Chairman, All Pakistan Textile Manufacturing Association (APTMA) NWFP Zone Muhammad Taimur Shah has strongly resented the meeting of an unauthorised person on behalf of the association to decide the fate of the textile industry in the province.
In a press release issued here on Saturday, the chairman APTMA NWFP zone asserted that Akbar sheikh, who held a meeting with PEPCO, is merely and only chairman of All Pakistan Textile Manufacturing Association Punjab zone, and has no authority what so ever to represent APTMA NWFP ZONE.
A delegation of textile mills of NWFP led by their Chairman, Taimur Shah, held a meeting in this regard with MD PESCO Brigadier Sakhi Marjan with regards to management of load to let the mills in NWFP survive.
The peculiar situation of the industry in NWFP was discussed with reference to non availability of diesel/kerosene oil, total unprecedented suspension of gas supply to textile industry of NWFP and the 5-hour electricity suspension by WAPDA have brought the Textile industry in NWFP to a complete standstill.
It is irony to state that these fuels for industrial production are available in other parts of the country on a preferential basis than in NWFP. The Mills are braving an unbearable financial crunch and are undergoing complete unrest on behalf of the labour.
The Chairman of APTMA-NWFP ZONE requested the worthy Chief Minister NWFP and the MD PESCO to intervene in this situation and save what little investment this province has been able to muster. The NWFP has a total of 14 mills, most of them new and infant units, in comparison to Punjab's 300.
It was further stated that the current situation if continued, would tantamount to being the last nail in the coffin of the scarce textile industry in NWFP, which is already breathing its last due to cotton and international crisis.
A request is also being made to Sui Northern Gas authorities to review its curtailment policy in NWFP as merely 10 captive power units exist in the whole province as against more than 300 in other parts of the country.-PR