KARACHI: Textile mills have demanded federal and provincial government to ensure uninterrupted gas supply for achieving exports target.
Zahid Mazhar, Chairman, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, Sindh-Baluchistan Region in a statement issued on Monday demanded the government that natural gas should be provided to the industries of the province of Sindh without any interruption and be diverted to the other provinces only after meeting the requirements of the industries of Sindh.
Zahid Mazhar said that the province of Sindh should not be deprived of their constitutional right in supply of natural gas under Article 158 of the Constitution of Pakistan.
“Sindh is producing about 67 percent of system gas produced in the country and consuming much lesser than gas produced by it, even then the industries of Sindh province are denied of their Constitutional Right guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan.”
He said that the industries in Sindh are again facing problem of low gas pressure as well as closure of gas supply resulting in heavy production losses and delaying of export shipments.
He further said that low gas pressure or closure of gas both are equivalent.
Zahid Mazhar said that we are thankful to the Chief Minister of Sindh, Murad Ali Shah for his DO letter to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan through which he has conveyed concern of the people and industrialists of Sindh over the prolonged gas outages across the province.
He said that the continuous supply of gas with full pressure is the need of the hour as the government is keen to enhance exports for the prosperity and economic development of the country as the country has already suffered de-industrialization and decrease of manufacturing sector’s share in the GDP from about 22 percent to 13.5 percent.
Zahid Mazhar urged the Federal and Provincial Governments to issue instructions to SSGCL for continuous and uninterrupted gas supply to the industry of Sindh in general and export oriented sector in particular, otherwise the industries would be compelled to close their operations which will create irreparable losses to the economy of Pakistan.
