LCCI President unhappy with SSGC; appeals to federal government for intervention

By Syed Sajid Aziz 
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Ismail Suttar, President of the Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), has vehemently denounced the grim performance of and false statements by the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) in regards to the uninterrupted provision of natural gas, as well as smooth monitoring of the gas supply to the only organized industrial area in Hub, Balochistan. 

He regretted that the fluctuations in the gas pressure has distorted production and unnecessarily exacerbated the input cost which has led to expensive exports and it has become simply impossible to keep the wheels of the industry rotating. 

Further, the LCCI President remarked that if the boilers stop functioning as a result of the low pressure then entire plants need to be shut down and loss of precious revenue to the national treasury.

“It has now become a daily routine and specially in this time of the year when normally there are no such issues witnessed previously as the pressure issue is normally witnessed in the three winter months but never in the past have we witnessed low pressure during the summer,” Ismail Suttar stated. 

He expressed great resentment on the non-responsiveness of the top management of the SSGC on several appointment attempts to discuss the situation.

He said that if SSGC continued to ignore, a full-house protest outside the main office of SSGC might be needed to get an answer for which seemed to be the only way forward.

“Balochistan, from where entire Pakistan is supplied gas, does not receive in return is highly condemnable, sad and unjustified,” he commented.

The LCCI has requested the federal government to take up this issue very seriously with the SSGC management to urgently resolve the woes put forth in an amicable and by taking all important direct beneficiaries into confidence.

Business leader regrets longest-ever Eid holidays

Mr Ismail Sattar, President LCCI

By Syed Sajid Aziz

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

“Due to one of the longest ever holidays’ spell during Eid-ul-Fitr, the country has remained cut off from the rest of the world for the whole week having halting all kind of trade and exports with foreign countries.”

This was stated by Ismail Sattar, President, Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), and Vice President, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FPCCI). He regretted that due to these long and unnecessary holidays the country has had to bear an irreparable monetary loss.

While commenting on the long spell of Eid Holidays together with weekly holidays, the LCCI President said that due to these nine-day holidays, the industrial and commercial activities were stopped thus rendering heavy losses to the national exchequer, besides no contact with international business community for more than a week, which is not desirable for a country like Pakistan, whose economy is already in oxygen tent.

He argued that if taken one day’s exports as $71 million on the basis of Pakistan’s total annual exports of $26 billion, we have lost over $356 million in just five days.

“The government has made it a precedent to declare long holidays just to please government employees who already do not have tendency to work honestly,” Ismail Sattar observed.          

He also pointed out that due to these long holidays, the public resorted to unhealthy activities causing great losses, as was evident from the tragic incidents at the Sea View Beach in Karachi and the terrible traffic jams at Murree and other big cities.

The business leader urged the power-corridors in Islamabad to refrain from allowing such a long spell of holidays, which the nation cannot afford both economically and socially, as the public resorts to unhealthy practices in the name of entertainment, which the local administrations of big cities are not fully equipped to cope with such abnormal public activity thus causing great losses of life and property.