KARACHI: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA)-Sindh/Balochistan Chairman Zahid Mazhar has demanded the Sindh government to immediately allow the entire textile value chain to restart production activities.
“Otherwise, the textile industry of the province would not be able to survive, and this could lead to complete closure [of industry] and massive unemployment,” he said in a statement issued on Thursday.
He, however, lauded the efforts and measures taken by the Sindh government to control the spread of coronavirus, and assured his cooperation in this regard.
Mazhar said that Sindh’s textile industry, which was recently allowed to resume operation, had already adopted all precautionary measures prescribed in the SOPs for the prevention of coronavirus. “But the government had only given permission to either those textile industries that have pending export orders or those industries having residential colonies within their premises.”
He maintained that the government efforts wount not bring any positive resukt until and unless the downstream textile industry, including sub-sectors of weaving, knitting, stitching, processing and garmenting, which provide intermediary material, would not be restarted to complete the business cycle.
“In the present situation, the industry is not even running at 50pc of its capacity.”
He further informed that the industry was facing severe liquidity issues, owing to which it was not in a position to pay even utility bills and wages to its employees.
“The only solution to tackle this disastrous situation is to allow the entire business cycle of the textile industry to function across the entire value chain. Otherwise, it would be too late to regain our export market, earn the much needed foreign exchange and retain the level of employment.”
