OUR STAFF REPORTER FAISALABAD - All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman Gohar Ejaz has stressed complete harmony among various segments of the textile sector to make meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday (tomorrow) in Islamabad most productive and result-oriented. He was addressing a meeting with local industrialists at regional office of the APTMA here. He said that the textile sector is in deep crisis for the last many years, while each sector was making isolated efforts which failed to achieve the required results. He added that being APTMA chief, he has been making efforts for the last 7 months to promote harmony and understanding among various segments of the textile sector. Pinpointing the problems, Gohar Ejaz said that energy crisis, non-availability of gas, poor law and order situation and high interest rates have virtually crippled the whole textile chain and the individual and isolated efforts made by various segments have not helped in resolving the issues. He expressed despondency over his meeting with Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and said that 10 to 11 hours loadshedding of electricity in winter is tolerable but how we cant bear it in scorching summer heat. Similarly, gas shortage is understandable in winter when its consumption is high but there is not justification of shortage in summer, when its consumption is minimum. Continuing, he said that this situation is prevalent in Punjab only which has made the industrial future of the province bleak. He said that these discouraging factors are forcing the industrialists to install or shift their industries to Sindh and Frontier (KPK) where the gas and electricity is available in sufficient quantity as compared with Punjab. He was critical of the wastage of research funds and said that government had allocated 1000 million for cotton research, out of which, 200 million is contributed by the APTMA. He said there was no plausible research and funds are being wasted for the last 20 years. Similary, our taxation system was incompatible with the ground economic and financial realities. He said that despite of our best efforts, no tangible result has been achieved. However, he pinned the hope with the meeting of Monday with the President, which would also be attended by the Minister for Finance and Energy Minister to take up the problems of different textile related Organizations. Regional Chairman APTMA Syed Omer Nazar Shah and Chairman Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association Syed Faheem Mehmood Shah lauded the efforts of Ejaz Gohar for taking all segments of the textile sector and made collaborated efforts for their purposeful resolution. They hoped that other organizations would understand the importance of unity and support APTMA to play a lead role in resolving emerging challenges confronted by the textile sector.