The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) has congratulated Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar on taking over the additional charge of the Ministry of Textile Industry.
In a statement here on Thursday, Aptma Chairman Iqbal Ebrahim said that Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar is a seasoned parliamentarian and industrialist and his appointment as textile industry minister is the right step in right direction.
He urged the government to make Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar a permanent and full-time the textile industry minister with authority to take concrete steps in the best interest of the industry. The Aptma chief hoped that the textile industry which is, at present, passing through a very critical stage due to obvious socio economic reasons would also be focused on immediate basis.
He expressed confidence that the minister has the will and potential to bail out from crisis the textile industry, which is the backbone of economy of our country and earning much needed foreign exchange through exports.
He also said Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has vision to address the issues which are hurting our industry such as constraints of raw material, shortage of energy, and skilled manpower, lack of institutional support/infrastructure facilities, increase in cost of doing business, high financial cost, high power cost, economies of scale and market access.