Pakistan government has decided to suspend gas supplies to industries in Punjab province for three months. Textile units say this decision will push them to the wall and also affect the country’s exports. Pakistan’s exports have been declining since July 2014. Exports in the July-October period of the current fiscal have declined 6.86 per cent against the same period of the last fiscal.

Punjab accounts for half of Pakistan’s textile exports. About half of the production capacity of the textile industry is already dysfunctional due to the energy shortage. The gas plan is expected to lead to loss of export orders since foreign buyers are already diverting their orders to other regional countries. Completion of an export order is a prerequisite to win new orders, but Pakistan’s export- oriented industry is unable to ensure on-time delivery to foreign buyers because of the energy shortage.

Factory owners in Punjab-based textile industry say they will be forced to close down operations in case the government fails to come up with a workable solution and bring the energy cost at par with mills in other provinces. At a time when neighboring countries are growing, the industry in Pakistan is grappling with serious problems.