SIALKOT – The daily 20 hours long power outages have crippled the surgical industry which is now on the verge of collapse.

The surgical exporters and manufacturers said that despite the repeated appeals made by the Sialkot business community, the Gepco has given no relief to them as the energy crisis is aggregating day by day due to which the industrial wheel has become completely jammed.
“The situation with increased power outages is causing daily Rs1 billion financial loss to Sialkot industries, which should also be a point of grave concern for everyone,” they added. Meanwhile, Muhammad Jehangir Bajwa, the chairman of the Surgical Instruments Manufacturers Association of Pakistan, expressed grave concern over the situation.
He demanded early exemption of Sialkot from power outages following its global industrial and economic significance to save the Sialkot industries from collapse. He asked the Gepco to announce a schedule of loadshedding for the Sialkot industries.
Talking to the newsmen, SIMAP Chairman Jehangir said that hundreds of industrial units in and around the Sialkot city had already been closed down due to the unavailability of the electricity or the other resources of alternative energy. He said that the hundreds of thousands of industrial workers have been rendered jobless due to power outages. Likewise, people in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial, Pasrur, Badiana, Chawinda and their surrounding areas experienced 20-hour power loadshedding on Wednesday.
The supply of electricity remained suspended for 20 hours. All the business, trade and civic activities remained badly paralysed in Sialkot district. People also suffered great ordeal and difficulties and they were found cursing the government and concerned Gepco officials.
When contacted, the concerned Gepco officials in Sialkot said that the power supply remained suspended from Islamabad.