June 26, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 21, 1429

FAISALABAD, June 25: The Powerloom Owners Association went on strike for an indefinite period on Wednesday in protest against the district administration and police failure for neither protecting the industrialists and nor arresting the rabble-rousers who ransacked and torched a weaving factory in Sadhar on Tuesday.

The announcement was made at a public gathering in Kharkhana Bazaar, adjacent to the Asia’s biggest yarn market.

The association organised the gathering to register its protest over the treatment meted out to an industrialist who according to it had nothing to do with the firing on labourers in Sadhar.

Addressing the gathering, Vice-President of the association Waheed Ramay said administration had been working under the influence instead of doing something to dispense justice. He said some unscrupulous elements attacked the weaving units in Sadhar and caused loss of millions of rupees to industrialists.

He said industrialists always held the workers in high esteem and providing them job opportunities to feed their families. However, he said, they would not tolerate any sort of aggression or loss to their properties.

The charged industrialists chanted slogans against Punjab Minister for Labour Ashraf Sohan and for immediate release of industrialist Mian Ajmal Asif, an MPA of Pakistan Muslim League-Q.

The All Pakistan Sizing Industries Association and Yarn Merchant Association also announced that they would join the Powerloom Owners Association if the administration did not release Mian Ajmal Asif.

All Pakistan Sizing Industries Association Chairman Mirza Shafiq Ahmed said that the law and order situation in the district had been worsening with every passing day and making industrialists unable to run their businesses.

He said the administration did not lend any helping hand to factory owners to save their properties. He claimed that protest by so-called labourers caused nearly Rs30 million loss to the factory owners.

Criticising the role of the labour minister, Mr Shafiq said he (minister) had sabotaged the peaceful atmosphere of the district. The industrialists would react in future, if they were given the same treatment, he added.

Meanwhile, the government has constituted a seven-member committee headed by district coordination officer Azam Suleman to resolve the issue immediately.

Members of the committee are MNAs Haji Akram Ansar and Saeed Iqbal, MPA Liaqat Ali Nazar, Waheed Ramay, Mirza Shafiq and Haji Nazir Ahmed from power-looms association.