MULTAN City News

Govt urged to address woes of textile sector
From Our Correspondent
MULTAN: The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) Saturday urged the government to address the woes of the people attached to the textile sector.
The PCGA has warned ginners not to purchase excessive seed-cotton from the farmers and run their business carefully otherwise they would have to bear financial losses. Talking to reporters, PCGA chairman Hafeez Anwar said textile millers and spinners were purchasing cotton according to their needs not to stock it. He said the government should protect the interests of farmers, spinners and weavers. He blamed certain elements for exploiting farmers, saying that support price fixed by the government would help the farmers in ensuring fair return of their produce otherwise farmers would be forced to resort to alternate crops instead of cotton.
PCGA chairman said the APTMA was the sole buyer of cotton in the country and they had developed a cartel to purchase cotton on cheapest price and demanded the government announce support price of seed-cotton and introduce Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) as third buyer to stabilize the prices in the market and to save the farmers from financial losses, impose ban on the shifting of sugar mills to Southern Punjab. Hafeez Anwar said that the government should give incentives to the exporters of cotton because cotton export would bring stability in prices and farmers could get fair return
He said the government had shut its eyes and was reluctant to give any incentive to the stakeholders of cotton economy. He warned that Pakistan would have to import raw-cotton and cotton yarn to run its textile mills if it did not protect the interest of farmers. He said shifting of sugar mills in the core cotton areas would be destructive for the cotton growers, ginners as well as textile sector.
He said shifting of sugar mills in Alipur and Jatoi sub division of Muzaffargarh district would change the cropping pattern and expansion in existing sugar mills came at the cost of the silver fibre - a vital foreign exchange earner for the country. He said the emerging situation would tempt more growers towards sugarcane especially in Muzaffargarh, Rahimyar Khan, Bahawalpur districts. He reiterated PCGA demands that the government take notice of prevailing situation, which may be harmful to the textile sector.