Textile industry criticises loadshedding of energy

HAMID WALEED

LAHORE: The doom and gloom textile industry has welcomed the holy month of Ramazan with heavy heart because of unprecedented loadshedding of both electricity and gas.

It may be noted that the industry will be supplied with five days a week gas besides six hours a day electricity loadshedding. Resultantly, around 40 percent production capacity of textile industry is idle, leading to unemployment of textile workers at large. Particularly, the textile hubs in the province of Punjab including Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Sialkot are the worst hit and all their hue and cry has fallen on deaf ear of the government. It is worth noting that All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), the sole representative body of basic textile industry, leadership recently camped in Islamabad for a week and lobbied for the industry ahead of Ramazan. The APTMA leadership called on Prime Minister Pakistan Raja Pervez Ashraf to pursue him for announcing exemption of textile industry from electricity load shedding. The Prime Minister assured the APTMA delegation of facilitating the industry soon the supply side is out of pressure, which means no immediate relief to industry.

Textile industry is, therefore, experiencing cold shoulder from the government, probably for the very first time since its inception in Pakistan. It is only President Asif Ali Zardari who is ready to listen to their problems and direct the concerned quarters to deal with positively. Otherwise, majority of the bureaucracy is extremely hostile towards the industry and those who are not extending harsh treatment to industry are actually asking for greasing their palms in response to their favours. There was a general impression that the government would be lenient towards the industry after meeting with Prime Minister Raja Pervez Musharraf ahead of the holy month of Ramazan.