LAHORE - Majority of the trade bodies and industrialists associations have endorsed the governments initiatives announced by the Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to overcome the energy crisis. They also urged the government to ensure strict compliance on these decisions and start work on war footing basis to materialise the long-term projects that include coal, wind and nuclear energy. The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Thursday welcomed the government decisions announced to overcome the electricity shortage in the country. In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Senior Vice President Ijaz A Mumtaz and Vice President Faisal Iqbal Sheikh hoped that government would ensure implementation of the decisions in letter and spirit. They said that two holidays for government and its affiliated departments, closure of shops at 8 pm, uninterrupted supply of electricity to agriculture sector in non-peak hours and staggering of holiday for industrial areas would go a long way in wearing off the intensity of power outages. They said that huge cut of 33 percent in scheduled loadshedding and ban on unscheduled/forced loads-hedding would definitely help keep the industrial wheel on the run. The LCCI office-bearers also appreciated the Federal government for setting a fund to pay the circular debt, which was a biggest hurdle the way of electricity generation. The LCCI office-bearers, however, hoped that the Federal Government would take measures to win a consensus on Kalabagh Dam to the sole the issue of shortage of electricity once for all. Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) termed the short-term measures announced by the government to bridge the shortage of electricity as good omen for the country. In a statement issued here Thursday, the PIAF Chairman Irfan Qaiser Sheikh and vice Chairmen Iqbal Baig Chugtai and Khawaja Shahzeb Akram said that the measures would not only enhance industrial productivity but it would also help increase fast declining exports of the country. They however said that there was a dire need to initiate work on long-term projects to get rid of electricity once for all. The PIAF office-bearers said that cut in scheduled loadshedding and ban on forced loadshedding were the steps being demanded by the business community for long. However, representatives of various traders organisations criticised the government for announcing two holidays a week and said that it would affect development in the pubic and private sectors. President Qaumi Tajur Ittehad Babar Butt said that though the business activities are closed at about 5:00 pm worldwide along with the formula of the two holidays in a week but situation in Pakistan is altogether different, where long spell shedding had already affected the businesses. Meanwhile, Chairman CNG Stations Association Captain (Retd) Shuja Anwar said two holidays in a week would further increase the problems.