Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) chairman Rana Arif Tauseef has demanded the government to pace up its efforts to overcome gas crisis and ensure uninterrupted gas supply to the industrial sector.

In a press statement issued here on Wednesday, he said that textile industry was on the course of a total collapse due to gas and electricity load shedding in Punjab.

He said that the industry in Punjab had remained totally closed for the last 35 days as the SNGPL authorities had resorted to load shedding for indefinite period. This outage has resulted in decline of textile exports by 159.5 million dollars in October and 193.9 million dollars in November and 225 million dollars in December last year.

Expressing disappointment over declining trend in textile exports, Rana Arif said that textile sector was the backbone of national economy as it had direct contribution to domestic production and foreign exchange earnings.

Gas shortages together with electricity loadshedding have created immense problems for the industries and cast negative impacts on the production process as well and export of value added textiles, he added.

The PTEA Chairman urged the government to accelerate its efforts to overcome gas crisis.