All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman Gohar Ejaz has said that the textile industry in Punjab is desperate to get five-day-a-week gas supply from 10 July onwards, as promised by the Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Asim Hussain.
In a press conference here on Saturday, Gohar warned the authorities that the industry would not let the SNGPL officials disconnect their supplies and that millers won’t accept anything less than five-day-a-week gas supply, as per minister’s pledge. He said the APTMA members were not ready to continue with the three-day-a-week gas supply suspension any further as it had been ruining the industry that provided livelihood for 15 million people.
He said that the textile industry has outperformed all sectors by achieving record export target of $14 billion in 2010-11 despite severe energy crisis. He said now the industry has been left with 1.6 million bales lying in inventories due to a hundred percent decline in cotton prices internationally while the new cotton season is around the corner.
In another development later on Saturday, sources said that following the APTMA chairman’s news conference, the SGNPL authorities, on the directives of federal minister Asim Hussain, communicated its decision to restore textile industry’s gas supply for five day-a-week from 10 July onwards.
