HYDERABAD: The chairman of National Assembly’s Standing Commit­tee on Industries and Production, Syed Hafeezuddin, has said that prohibitively expensive electricity produced by independent power producers (IPPs) coupled with heavy taxes are the leading causes behind fast disappearance of industry from Pakistan.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan’s MNA Syed Hafeezuddin told a news conference at local press club on Monday along with a number of his colleagues that the government should get the IPPs’ forensic audit and the payments made to power distribution companies carried out so that general public knew facts about energy crisis.

He said that energy sector reforms were need of the hour and warned IPPs’ owners to refrain from blocking the country’s path to progress. Pakistan’s annual circular debt had crossed Rs2,000 billion mark while consumers paid Rs1,000bn towards electricity bills, he said.

He said that the agreements with IPPs had become unbearable now and the issue had been raised forcefully in National Assembly by MQM. A meeting was also held with IPPs but it bore not results, he said.

Chairman of NA standing committee on industries says agreements with IPPs must be cancelled

MQM wanted an end to the agreements which were undermining Pakistan’s integrity. Consumers should be allowed to purchase power directly from the IPPs so that the power producers were forced to compete with each other [for increasing clientele and as a result lower rates and improve performance], he proposed.

Admitted that international commitments were always respected but any attempt to weaken foundations of Pakistan would never be allowed, he said.

He said that the process of industrialisation had almost come to a stop in Hyderabad due to expensive electricity and nonexistence of infrastructure. Unavailability of gas supply had affected Hyderabad’s famous bangle industry while textile industry faced closure, he said, adding that these issues would be taken up in the standing committee’s meeting and its recommendations would be submitted to the prime minister.

Hafeezuddin said that the government must understand that parliament was supreme and its authority could not be challenged. MQM-P was part of the government but it did not mean that its consent to each and everything the government was doing was automatic and it would not have any difference of opinion, he said.

He said that Karachi used to contribute 70pc to all collected taxes but this ratio had dropped to 58pc due to erratic supply of gas, electricity and water. Hyderabad’s engineering support center had been closed though it was decided at the time of its establishment that it would be handed over to the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said.

He said that Pakistan Peoples Party was MQM’s ally at centre. It should support the party on the issues of Sindh and should not test MQM’s patience, he said.

He complained that PPP was not supporting MQM on the devolution of power whereas other parties had consented to it. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had announced establishment of special economic zones but nothing happened while uninterrupted water and electricity were not being supplied to people due to incompetence of Hesco and K-Electric, he said.

MQM-P MNA Abdul Aleem Khanzada said that his party would fight for the center and would get it reactivated. MQM was striving for the progress of urban centres and it was a shame

that Hyderabad’s identity i.e., bangle industry was struggling barely to survive, he said.

Business community’s leader Adeel Siddiqui pointed out that closure of this centre was a huge loss to Hyderabad and said that the chamber was ready to bear its expenses if it was handed over to the trade body but an MoU in this regard was yet to be signed. Youths who received training at the centre were getting jobs abroad, he said.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2024