NWFP: Two third industrial units closed due power shortage and security situation

[Naveed Yaseen]

PESHAWAR: Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) President Riaz Arshad has said that due to hours-long electricity load-shedding only 600 out of 2,100 industrial units are functioning, multiplying the unemployment rate in the province.

In a press release issued on Friday, Riaz Arshad, former SCCI presidents Sharafat Ali Mubarak and Ghazanfar Bilour, and executive committee members said the industrial sector of the province had already suffered enormous losses due to the war on terror, and prolonged load-shedding was adding to the miseries of the business community.

Industrialists claimed the unemployment rate was increasing in the province as more than 20,000 people lost their jobs due to closure of several industries owing to rising power tariff and long duration electricity and natural gas load-shedding.

They asked the provincial government to hold negotiations with the federal government for declaring the NWFP a war-affected province and exempting it from load-shedding.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=202409