LAHORE: The Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PCMAEA) Sunday urged the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to take practical steps to resolve their issues related to exports.

In this connection, the association held a meeting under the chairmanship of Senior Vice Chairman Riaz Ahmed here. Carpet Training Institute (CTI) Chairperson Pervez Hanif, Senior Central Leader Abdul Latif Malik, Muhammad Akbar Malik, Saeed Khan, Major Akhtar Nazir (retd), Daniel Hanif, Faisal Saeed Khan and others attended the meeting, in which issues related to carpet industry were discussed in detail.

Riaz Ahmed said that some of the SBP’s barriers to exports were discouraging their foreign customers.

“The exports of the handmade carpet industry are very different from the exports of other products therefore the SBP must realize this fact and accept our justification in this regard, besides resolving the carpet manufacturers’ audit issues,” he added.

He suggested that State Bank of Pakistan should hold a detailed meeting with PCMEA office-bearers to sort out their problems as soon as possible. “We also appeal to the Prime Minister Imran Khan to assign a special responsibility to one of his representatives to whom we can apprise him of our problems so that the handmade carpet industry, which is in crisis, can breathe a sigh of relief,” he asserted.

Riaz Ahmed said that despite being a part of the export sector, the carpet manufacturers were deeply concerned over the unresolved issues.