Pakistan Textile Exporters Association have strongly protested against the 90pc low pressure in gas supply to Faisalabad industry and termed it a deliberate attempt to shatter the export oriented textile industry. This low-pressure tactics would inflict a loss of one billion rupees daily in export earnings and value addition in this region.
Criticising the plea of gas managers that supply was compressed due to cold weather, Wasim Latif Chairman and Adil Manzoor Ellahi, Vice Chairman Pakistan Textile Exporters Association said that this was not feasible firstly because the weather had not yet touched the critical temperature point where gas is fossilised and secondly the source head or starting point of Sui Gas is common for both Sui Southern and Sui Northern gas distributor companies.
Then why is that with a common source head, the Southern loop is not facing shortage while Northern loop is confronting the shortfall, they asked. Furthermore the supporting Gas wells in Punjab and Sindh were supplementing the Gas and more over it was not well cleaning season now then why the shortage, they quipped. The fact of the matter is mismanagement galore.
Resultant upon this failure to manage, more than 650 industrial units have closed and more than 225000 power loom down stream units are affected due to closure of sizing industry creating labour unrest and street protestation, they said. Wasim Latif said that government still could not develop long-term strategy and planning to tackle this situation, which is putting an adverse effect on the production.
Especially exporters of textile would face lots of problems, because they would not be able to produce and export textile products at the given time frame. This could be gauged from the fact that the number of containers from Faisalabad Dry Port comes down to 40 per day against last year 85 per day.
Industrialists were risking everything to keep the wheel of economy running. However, the government was not paying heed to their problems due to which they have been pushed to the wall, he lamented. Textile industry is providing jobs to millions of people apart from paying good amount of tax in the national kitty. But cold shoulder approach of the government was hurting their business sending many industrial units on the verge of closure which could render large number of labour jobless, he added.
Adil Manzoor Ellahi was of the view that industrialists are playing vital role in strengthening the national economy and if their business suffers, it will directly hit the economy. He urged upon the government to take urgent remedial measures to end the woes of industry. Criticising the mishandling and mismanagement of Gas managers, he said that Gas Company anticipating the shortfall could have managed temporary borrowing from its southern gas company and the shortfall could have been rotated among all regions in the country on equal basis.
PTEA officials urged the Government to take urgent cognisance of this serious matter of national importance and immediately intervene on behalf of textile sector and ensure optimum supply of Gas to industry to enable the exporters to fulfil their commitments with foreign buyers failing which the country would lose not only much wanted precious foreign exchange but also export markets which will be captured by rival countries.
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