FAISALABAD, Aug 27: Powerloom owners have warned they will stage an hour-long sit-in in front of the Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company (Fesco) on Sept 1 if the company continues to subject the industry to long spells of unscheduled loadshedding.

This was announced at a rally attended by hundreds of powerloom owners and workers here on Wednesday.

The rally, led by Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry standing committee on powerlooms chairman Waheed Khaliq and All-Pakistan Sizing Industries Association head Mirza Shafiq Ahmad, started from Ghulam Mohammadabad and after passing through different roads, including Narwala and Kotwali roads, terminated at the Kutchery Bazaar.

The protesters carrying banners and placards raised slogans against the Fesco officials for their inability to overcome unannounced power outages.

Speaking on the occasion, Khaliq, Shafiq and others said the textile sector, despite contributing billions of rupees in taxes and fetching huge sums in foreign exchange, was being meted out a step-motherly treatment by the government. They said though withholding tax on textile mills had been withdrawn, it was still being collected from power-looms, which they called unfair.

They said persistent outages had been rendering people jobless which might create law and order situation in the country.

They warned if Fesco authorities failed to redeem the situation by the month-end, power-looms owners and workers would stage a sit-in in front of the company headquarters on Sept 1 to register their protest.—Staff Correspondent