FAISALABAD: The Chenab Mills has resumed its operations after a gap of over 14 years.

The mills had suspended production in 2007 when a goods train carrying its products (meant for exports) was burnt during arson attacks following the murder of former premier Benazir Bhutto. Since the mills couldn’t deliver textile export orders, foreign buyers claimed millions of Euros as damages from the mills.

Talking to Dawn, mills chief executive officer Mian Muhammad Latif said now he had employed more than 5,000 people. He said people had spread rumours about the future of the Chenab Mills but he kept pursuing the government and banks to reschedule their loans.

“I did not seek any loan write-off. My sole request to the people at the helm of affairs was rescheduling.” After the struggle of about 14 years, he said, he had succeeded in convincing the quarters concerned to revive sick units.

Mian Latif has rendered services for the establishment of the Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC), dry port and the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association.

He said the death of BB and 2008 US meltdown badly affected textile mills as the US buyers refused to receive products worth billions of rupees.

“The situation badly affected the cash flow and we had to closed the mills, leaving more than 14000 people unemployed, plus those connected indirectly.”

Mian Latif said he couldn’t forget the help extended to him by former MNA late Rana Muhammad Afzal of the PML-N. Similarly, he said, former president of the FPCCI Mian Idrees and others also tried their level best for the revival of sick units, including the Chenal Mills.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2021