‘Dr Gohar Group’ once again clinches control of APTMA

LAHORE: The Dr Gohar Ejaz Group has once again clinched control of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), extending its unbroken run at the helm of the country’s largest trade body to seventeen years.

The results for the 2026-28 term were announced on Monday at a press conference at APTMA House, where Patron-in-Chief Dr Gohar Ejaz was joined by Secretary General Raza Baqir.

Baqir confirmed that thirty-four candidates from the group had been returned unopposed to the Central Executive Committee, fourteen from the Northern Zone and twenty from the Southern Zone.

At the zonal level, Siddique Javed Bhatti was elected unopposed as Chairman of the Northern Zone, with Habib Anwar as Senior Vice Chairman, Muhammad Ali as Vice Chairman and Danish Aslam as Treasurer. Nineteen other members were named to the Zonal Managing Committee.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Ejaz called the result an unprecedented seventeenth consecutive win for his group and congratulated the newly elected office bearers. He said leading APTMA, a body established in 1957, remained a matter of pride, and voiced hope that the incoming leadership would push harder to expand the textile sector’s export potential.

Turning to the industry’s challenges, Dr Ejaz said export growth had stalled because of high energy tariffs, heavy taxation and rising business costs. He said a Regionally Competitive Energy Tariff his group had lobbied for and secured for export-oriented sectors, covering both electricity and gas, had later been withdrawn, dealing a blow to exports.

He argued the sector was not getting the attention it deserved despite employing nearly ten million people and generating over sixty percent of national exports.

Dr Ejaz said the industry could add more than ten billion dollars in exports within a year given a favourable business climate, and used the occasion to unveil a new push toward value-added exports.

He noted the incoming Central Chairman brings experience across the chain “from fibre to fashion,” while the Northern Zone’s new chairman comes from the garment sector and ranks among the country’s top value-added textile exporters.

On the social responsibility front, Dr Ejaz announced the launch of the APTMA Education Foundation and the APTMA Technical Foundation, both to be led by outgoing Chairman Kamran Arshad.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026