was highly unfair to deprive Karachi of Gas/ RLNG as this city, is the textile and industrial hub of Pakistan, Motiwala remarked.
He stressed that a quantum of 211mmcfd gas, which was erroneously allocated to SNGPL in the past and the same has also been recognized by SAPM Gas and DG Gas, needs to be immediately returned to SSGCL. “Last year, the industry of Karachi entered into an agreement with the Ministry of Energy and Ministry Commerce to purchase extra quantum of gas at a higher price for a period of five months to match the demand. However, we were denied of the same this year due to lack of planning,” he said.
Chairman Pakistan Apparel Forum, Jawed Bilwani, mentioned that Prime Minister’s excellent policy pertaining to Long Term Financing Facility (LTFF) encouraged industrialists to invest more than $3 billion on purchase of machinery/equipment, which was likely to promote industrialization but this policy will be wasted due to unavailability and unjustified distribution of gas.
Bilwani said that the Value-Added Textile Export Industries were saddened over such an unwelcoming act and behavior of the Federal Government. Surprisingly, the government is well aware that the downfall in exports will also result in a downward revision in the national revenue and will also negatively impact the foreign exchange coming to Pakistan where the national exports will ultimately face a sharp decline, nevertheless, however, no response has been provided by the government.
He said that repeated appeals in the print media without any response from the government has also tarnished the soft and positive image of Pakistan in the eyes of the international community around the globe and has also raised several questions in the Diplomatic Missions of friendly countries in Pakistan whereby the Ambassadors and diplomats in Islamabad and Karachi have been continuously observing the situation, and they may send their advisories to the buyers of their countries which may result to disruption or discontinuation of existing and new export orders.
The industries of Karachi were also being victimized and denied other alternate fuels like Furnace Oil as the Department of Explosives, and Petroleum Division was also not granted the required license to export industries which they applied for around two months ago. Production of export industries has come to a complete halt as they have no other alternate energy or power connection/source.
They appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to take immediate cognizance of the situation and urgently respond to the Constitutional Right of the business community of Karachi to save the investment of industrialists and protect the soft and positive image of Pakistan globally, otherwise, if such an alarming situation prevails, the country may face unrest and uncertainty due to closure of industries in Karachi, massive layoffs and drastic decline in the national exchequer further leading to chaos.
Source: Pro Pakistani