PESHAWAR, May 20: Non-availability of funds and mismanagement had led to the closure of 13 carpet weaving training centres in the province during the past three years, while two more would meet the same fate shortly, official sources said.
The provincial industry department has directed the Sarhad Small Industries Development Board (SSIDB) to close down centres of carpet weaving in Peshawar and Bannu before the next financial year, the source said.
A notification in this regard is likely to be issued in the next few days. The SSIDB has worked out a plan to convert the existing carpet training centre in Bannu into an embroidery display centre as the PC-1 of the project had already been approved and would be included in the annual development programme (ADP) for 2004-05.
SSIDB deputy managing director Mohammad Nisar, when approached, said that these centres were running in losses, whereas the local industry had no capacity to absorb all the skilled carpet weavers.
"Two basic factors caused closure of these centres. Firstly, our workers could not compete with the artisans of Lahore and other cities. Secondly, the local carpet industry having a very limited scope, cannot accommodate skilled workers," he maintained.
He said that GTZ, a German donor agency, had conducted a study a couple of years back and concluded that these centres were not financially viable. The board had to abolish these facilities afterwards.
The growing carpet sector in the province has already plunged into a crisis following the US-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan and subsequent return of a large number of Afghan artisans from the province.
Statistics provided by the All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association, NWFP, show that the carpet export had come down from $130.14 million in 2000-01 to $24.22 million in 2003-2004.
Decades back the government had set up 34 training centres, including those of textile, wood working, leather, ceramics and hand-knotted carpet in different parts of the province.
The purpose of these centres was to produce skilled manpower, boost small-scale industry and tackle the growing unemployment problem. According to the 1998 census report, the total unemployed population in the province is 789,696.
These sources said that barring wood working centres, other training outlets were faced with financial problems due to poor planning and mismanagement. A ceramic plant at Akkora Khattak was closed down some seven years back, while the machinery worth more than Rs10 million was left to rust.
Similarly, a textile centre in Urmar near Peshawar had been scrapped, while the Swat Textile Mills is on the brink of closure. A ready-made garment centre in Kohat was also closed down and the machinery worth Rs1.6 million had been rented out to an NGO on a very nominal rate.
The Peshawar centre, established in 1963, is in extremely bad shape. At present, only three workers are getting training, while a large number of looms are lying idle. The industry department has recently directed the board to stop provision of raw material for the centre.
A source said that the previous government shut down leather goods centre in Bannu and its machinery was shifted to Peshawar. Later, on the directives of the chief minister, the machinery was reinstalled at the same location.
The sources said that funds allocation for these centres had been stopped in the provincial annual development programme for the last six years.