Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has announced fresh Gas-shedding schedule for three days, which will be started from December 08 at 06:00 AM and will continue till December 11 06:00 AM. Meanwhile, more than 600 industrial industries most of them value added export oriented textile units were remained closed in Faisalabad Region on the seventh consecutive day here on Wednesday due to four days Gas-shedding by SNGPL and holidays of the Muharram.
In a protest meeting, which held at Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, it was pointed out that anti-textile policies are yielding negative impact over the National Production and creating unemployment. Commenting over the prevailing Gas-shedding situation, Chaudhry Salamat Ali, Chief Co-ordinator and former Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association (North Zone) said that the continuously eleven days Gas-shedding in the current month December 2011 severely hit the Christmas season export, while 0.4 million workers most of them daily wagers are become jobless.
He explained that Christmas season export consignments are extremely important for textiles, as huge quantities of home textiles, made ups and garments are bought by European and American to cater to the needs of retailers and cost conscious customers who plan to buy their winter season cloths during the month of December.
Foreign wholesalers and importers place bulk orders to fill their inventory racks in autumn season in anticipation of Christmas boom every year. Buying orders for textile goods placed with Pakistani exporters were under manufacturing process but gas outages were hindering the completion and timely delivery of export consignments, he added.
Chaudhry Salamat said that the frequent increase in the prices of petroleum, electricity, gas and other inputs were also adversely affecting the textile production and exports. These multiple hikes were spiking the cost of production, making textile exports costly and unacceptable to foreign buyers. Resultantly, industry becoming sick and financial constraints increasing, he added. Mian Aftab Ahmad, Regional Chairman, All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA) warned that if Gas-shedding not ended, industrialists and exporters would launch protestation against anti Punjab policies.