About 250 eligible voters of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) will stamp their ballot papers on Monday,September 6 to elect a leadership with clear-cut vision of future challenges, impartial behaviour and a spirit to do collective good in the larger interest of the textile industry.
Election this year, therefore, requires extra seriousness from Aptma members, as any wrong decision may push the spinning industry into abyss because of the adverse circumstances oozing out of unprecedented energy shortage, financial quagmire and cotton crisis.
Both Businessmen Council and Monnoo Group have fielded candidates to contest elections for central and zonal executive and managing committees respectively.
Out of 24 Aptma Central Executive Committee (CEC) members, 12 are going out to vacate seats for newcomers while leaving 12 as occupants of CEC seats. Out of 12 sitting members, Businessmen Council has secured loyalty of eight members against five of Monnoo Group. Now, Businessmen Council requires another five to prove majority against Monnoo Group, which needs to win eight seats to get elected their chairman at the centre.
Industry circles believe that the Businessmen Council enjoys psychological advantage over the Monnoo Group because of its successful year in the office, forcing the government to withdraw imposition of quota and regulatory duty on exports of yarn. Not only this, the Businessmen Council has also given tough time to the power and gas authorities to secure relatively minimum spells of load shedding for industry during last one year.
The Monnoo Group, on the other hand, is an axis of Jehangir Monnoo and Muhammad Mansha with a solid support of leading textile groups like Banero, Fatima, Fazal and Sapphire. According to industry circles, the Monnoo Mansha axis has proved the fact that there are no permanent friends and foes in politics. Mansha had left Aptma membership back in 2006-07 when Waqar Monnoo got elected as central chairman and Mansha joined hands with Monnoo after having surety that his close relative Shehzad Salim would be consensus candidate of Monnoo Group for the office of Aptma central chairman, though not announced formally by the group.
Can Monnoo Group go through the elections after securing support from Mansha is a million-dollar question, as industry sources are of the view that the industry big groups have shown a self-centred approach whenever they are on the driving seat of Aptma. Especially, the single unit holders are deadly against the Monnoo Group for its callous and frigid behaviour towards them that had given birth to the All Pakistan Spinning Mills Association (APSMA) in 2007. The APSMA members had marched to Islamabad to protest in front of National Assembly but absence of Aptma patronage left them into lurch and many of them got bankrupted eventually.
The Businessmen Council, led by Gohar Ejaz, has, however, been attentive to the problems of industry and virtually burnt midnight oil to mitigate the hostile attitude of the bureaucracy in general. It not only observed an unprecedented countrywide strike on March 18 against quota imposition on yarn exports but also fought for the electricity dependent spinning units for first time during last one decade.
Under the charismatic leadership of Gohar Ejaz, who lobbied for uninterrupted electricity for 80 mills suffering from 8 hours load shedding and got them exempted after pleading their case in Islamabad in front of all the four chief ministers and the prime minister and lobbied to get gas load shedding reduced to 45 days instead of 77 days last year and managed it fairly for all members in Punjab with highest Integrity which has won the support from majority of Punjab members raising the support of Gohar Ejaz Group to more than 120 out of 180 members in Punjab. Now again, industry circles believe that Businessmen Council may bag 150 out of 250 votes in light of its outstanding performance throughout last year.
The textile industry, as a matter of fact, terribly needs an energetic and vibrant chairman ahead in a situation when an estimated 23 percent of the year's harvest has been washed away in floods, including a quarter of the cotton crop. Aptma's active involvement is required to seek market access from the US and the EU and import of 2 million cotton bales from across the world. Further, energy shortages coupled with financial cost of doing business are jeopardising the profitability of the industry heavily. Any wrong choice of leadership by Aptma members may put the textile chain into a troublesome situation. Therefore, it is not merely a moment to elect a chairman but a saviour in real terms.