All Pakistan Bedsheet & Upholstery Manufacturers Association (APBUMA) Chairman Syed Muhammad Aasim Shah has urged the government to quickly take alternate measures to overcome the ongoing gas crisis, which he said has closed a billion dollars textile industry creating unemployment.
In a press conference, the APBUMA chairman blamed the government for not being taken alternate measures to overcome the expected gas crises in the country. Aasim said the country had only 800 mmcft gas shortages, which could easily be overcome through LNG import from Qatar or Pak-Iran gas pipeline project.
The process could be completed within a year and it was beyond the comprehension that why the government was delaying this important project, and had pushed the nation into such a deep crises, he said.
Federal Minister for Petroleum had assured the industrialists a number of times that textile industry would be provided with uninterrupted gas supply for 3-5 days a week, but Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) had disconnected the gas supply for entire industry of Punjab for indefinite period to facilitate CNG and domestic users, he said.
He said CNG industry had a share of only Rs 42 billion annually, whereas textile mills, Power looms, and ancillary industry after fulfilling national requirements had $1 billion exports share.
The 80 percent industry was in Punjab and around 10 million workforces depend on this industry, which is not in the priorities of the government. He said the textile industry had $14 billion exports and we had paid Rs 300 billion in excess to farmers.