President Asif Ali Zardari has taken serious notice of gas supply suspension to the textile industry and has constituted a committee to oversee gas load management of SNGPL. The president has mandated that any further gas load-shedding would require approval from the committee. Referring to the meeting’s decision dated March 28, 2011, the President Secretariat has constituted a committee comprising of Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah, Raja Pervez Ashraf, APTMA Chairman Gohar Ejaz and MPA KPK Anwar Saifullah to oversee gas load management of SNGPL. However, the SNGPL has still issued a schedule for 3.5 days gas supply, arbitrarily and contradicting clear-cut directions from the president for providing uninterrupted gas supply to textile for five days a week. In a letter to the SNGPL MD, APTMA Chairman Gohar Ejaz took serious notice of gas supply suspension to the textile industry and said that SNGPL was defying President’s direction. The APTMA Chairman has reminded of President Asif Ali Zardari’s direction to provide uninterrupted gas supply to the textile industry for five days a week, allowing the sector achieve textile export targets of $14 billion by June 2011. However, Gohar regretted that the SNGPL has arbitrarily issued weekly gas curtailment schedule of 3.5 days on March 30, without obtaining approval from the committee. He termed the latest gas load management schedule as a contradiction of the President’s desire and urged the SNGPL MD to provide uninterrupted gas supply to the textile industry.
