FAISALABAD: Governor Chaudhry Sarwar says the government is trying to resolve issues with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf through a dialogue and both the sides are showing flexibility.

Addressing the annual function of the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) on Monday, he said we had been suffering for the last one month and on a standstill but the issue would be resolved soon.

He said Pakistan had been facing crises of flood, sit-ins, terrorism and internally displaced persons (IDPs), adding besides the abovementioned crises, shortage of electricity and gas was behind the failure to achieve our export targets.

Mr Sarwar said the floods had devastated vast areas and Pakistan had no strategy to tackle the floods as the floodwater could resolve issues of cheap electricity, irrigation of land and water shortage.

He said gas was available in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa round the clock but exporters were unable to compete in the international market. He said the government was making efforts to resolve the issues of gas and electricity, adding the successive governments had failed to explore the new gas reserves.

The governor said the business community had been facing numerous problems and struggling for survival. He said efforts were being made for the prosperity of the industry, rejecting the impression that industrialists were stealing electricity. He lauded exporters for their contribution to health and other sectors.

Federal Minister for Textile Abbas Khan Afridi said the nation was facing crises in every field because the people as well as the leaders were not ready to correct themselves. He said it was unfortunate that we could not utilise the textile sector like India and China as the sector could resolve the issues of Pakistan regarding payment of foreign debt and unemployment.

PTEA Chairman Sohail Pasha said the exporters were facing problems because of the taxes that hampered their efforts to achieve export targets. Level playing field must be ensured for the exporters and efforts should be made to release sales tax refunds stuck for years, he added.

Exports excellence awards were also given to nine exporters who topped in exports of textile products. The exporters were Nishat Textile, Crescent Mills, Sadaqat Ltd, Arshad Corporation, MK Sons, Kamal Ltd, Noor Fatima Fabrics, JK Spinning and Sitara Textile. Former PTEA chairman Ilyas Mahmood also addressed the gathering.

Published in Dawn, September 9th , 2014