QUETTA: Balochistan has nothing at stake after the expiry of Agreement on Textile and Clothing (ATC) by the end of this year as no textile industry exists in the biggest province of the country.
Two biggest industrial estates - Hub and Winder - of the province where over 200 industrial units were established during the last three decades, but not a single textile unit was set due to host of reasons.
In early 70s two textile mills were set up one each in Quetta and Uthal as joint venture with Iran. These mills started production after commissioning in 1980 and initially produced grey cloth, as Iran was the main purchaser of that cloth.
However, despite hectic efforts of the government these two mills could not come in full production and finally were closed down. Recently these mills were completely abandoned and their buildings were handed over to the provincial government for establishing IT universities.
"We have no information what planning Islamabad has done so far to meet any challenges that may arise in textile post-quota regime from January next year", a senior officer of the Provincial Industry and Commerce Ministry told Dawn when asked about its preparedness in this regard.
He said that no reference of the concerned federal ministry was present in our record regarding this important issue. "We have two or three files about WTO which are in dormant since last many years," he said and added that even no cell was established to create awareness among the industrialists of this province for this very important issue while the same cells were working in Punjab and Sindh.
"As far as benefit of abolishing of quota system is concerned the province will neither gain nor lose as no textile industry existed at all.
Former BCCI president Khalifa Tahir said that there would be no impact of expiry of ATC on the province as it was not producing textiles or garments.
He said that those businesspersons of Balochistan engaged in garments export business could be beneficiaries as they would be free to export more garments without any restriction.
