KARACHI: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Associ­ation (Aptma) has opposed a demand from the Senate Committee on National Food Security and Research to immediately ban the import of cotton from India.

Aptma Chairman Tariq Saud said on Thursday the committee’s observation that the import of 500,000 cotton bales from India should be stopped as it would hurt agriculture of Pakistan was baseless.

He contested the committee’s claim that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) had sufficient stock of cotton. The TCP stated earlier that it had only 75,900 bales from 2014-15 season.

“Instead of seeking a ban on cotton imports, the committee should take up the matter of crop failure and suggest ways to prevent such a failures in future,” Mr Saud said.

He said the spinning industry would prefer to use Pakistani cotton if there were enough stocks.

The local production stood at below 10 million bales whereas the textile industry’s requirement was 16m bales. “Who is going to fill this gap if imports are banned?” he asked.

Pakistan’s cotton production during the 2014-15 season fell 34 per cent, or by more than 5m bales, compared to the preceding year.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2016