July 10, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 6, 1429

HYDERABAD, July 9: The president of Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Haji Mohammad Yaqoob, and the chamber’s senior vice-president, Mohammad Akram Arain, have supported industrialists of the country, including of Kotri and Hyderabad Site associations, on the issue of the inordinate increase in the gas tariff and demanded of the government to withdraw the increase.

In a statement faxed to Dawn here on Wednesday, they demanded that research development support facilities should be restored to the textile sector.

They said that even before the increase in gas price, the textile sector was facing innumerable difficulties to operate the mills but the recent increase in the gas tariff had proved to be the proverbial last straw as the textile goods cannot face competition in the international market.

The chamber’s office-bearers reminded the government that the textile sector contributed 60 per cent of export earnings to the national exchequer but the mill owners had been left with no other option except to shut down the mills.

They further said that the famous bangle industry of Hyderabad will also be destroyed with the increase in the price of gas.

MNA THROWS HIS SUPPORT: The People’s Party MNA from Jamshoro district, Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur, has also supported the stance of Kotri and Hyderabad Sites on the issue of the increase in gas tariff and said that keeping in view the country’s huge resources of gas, there was no justification to link its price with the international market.

In a statement faxed to Dawn here on Wednesday, the PPP MNA said that the increase in the price of gas would had a negative impact on the industrial sector and appealed to the prime minister to revise the decision to end unrest among the businessmen.

He said that there were more than 75 industrial units in Kotri and feared that if these industries were closed, more than 100,000 workers, majority of whom were hired on daily wage basis, will become jobless.