Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) Gohar Ejaz may not accept federal government's offer of becoming chairman Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO), learnt reliably. It may be noted that the Federal Ministry of Water & Power had approved the nomination of Chairman Aptma Gohar Ejaz as Chairman Board of Directors (BoDs) LESCO on December 23, 2010.
Other members of the BoDs included Professor Jamshed A Khan, Javaid Hussain, Ms Zarine Aziz, Ms Zahid Zaman, Fazal Ahmad Khan and Iftikhar Khalil. Nomination of Gohar Ejaz as Chairman LESCO was taken positively by the business circles due to his reputation as an excellent task master. However, sources close to Gohar Ejaz said that he has extended his regret for the chairmanship of LESCO due to his commitments as Chairman Aptma this year up to September 2011. He is of the view that he would not be able to do justice with this appointment, they added.
Sources also added that Gohar Ejaz was more interested in developing Aptma as a research organisation to deal with burgeoning issues like cotton production, energy, access to raw material and market access to set the ball rolling for supporting government in achieving textile export target of 25 billion dollars by 2014, as stipulates the first-ever-five-year textile policy of the federal government. It may be noted that Gohar has already proven his credentials by leading a successful campaign last year to convince President Asif Ali Zardari on Free Market Mechanism in the country.
Sources close to Chairman Aptma also pointed out that the Aptma was toeing the policy of strengthening the private sector to be able to support the government on focusing investment and controlling inflation to create jobs for one million new entrants to the job market every year. Sources said it would be a great credit of the federal government if it succeeded in convincing Gohar Ejaz for the position of Chairman LESCO, deserving reforms badly to overcome energy crisis in the country.