A letter in The Nation on December 05 has lauded the PPP government on at last making a move on two long-standing issues of Balochistan and the NFC. One should certainly give credit where due but what is the PPP government doing about the bread and butter issues of water and power? Hundreds of industries have shut down and others limping along. No new industry has been set up in two years. The industrialists are taking their money abroad. No foreign investor is coming in this country. The area under cultivation is receding. Shortage of water is estimated to be as much as 30%, which is likely to cause shortages in food production resulting in still higher inflation. Job opportunities in industry and agriculture have dried up, pushing ever more people below the poverty line. The PPP govt is tinkering with the expensive (and extremely polluting) IPPs and RPPs by diverting gas from the industries. It is not a matter of if, but when that trouble starts in Iran and the oil prices skyrocket once again. If that happens, the Pakistan economy, that is totally reliant on imported oil, would almost certainly collapse. -KHURSHID ANWER, Lahore, December 6.