Fertiliser factory on verge of closure

ISLAMABAD: Rehan Munir, General Manager Agri-tech Fertilizers Limited has said that future of the debut fertilizer factory of Pakistan in Iskanderabad, district Mianwali is in danger as the government has asked the company to run it only on costly liquid natural gas.

Rehan was addressing a press conference at National Press Club here on Saturday. The factory established in 1954 was first in the country, even in subcontinent. Initially it was running on coal but was shifted to natural gas in 1970s.

Rehan said that nowhere in the world any fertilizer plant is run on LNG without subsidies but we are being forced to get it on market rate which is tantamount to closing a plant now costing Rs50 billion. He said that Ogra has not yet notified any price for LNG for fertilizer and under prevalent laws the government or SNGPL cannot issue a letter in this regard.

Water, health and electric supply to Iskanderabad depends upon electric power station installed at the fertilizer factory. The factory is closed for the last five months.

Rehan said that Iskanderabad was an industrial hub of Pakistan with cement, fertilizer, dye and penicillin factories established under Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation.

He accused SNGPL of selling natural gas at LNG price. He condemned discriminatory treatment to an industrial unit set up in a backward area of Mianwali. He said that workers are on strike and took out many protests against the gas price hike.

He said that authorities as a solution are asking us to relocate it somewhere else whereas gypsum used in manufacturing fertilizer is available at Iskanderabad. He said that CPEC entails developing industrial units but they want to close a unit which is not only the most efficient in the country but closest to it as CPEC road is passing in between the factory and its workers colony. He said for Pakistan being an agriculture economy, production of fertilizers was once the top priority of the government but now the rulers have different priorities.

He appealed to the Federal government and KP government which supplies gas to it to review their policies and withdraw the decision. He said Imran Khan sympathetically listened to them as the locality falls in his Mianwali constituency but the KP Energy Minster was creating trouble. Replying the question, he said that only Dawood Hercules and Agri-tech are fertilizer plants being forced to use LNG.

He said that Rs480 is the per unit rate of natural gas whereas LNG cost is Rs1150. Under the SNGPL letter which has no locus standi to fix the gas price, the gas supply had already been stopped. He said we will have to stop payment of salaries to workers as there is no chance of reopening the pant after SNDPL letter. He said National Bank and Faisal Bank have around 40 per cent shares in the factory.

A journalist said that without bringing protest to Islamabad, your issue will not be solved. He said that we will wait for Prime Minister Khaqan Abbasi’s Mianwali visit on Feb 10 otherwise we will set up a protest camp here at National Press Club. He wondered that PM is coming to open gas supply to nearby Isakhel but denying the same to Iskanderabad where workers of fertilizers and cement factories also live.