Traders warn of protests against outages

LAHORE (APP): Industrialists of the Lahore Township Industrial area (LTIA) Friday warned of protests if unscheduled loadshedding was not stopped immediately.
They appealed to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to look into the matter which was hitting the entire industrial sector hard.
LTIA Chairman Zaheer Bhutta, Vice Chairman Khalid Mehmood Chohan, Shahzad Mughal, PIAF Chairman Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Vice Chairmen Iqbal Baig Chughtai, Shahzeb Akram, Amjad Ali Jawa, LCCI former President Mian Anjum Nisar and LTIA former Chairman Baber Mehmood addressed a protest demonstration which started from the LTIA office and culminated at Hamdard Chowk.
The protesters were chanting slogans in favour of their demands. They said power outages had forced them to launch a protest. If LESCO authorities failed to fulfil their commitment, they would be left with no other option but to continue protests.
Addressing the protesters, former LCCI President Mian Anjum Nisar said the business community understood that there was an acute shortage of power in the country and they were ready to cooperate with the government but unscheduled power outages had pushed the entire industrial sector to the wall. Speaking on the occasion, Chairman Lahore Township Industrial Area (LTIA) Babar Mehmood Chaudhry said that thousands of industrial workers were facing unemployment due outages.
PIAF Chairman Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the economic crisis would further deepen in the coming days as the industry had failed to meet export orders.