Newspapers don mind it one bit, but watching textile players publicly sling mud at each other for more than three months has become a major turn off for readers.
Back-of-the-envelope estimates suggest the industry associations (both Aptma and the value-added sector) have spent at least Rs10 million since January, in their back to back appeals to the government - often stating facts that are mostly on the verge of being obnoxious.
If they had spent the same amount on advertising their products, they would have been able to mitigate the losses they so vehemently claim. Ok! That may be getting a bit carried away.
But bear in mind that "the degree of ones emotions varies inversely with ones knowledge of the facts - the less you know the hotter you get". At least, thats the lesson learnt from their advertisement campaigns.
Consider value-added sectors claim in their calls to increase yarn export duty to 30 percent: we cannot leave the fate of 18.1 million workforce directly employed in value-added textile industry to their (spinners) whim.
Had this pertained to both direct and indirect employment in composite units, one could still believe it. But the claim of direct employment of 18.1 million workers is questionable.
Fifty-nine percent of Pakistans population is aged between 15 and 54 according to World Bank data. That means roughly there are a 100 million workers out there, of which value-added textile forum claims it employs nearly 20 percent.
But it is not as if Aptma has a clean sheet. Most millers and value added producers listed on the Karachi bourse have been busy making losses for the past many years, with negative return-on-equity.
FBRs last released quarterly report highlights that only 17.1 percent of textile firms reported income, while the rest declared losses. The question therefore is "how a company is surviving over the years by continuously declaring losses?" as inquired by FBR, while commenting on the need to probe by conducting a detailed field audit.
Reports are now emerging that a certain value added textile mogul had his spinning counterpart beaten up by his guards at what was supposed to be a reconciliatory meeting in Karachi. And, looking at the way the stakeholders have been behaving in the media, the reports don seem entirely imaginative.
The lesson for the government in this mess is; a) stop taking sides of the various lobbies, and b) come up with better public policy - one which both parties agree to - so that unnecessary strikes can come to an end.
In the meanwhile, letting market forces do the job would be just as good.
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