Worsening law and order situation: textile industry's hope of revival diminishes

Prevailing law and order situation in the country has put the textile sector's hope for revival into a cold storage and the experts are predicting a sharp decline in exports ahead. Talking to Business Recorder, many textile millers expressed worries over rising attacks on civil and military places and termed the situation detrimental to the textile growth.
It may be noted that the textile sector is already passing through worst conditions due to high financial cost and unprecedented load shedding of electricity in the country. So much so, the recently announced textile policy has also failed to stir the sector.
Recent attacks on the General Head Quarters in Rawalpindi and other public places in Peshawar and other cities of the country has damaged the investors' confidence badly and the textile sector is the major recipient of the situation in terms of business activity. Already, the foreign buyers have refused to visit Pakistan and advising their Pakistani counterparts to come over to Dubai, Singapore and any country to finalise the clumsy deals.
Not only this, a good number of international buyers have also stopped buying from Pakistan on account of poor law and order situation and they have made it clear to their Pakistani textile manufacturers that they would not put fresh orders until the law and order situation improves. The first quarter results are predicting a decline in the export figures and chances of further decline are very much there in case the government fails to deter the situation.
It may also be noted that the recent visit of President Asif Ali Zardari has also failed to win anything beneficial to the textile industry and all demands of trade with Pakistan have fallen on deaf ear of the US administration. Furthermore, the implementation on the proposed idea of Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) is also hanging in the balance due to the non-serious attitude of the US Senate.
The textile circles are of the view that the US itself was responsible for bad state of affairs in the Pakistan textile sector. According to them, Pakistan was fighting for the US but the later was not responding to it in accordance with the situation. Rather, they said the poor US response was main cause behind the sharp decline in the Pakistan exports.
They have also criticised the Pakistan government for its failure in convincing the US administration on urgent needs of the textile industry. The textile circles are of firm view that the situation would be from bad to worst soon in case the US government failed to bail the textile industry out of situation by not only enhancing bilateral textile trade but also finalising the much-awaited ROZs bill in the Senate.