Non-payment of salaries before Eid: industrial workers stage demonstration

The gas shedding for industrial sector in Faisalabad region was continued on second consecutive day, here on Tuesday, while industrial workers and Railway workers staged demonstration at various places due to non-payment of their salaries before Eid on Sheikhupura Road, Faizabad and at Industrial Estate Khurrianwala.
Addressing the protest rallies, the labour leaders expressed his dismay over closure of textile industry, resulting which rendering thousands of workers jobless. Daily wagers are facing severe problems, who have no money to meet the Eid expenses, nor going to their native home, where family members are waiting for them.
Meanwhile, hundreds of women workers of a garment factory located near Baba Qaim Saeen Darbar staged a demonstration against the factory owners for non-payment of their salaries for the last 3 months. When the female workers protested in front of the main gate of the garment factory, the owners allegedly threatened of dire consequence if they did not end their protest.
The women workers continued their protest till late last Monday but the labour department officials did not turn up to help them. In industrial city, Eid shopping centres are showing poor attendance of buyers, while livestock prices have almost doubled since the floods earlier this year.
Faisalabad Dry Port sources stated that the export consignment remained halted, while the prolonged gas shedding yielding negative impact over the industrial sector of Faisalabad region, where more than five lakh labourers become jobless and 150,000 powerlooms units and hosieries remained closed. Textile processing, printing, dyeing, sizing, readymade garments and stitching, soup manufacturing and textile chemicals manufacturing units were also remained closed due to three days gas shedding in a week.
Chaudhry Salamat Ali, Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association (North Zone) said that the three days Gas shedding in a week has virtually crippled the Value Added Textile Industry and escalating the prices of essential yarn in the market by speculators and hoarders.
He pointed out that the textile industry had installed modern and sophisticated machinery, which is now being turned into scrap. He lamented that the industry was neither getting adequate supply of yarn nor it was granted loans for working capital at minimum mark-up. Chairman, PHMA (North Zone) said that due to deteriorating law and order situation in the country, our foreign buyers are shifting their focus on markets of our close competitors like India, Bangladesh and China and are placing their export orders to the exporters of these countries.
He said that the government is still promising to review this alarming situation and lacking of concrete steps in this context. He strongly demanded imposition of complete ban on export of cotton and yarn and stern action against the speculators of yYarn so as to normalise the yarn prices in the domestic market.