Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has suspended gas supply to 600 industries including textile processing, printing and dyeing factories, sizing, hosiery & garments units, washing soap and chemical manufacturing industries for 84 hours, while thousands of cotton power-looms and textile ancillaries remain closed due to the prevailing liquidity crunch and machinery becoming scrap.
About 400,000 workers, most of them daily wagers have been badly affected due to prolonged closures of factories in the region. Addressing a meeting of industrialists, Chaudhry Salamat Ali, Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMEA) North Zone said that four-day suspension of gas has badly affected production of export items and textile industry is under sheer pressure, while thousands of workers have become jobless. He pointed out that supply of gas to textile industrial sector was completely suspended for 22 days in December, 23 days in January, adding that this is only happening in Punjab.
He further said that when textile industries are in a grip of financial crunch, banks have stopped payments of drawbacks due to some unknown reason and created immense problems for the export-oriented value added industry. PHMEA chairman demanded that government should immediately solve gas load-shedding problem and divide the burden across the board in the best interest of the country. He also demanded that stoppage of drawback claim payment should be restored to overcome financial problems, as it is pushing them towards total collapse.
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