All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Punjab has threatened to hold strike in case the government failed to restore energy supply to textile industry within a week.
At a press conference in follow up of an emergent general body meeting of the APTMA members at the APTMA Punjab office on Saturday, Chairman APTMA Punjab Shahzad Ali Khan said energy supply, including electricity and gas, had remained suspended for six hour and 12 hours respectively on Friday, leaving production capacities unattended at the mills.
Chairman APTMA Punjab said the industry would bring hundreds of thousands of textile workers on streets if measures to stop unscheduled loadshedding and sustained gas supply did not take place. He blamed the minister of water and power and his team for deteriorating the industry situation during last six months. He said the industry was facing six hours a day power suspension since May this year.
He lambasted at the federal minister for his failure in improving the situation, however, he said, the industry had lost its temper, as it could no longer bear the high of energy shortages. He also criticised the senior Pepco officials in Lahore for not listening to the grievances of the manufacturers. Shahzad said the industry was deprived of power supply in the month of September and November for the first of its history because of the mismanagement of the team running the country's power sector. The Ministry was producing only 11,000MW of electricity against a capacity of 14,000MW without any justification, he added. Speaking on the occasion, APTMA Group Leader Gohar Ejaz feared that Punjab's textile industry might lose three billion dollars in exports this year due to energy constraints.
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