LAHORE, Dec 31: The textile industry across Punjab heaved a sigh of relief on Monday after Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf ordered restoration of electricity supply to it, initially for 16 hours. After meeting a delegation of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) and Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) Faisalabad chapter representatives in Islamabad, the prime minister ordered Ministry of Water and Power to restore electricity supply with effect from 11pm on Monday to all the textile factories across Punjab which was cut off on December 22.

The delegation comprised Aptma central chairman Ahsan Bashir, Punjab chairman Shahzad Ali Khan and Gohar Ijaz besides PTEA’s Ali Asghar and Khurram Mukhtar.

The PM was informed that disconnection of power supplies to 190 large-scale spinning, weaving and processing factories in Lahore, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura and Multan has resulted in raw material crisis.

Earlier, representatives of Aptma and other textile exporters associations had earlier separately approached Minister of Water and Power Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar and federal secretary Nargis Sethi to apprise them of the situation but the issue remained unresolved.