APTMA urges PM Shehbaz, CM Sindh to ‘save’ textile industry

KARACHI: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah to save textile industry after Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) halted supply to industries, ARY News reported on Monday.

In a statement, APTMA Chairman Asif Inam urged PM Shehbaz Sharif and chief ministers of Sindh and Balochistan to save textile industry after gas supply was halted to industries for more than three months.

“The federal and provincial governments should take measures to save industries from complete shutdown,” the Chairman APTMA said, urging the chief executives to stop Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) from halting gas supply to industries.

Asif Inam further said that the step would further decline exports and dollar would surge more. “Halting of gas supply will shut down industries and increase unemployment across the country,” he warned.

“Sindh and Balochistan were producing more than 80 percent of the gas,” he said, adding that the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) cannot take decision without taking stakeholders into confidence.

The chairman added that the industries were already facing issues due to low pressure and were failing to fulfil export orders.

Earlier in the day, the Petroleum Division clarified that Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) would suspend gas supply to industries generating power from the gas.

The Petroleum Division of the Ministry of Energy in its clarification said that the gas distribution not being suspended to the industries as whole. “The industrial and trade organizations have misinterpreted the letters to industrial consumers,” petroleum division stated.

The SSGC had wrote letters to the industrial consumers producing electricity from gas, according to the statement. “Gas supply is only being suspended for power generation,” it clarified.

The gas supply is being suspended to power producing industrial consumers for three-and-half months, petroleum ministry stated. “The supply to the captive plants will remain suspended from November 15 to February 28, 2023” the ministry stated.