HYDERABAD: The volatile situation in the country arising out of the US-Israel war on Iran might cause industrial shutdown if essentially required measures are not taken immediately.

This was stated by Adeel Siddiqui, an executive committee member of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce (FPCCI) and a member of the ruling Businessmen Panel’s supreme council.

In a statement, Mr Siddiqui expressed his grave concern over Pakistan’s spiraling trade deficit “that ballooned to $4.07bn in April — the highest since June 2022.

In order to ward off an imminent industrial shutdown, the government must secure external financing. It should also aggressively promote electric vehicles (EVs) to drastically reduce dependence of oil and absorb excess electricity capacity.

He said that according to official data, imports surged 28.41pc month-on-month basis to $6.55bn in April, driven by a near-tripling of oil import bill due to the conflict in Middle East.

He said that exports managed only a single-digit rebound, offering no real counterweight, addeding that trade gap jumped 43.5pc from $2.84bn in March.

Pakistan’s heavy reliance on imported energy and weak balance-of-payments position make us most disproportionate victim of global fuel price shocks, according to him.

“Pakistan’s power sector is plagued by capacity charges, fixed payments for electricity that we generate but do not consume. These charges appear as ‘non-utilising electricity charges’ on consumer bills and have become a massive financial burden on industry, households, and the national exchequer,” he said.

He also proposed that government should consider tax and duty waivers on EV component imports (batteries, motors) for local assemblers; low-cost financing for EV motorcycles targeting massive two-wheeler market which consumes disproportionate petrol imports and time-of-use tariffs offering ultra-low night rates for EV charging to maximize absorption of surplus electricity and minimize capacity charge wastage.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2026