Gohar Ejaz group has made a clean sweep for second consecutive year in All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) annual elections for 2011-12. The sitting Gohar Ejaz group is likely to secure all 12 seats of Central Management Committee (CMC), as no nomination paper was filed by the opponents for APTMA annual elections 2011-12.
Those who submitted their nomination papers for APTMA CMC included Khawja Asim Khurshid, Syed Ali Ahsan, Wisal A. Monnoo, Shaikh Muhammad Akbar, Ahsan Bashir, Muhammad Asif, Atta Shafi Tanveer Sheikh, Muhammad Ismail Khurram from Punjab region, Ziad Bashir, Afzal Omar, Muhammad Jamil Qassim, Salim Shakoor, Khurram Inam, Amanullah Kassim and Tariq Saud from Sindh region and Osman Saifullah Khan from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region. It may be noted that all of them are from the Gohar Ejaz group.
Gohar Ejaz group has emerged as a saviour of the textile industry over a short period of two years. This group had defeated the Jehangir Monnoo and Mansha groups last year's elections. It may be noted that the Gohar Ejaz group gave the vision of free market mechanism to the industry as well as the government during the outgoing year, resulting into record textile exports of $14 billion. Also, the vision of free market mechanism transferred more than Rs 200billion to the cotton growers in the form of better prices of their produce besides saving the whole textile chain from devastating effects of present downward trend in cotton prices internationally.
Gohar Ejaz said he is grateful to Almighty Allah for the success in APTMA annual elections. He also appreciated the APTMA members for reposing unstinting confidence and trust on his leadership. He said his group would continue serving the textile industry ahead. According to him, the government should immediately announce one-off 5 percent interest rate remission support on outstanding balances of short- as well as long-term loans as on 30th June 2011 besides ensuring energy security to the textile industry.