PESHAWAR, Dec 18: Industrialists have expressed deep concerns over the frequent power outages and the suspension of gas supply to industrial units of Peshawar and the Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate and have demanded of the authorities to bring to an immediate end what they called their discriminatory policy.

The issue was discussed in considerable detail at the first meeting of the recently-formed Working Group on Economy and Investment, held here the other day. Provincial minister for finance and chairman of the group Muhammad Azam Khan presided over the session which was attended, among others, by a number of senior officials and representatives of the trade and industrial sectors.

Speaking on the occasion, Senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, Ghulam Sarwar Mohmand, Nauman Wazir, Mohsin Aziz and Maqsood Anwar Pervez said that the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) was disrupting power supply to the Industrial Estate in Peshawar and the Small Industrial estate on the Kohat Road.

They said that owing to unabated power outage, owners of industrial units were unable to compete with industrialists in Punjab and Sindh because of their rising cost of production.

They also criticised the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) for disconnecting gas supply to industrial units of Peshawar and Gadoon Amazai Estate and demanded early restoration of the supply.

They also demanded gas supply from the Gorgori gas-field to local industries, collection of reliable data about investment in industrial sector, revival of sick units, setting up of a new small industrial estate in Peshawar, provision of cheap electricity from the Malakand hydropower project to local industry and issuance of soft loans for industrial projects from banks. They also presented various proposals for increasing the volume of trade with Afghanistan and the Central Asian Republics.