Chairing a meeting of the QIE board of management on Friday, he said unannounced load-shedding was hitting the industrial production hard. The country had not been achieving the export target for the last two years and if the situation remained the same, it would be very difficult to meet the target set for the current fiscal year, he added.
Kabir said more than 400 industrial units had started functioning at the QIE, out of which 70 per cent units were export-oriented. But these had not been able to execute export orders due to power outages.
He said the closure of those industrial units would deprive more than 40,000 people of their jobs while the government would also lose huge revenue. He said the government should take energy crisis very seriously and make both long-term and short-term plans to resolve the problem.
The long-term plan, he suggested, included utilising all hydel resources by building big water reservoirs and power generation units which was a cheaper way to produce energy. He said Pakistan should also go for alternative energy resources like other countries. Germany is producing more than 21,000 MW and India is generating more than 7,000 MW of power through wind energy. He urged the government to take immediate measures, otherwise the industrial sector would be fully destroyed.