PHMA chief welcomes PM's decision to ease lockdown

Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA) chairman (Central) Salamat Ali appreciated the Prime Minister Imran Khan for opening the lockdown in phases terming the decision important and in the right direction.

Salamat Ali articulated that it is the burning need of time to transform from complete lockdown to smart lockdown as our country cannot afford to bear prolonged lockdown due to unprecedented challenges.

This thoughtful and timely decision by the prime minister will save millions of citizens from unemployment as the business, commercial and industrial activities will resume after a period of almost 50 days.

He was of the view that the businessmen and industrialists are responsible persons and they will ensure to take out all necessary preventive safety measures as per SOP after resuming of business and industrial activities.

The Textile Export Industry has started operations after completion of procedural requirements and verification of export orders, nevertheless, the export production could not reach to a required optimum level due to disruptive supply chain as their suppliers/ allied industries are still closed and inoperative.

PHMA chairman (Central) appealed the prime minister to also allow and open allied industries and wholesalers in next immediate phase to provide textile export industry-relevant materials and supplies enabling them to complete their export orders whereby the allied industry has assured to fulfill all procedural requirements, compliance of SOPs, etc. Around 40 allied industries are associated with the textile export industry.

Salamat Ali stated that by the grace of Almighty Allah, Pakistan has not witnessed the number of cases being predicted by the medical experts, foreign and local media.

The countries worldwide have started opening businesses transforming from complete lockdown to smart lockdown. In Pakistan as well, we cannot afford to keep businesses closed for a long time so the Federal Government must take lead to bring all provincial governments on one page and devise a joint strategy to revive the industrial and commercial activities under smart lockdown taking necessary preventive measures, otherwise, the under privilege class will suffer less from COVID and more from hunger due to non-availability resource to run their households. He demanded to open all export and allied-industries including wholesalers and retailers by allocating at least 6 to 8 hours' time daily for each sector.-PR