Gohar Ejaz Group wins all seats in APTMA elections, again

LAHORE: Dr Gohar Ejaz Group has clinched all the seats in the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Annual Elections of 2022-23 for the 14th consecutive year.

In a press conference at APTMA House, Lahore Raza Baqir, Secretary General, announced the names of newly-elected members in the central as well as well zonal offices.

He said Asif Inam has been elected as central Chairman, followed by Rehman Naseem as Senior Vice Chairman, Naveed Ahmed as Vice Chairman, and Asad Shafi as Vice Chairman for the value-added sector.

Furthermore, he said, Hamid Zaman has been elected as Chairman, Kamran Arshad as Senior Vice Chairman, Kh Muhammad Anees as Vice Chairman and Asad Shafi as Treasurer for the Northern Zone.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Gohar Ejaz congratulated his group members for securing an unprecedented 14th consecutive victory in the annual elections of APTMA both at Centre and Zonal levels.

He felicitated the newly-elected members of Central and Zonal Managing Committees and the office-bearers of Northern Zone on their election. He hoped that the new leadership would work hard to strengthen the export potential of the textile industry.

Gohar said textile exports of the country were stagnant at $ 12-13 billion till 2018-19 owing to multiple issues especially energy tariff and non availability of energy for textile industry. He apprised that consequent to hectic efforts made by his Group led to the approval of Regionally Competitive Energy Tariff by the government for export-oriented sectors both for electricity and gas.

He said that energy tariff costs not more than 2.67% to the country but contributed to expanding textile exports to $ 19.33 billion during 2021-22 registering growth of 26% over the preceding year and over 54% in short span of three years.

Gohar added that new investment of $ 5 billion has been made in textile sector which has now potential to give exponential growth to textile exports provided business friendly environments are continued to be extended to textile and other export-oriented sectors.

With the view to foster exports and boost up economy of the country, Gohar unveiled his vision for future economy and announced launching of Road to $ 50 billion exports by moving to stitching sector and conversion of $ 3 billion yarn and fabrics of the country into value added garments for exports fetching addition export of $ 10 billion.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022