Producers of yarn to hold protest rallies
Yarn producers will march on streets of Lahore on Thursday to vent their anger over quantitative restrictions on export of cotton yarn.
Similar, protest processions will also be organised in Karachi and Peshawar.
The protest march by spinners would coincide with their one- day strike the same day. Strike and protest march have been announced to force the textile ministry to revoke its decision of decreasing yarn quota to 35,000 tons a month from 50,000 tons. An All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) announcement said on Monday mill owners would assemble at the Aptma zonal office and march towards the Governor’s House to express their resentment over what it called hostile attitude of the textile ministry.
It said the spinning industry had devised a comprehensive plan to organise a successful strike against the discriminatory attitude of the textile ministry and capping of yarn exports from the country unilaterally, negating free market mechanism.
The spinners have decided to keep their units closed from 9am to 5pm, organise protests of labour force at the mills, and hold rallies in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar.
The announcement said the $7 billion textile spinning industry is likely to incur $20 million loss a day due to its closure against the textile ministry’s policies.
Further, the downstream industry would not be able to produce products due to disruption in supply owing to spinners’ strike.
The Aptma announcement said the textile ministry had imposed quota despite a categorical assurance by the president during his recent visit to Lahore that it would not be brought down from 50,000 a month.
He, however, said that the textile ministry had played a biased role to force the spinning industry to subsidise yarn prices to the highly inefficient and fragmented apparel sector of the country.
The Aptma warned that they would continue strike for an indefinite period if government fails to withdraw controversial quota imposition.
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