LAHORE: Pakistan Industrial & Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has welcomed the government’s initiative to get 1000 megawatt electricity from Iran and hoped that the project would be completed in shortest possible time.
PIAF Chairman Malik Tahir Javed has urged the Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif not to compromise on this mega project as 1000 MW electricity would give a new lifeline to the industrial sector that was in a deep trouble due to energy shortage.
He said that the severest-ever shortage of electricity in the country calls for extraordinary measures on war footing and the people sitting at the helm of affairs should gear up their efforts for the early completion of the project.
He said that the government should take the business community into confidence through this project as the energy shortage is so severe that industrialists are planning to shift their operations to other countries.
He said that electricity is the basic raw material of the industrial sector and due to its acute shortage there the industrial production was at its lowest ebb.
He said that the reports about suspension of work on Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline had sent an extremely negative signal to the private sector that needs to be corrected by restarting work on this project so that they could be able to do their businesses with peace of mind.
He also urged the government to start work on Kalabagh Dam without any further delay as it is not the issue of any province alone rather it belongs to the whole country and its people. He said that Kalabagh Dam was a mega project of national interest as it could easily curtail the menace of water shortage and could generate more than 3500 MW cheap electricity. And most importantly it could save the people of particularly Sindh and Balochistan from flood destruction.
He hoped that government would not waste time and start construction of the dam immediately otherwise, he warned, the days are not far when Pakistan would have the best irrigation system in the world with no water.
