Industrialists furious over prolonged load shedding in Faisalabad
Faisalabad Power Looms Association announces closure of Auto loom industry from July 28.
FAISALABAD: (Dunya News) Factory owners and industrialists of Faisalabad have warned the government of shutting down their factories if the load shedding continues in the same fashion. The industrialists in the city are livid over long hours of power cut.
On the other hand, Faisalabad Power Looms Association has threatened to close the Auto Loom industry from 28th of July in protest against the load shedding. 400,000 workers are feared to lose their jobs if the load shedding continues in the same way.
According to the Power Looms owners, three percent of the industry has been completely eliminated from the scene because of the load shedding issue only. Remaining industry is also facing existential threat due to the same reason.
During the previous government, load shedding was restricted to four hours a day but the current government is doing load shedding for 8 – 10 hours a day because of the court orders. Long schedules of power cut are the reason for increasing the production costs of the products and at the same time, the electricity tariffs have also been doubled compared to the rates during previous government.
Hundreds of thousands of labourers have become jobless because of extensive power cuts. The businesses are declining and they are resulting in more unemployment in the city. Power Looms Association says that it has discussed the issue with the government machinery but because the situation still remains unchanged, they are forced to close their factories as a protest.
The factory owners and Power Looms Association said that if the four hour load shedding schedule does not get restored, all the labourers, who are a victim of this load shedding, will be a part of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)’s long march and will besiege the houses of cabinet members and government representatives.
