LAHORE: The provincial chapter of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) on Monday demanded that gas supplies on hourly basis should be restored to enable Punjab’s textile mills to operate on 24/7 basis in combination with electricity supply.

After presiding over a meeting of the Aptma Punjab general body, its chairman S M Tanveer told newsmen that the Economic Coordination Committee had approved partial supplies of gas to the Punjab-based textile industry for two months ending on Feb 15 on a presumption that the temperature would improve by then.

However, the cold weather has been lingering on and the Punjab textile industry has no option but to request the government for gas supplies of 85 million cubic feet per Day (mmcfd) to the textile industry, diverted to Rouch power gas from Sunday, he said.

According to him, an Aptma delegation would also call on Minster for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbassi, Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Islamabad on Tuesday to apprise them about the negative impact of gas supply discontinuation.

He said the effort of the province’s chief minister helped the industry to post an increase of $220m textile exports during December only.

It sent positive signals to foreign buyers, particularly those from the European Union, to divert their GSP-Plus orders to Pakistan, he said.