The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) leadership has refused to accept the load management plan of electricity and gas from next week onwards, saying that the industry will register FIRs against the concerned departments if they tried to forcibly close the textile mills in Punjab.
Addressing a press conference, APTMA Chairman Ahsan Bashir and group leader Gohar Ejaz said the APTMA members would not close down their mills and let the workers sit idle due to load shedding of electricity and gas.
Ejaz said that the industry has never witnessed such an abnormal load management and it is simply a sign of inefficiency of the caretaker set up. He said the schedule also suggested discrimination against the Punjab-based industry. He said the industrialists would approach the courts for relief in case the government denied gas and electricity supply to Punjab industries.
“We will not tolerate any discrimination against the industry in Punjab,” he said.
Bashir said the APTMA members would hold a sit-in if the government continued with six hours load shedding from next week. He said the government had assured the APTMA management of ending load shedding but it was not keeping its promise.
