FAISALABAD, Oct 19: Persistent uncertainty on economic front and an unprecedented upsurge in power loadshedding have baffled many traders dealing in textile business at one of the biggest yarn markets in the region.

Yarn dealer Malik Sohail, who has been sitting idle for the last one month, is in a spin over the declining business of textile. He said that country's economy seemed to be spiraling out of control because the government looked helpless to cope with the challenges of terrorism coupled with economic recession and food insecurity.

Sohail said the textile industry was considered a backbone of country’s economy and only Faisalabad had been fetching nearly 3 billion dollars of foreign exchange.

He said the government had announced the wheat support price for farmers but did nothing to give a breathing space to the textile sector that provided jobs to about one million labourers.

Industrialists had been doing a roaring business in the Pervez Musharraf regime, but now the situation had changed altogether, he said.

Another trader, Muhammad Niaz, said the business before Ramazan was somewhat healthy, but the present economic crisis had landed them in huge debts. He said the government was taking only cosmetic measures instead of making concerted efforts to bring back the economy on track.

“Capital is not available in the market which indicates a disaster-like situation forcing the businessmen to refrain from making big deals,” a gray cloth dealer Nadeem Chishti said. He said the businessmen were holding cash to avoid any untoward incident. Textile exporters are also much perturbed because they are unable to purchase fabrics from the yarn market under the present state of uncertainty.

Zohaib Nasir, an exporter, said the power crisis had left them helpless to meet the deadline of export consignments. He said the adverse situation had rendered thousands of workers jobless as well.

During a round of different bazaars of the yarn market, this correspondent found shopkeepers discussing mainly the menace of power suspension, suicide bombings, price-hike and the worst-economic recession instead of sharing views on the textile industry issue.

Regarding the rates of yarn and fabrics, most of dealers said nothing was clear yet because they were uncertain about the future prospects of the business. They said that they were ready to sell their stocks on old rates, but they found no customer. Industrialists associated with the textile sector have been struggling for days to get the smooth supply of gas and electricity. For this purpose, they held a series of meetings with the Punjab governor, officials of Fesco and the gas supply company, but to no avail.

They say if the crises of gas and electricity continue they will be left with no option but to close down their industries to avoid financial losses.