LAHORE, Jan 29: Severe gas and electricity shortages for the industry in Punjab during the last couple of months have forced more and more textile factory owners to approach courts to seek judicial intervention against supply cuts by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL).According to textile industry sources, at least two-thirds of the total 160 or so factories in Punjab having captive power generation running on gas have obtained stay orders from courts, stopping the utility from halting supplies to them. But a yarn and hosiery exporter who has also obtained a court order in his favour told this reporter on Tuesday: “It has proved to be an exercise in futility because of very low gas pressure.”

An SNGPL official from the utility’s sales division confirmed that scores of textile factory owners from Lahore, Faisalabad and Sheikhupura had obtained stay orders against gas suspension to them since Dec 5. But he said the “utility had taken effective measures to practically render the orders ineffective in case of most factories”.

Besides textile mills, he said, more than 400 CNG station owners had also approached the courts. However, he said, the SNGPL was taking steps to get the court orders in favour of the CNG stations vacated because they could not approach courts under the Ogra law.

A textile industry source, who refused to give his name, said the factory owners had taken a cue from similar action taken by the mills in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to get exemption from gas cuts. “Almost all textile mills in Sindh and Pakhtunkhwa have used courts to get uninterrupted gas supplies.” He said a majority of Punjab textile manufacturers had decided to obtain court orders against gas cuts in the last 10 days between Dec 22 and 31 when electricity supply was also completely disconnected to them, bringing production to a grinding halt.

The mills that have obtained court orders in their favour include Galaxy Textiles, owned by the husband of the country’s foreign minister. Other major textile groups that have gone to the courts include Tata Textile, Chakwal Spinning, Monnoowal Textile, Galaxy Textile, Kohinoor Spinning, Shams Textile, Standard Spinning, Suraj Textile, Navina Textile, MGM Textile, Master Textile, Salman Nomaan Textile, Aysha Spinning, Ellcot Spinning, Shehzad Textile, Acro Spinning & Weaving, Bhanero Textile, Ejaz Spinning, Ejaz Textile, Bismillah Textile, Nimra Textile, Abu Bakar Textile, Mayfair Spinning, Din Textile, Wisal Kamal Fabrics, Umar Spinning, Golden Textile, Darussalam Textile, Quetta Textile, Apollo Spinning, NP Spinning, Nisar Spinning, Alam Cotton, Shadman Textile, Shahzad Textile 1 and Shahzad Textile 2, ATS Textile, Gulshan Textile, Gulistan Spinning, Umar Spinning and Heera Textile.

Sources said more than 100 industrial units in Faisalabad were violating the gas load management plan and operating factories without any order from courts. It may be recalled that the textile manufacturers from Faisalabad had warned at the weekend to violate the SNGPL load management plan in view of “huge losses being incurred due to gas shortages”.

The SNGPL official said it was easy for the utility to cut off supplies to the units in industrial clusters like Lahore and Sheikhupura, but it could not take action with or without a court order against the manufacturers getting gas from the pipelines supplying gas to domestic consumers. Nevertheless, he said, the utility lowered the gas pressure in such areas. Additionally, he said, SNGPL officials continuously monitored violations and took action wherever “possible without crossing path with courts”.

It may be recalled that the industry in Punjab is facing worst ever gas and electricity shortage since the beginning of winter this year. While gas supplies to factories have been cut for the last 56 days, the industry is facing power disconnection of up to 12 hours a day. The government has given its commitment to resume gas supplies to the textile industry two days a week from Feb 1.