400 textile mills in Punjab face closure for fourth straight day

LAHORE: As many as 400 textile mills in Punjab province are facing closure over a lack of gas and electricity supply, making it difficult for them to fulfil their export orders, ARY NEWS reported.

The power and gas outage which has resulted in the closure of the textile mills has further led to the termination of thousands of daily-wage employees.

“It is not possible for us to run textile mills on pricey diesel and if the closure continues, the textile exports will witness a $1 billion decline,” the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) said.

The sources in the APTMA said that they have already conveyed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif regarding the decline in textile exports after gas and power outages.

APTMA Patron-in-chief Gohar Aijaz demanded of the prime minister to take notice of the gas and power loadshedding and immediately restore supplies to the industry.

A report previously stated that the textile industry will come to a halt from July 1 to 8 due to the prolonged suspension of the gas supply.

The suspension of gas supply will primarily affect the industries in Punjab as 70 percent of textile mills are located there.

Sources told ARY News that the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) apprised the textile mills about the gas supply suspension receiving gas supplies from the captive power plants.

Sources added that the decision for suspending the gas supply was taken to continue uninterrupted supplies to the power and fertilizer sectors.