FAISALABAD, Dec 28: All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA) members said on Thursday they feared that prolonged gas suspension without intimation would harm the textile processing industry.

APTMA Acting Chairman Mian Ajmal Farooq said gas had assumed the status of a basic raw material for the value-added export-oriented textile-processing sector. He said gas had helped textile processing going on round-the-clock in which a number of factors like grey cloth, caustic soda, hydrogen peroxide and other reactive chemicals were operational. If manufacturing was disrupted at any stage before completion, grey cloth and chemicals worth billions of rupees went down the drain, he said.

He said the shortage of gas would delay export consignments and their foreign buyers would demand air shipments, which the APTMA could not afford.

He said during the ongoing era of globalisation and the World Trade Organisation, if a shipment got delayed, accommodation in the shipping line would not be available till next fortnight or even more. He demanded the government that the government ordered the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited management to stop unscheduled gas shedding.