Central General Secretary All Pakistan Power Looms Owners Association (APPLA) Khaliq Qandeel Ansari has said that our protest entered the third day on Monday and they had stopped buying the cotton yarn of all counts due to high prices of yarn, non-availability of electricity and natural gas and the highest utility tariff. He said that more than 1,00,000 power looms had so far been closed in the country rendering more than 4,00,000 workers jobless.
Khaliq Qandeel said that India had denied supplying raw cotton to Pakistani Industry but our exporters were sending cotton abroad. He said that there was dire need of 2 million bales of cotton to run the textile industry because recent floods had destroyed 15 to 18 percent of cotton. All shops of cotton yarn also remained closed because there was no buyer of the yarn in market.He told newsmen that the decision to stop buying yarn was delayed by APPLA members because of forthcoming Eid-ul-Azha.
The association will hold a meeting after Eid-ul-Azha to decide the next strategy.He said that alleged hoarding of yarn and no check over its export was the main reason behind its high price in the domestic market.He urged the government to take steps to protect the value-added sector.