LETTER FOR PUBLICATION 27-04-1994

The apparel manufacturers have finally got their act together and have planned a strategy to take on the APTMA bigwigs. Their protestations had fallen on deaf ears and nobody in the Ministry of Commerce as well as the EPB gave much importance to the pleas of the garment exporters.

Facing a hostile environment, the CTA had no choice but to start a protest movement. It took the likes of a person named Naeem Anwer ( The heads of PRGMEA, PCFA, AMEWF, are all surnamed ANWER ! All in the family ? ) to get his members down to the Karachi Press Club and go on a hunger strike. There was a lot of hype and one could see a big rush there with the leaders of the ancillary sector very prominent by their presence.

Mr S.M.Muneer, the Prexy of FPCCI, finally prevailed upon them to end their hunger strike and promised a session with the Prime Minister and Minister A. Mukhtar. The apparel people want an immediate ban on the export of yarn while the spinners consider the export of yarn as their only source of survival. Thus the battle in progress.

The sad part of all this is that no body in the corridors of power is ready to listen to the apparel manufacturers who are in effect doing the value-added export. The policy-makers have always toed the line of the APTMA members and have never reconciled to the fact that the boost in export figures can only be apparent if our textiles are exported as made-ups rather than as raw material or in the shape of yarn.

Today, the country’s exports are sliding down and it is not a big help to the head of the EPB who is from the private sector and a leading exporter of yarn in his own right. So is the President of FPCCI. It is, therefore, a delicate situation for both these gentlemen. However, kudos to them for taking up the cause of the ancillary industries.

There is, however, one prime factor that needs to be emphasized. The top people in various textile Associations are to be blamed too. They have become godfathers of their individual Associations and have stifled the voice of their members. They are primarily concerned with projecting and protecting their own interests rather than the combined needs of all members. This has given impetus to the Commerce Ministry people who very conveniently use these leaders to get their policy across. This "I scratch your back, you scratch my back" scenario has been the cause of all this mess. Until this curse is removed and a democratically inspired system is introduced, there can never be any benefit to the manufacturers of ancillary industries.

Furthermore, the apparel manufacturers should be realistic in their minds. The APTMA interests are sacrosanct. The policy makers will always sacrifice any industry at the altar of the spinning lobby. No matter how many people go on hunger strike, no matter how many industries close down, and no matter who the Commerce Minister is, there can never be any anti-APTMA rulings.

The ancillary industrialists should pragmatically come to the conclusion that they will have to work inside the parameters laid down by the Ministry. They will have to work hard if they want to sell their goods abroad. The idea of low unemployment, high exports, progressive industrialization, utopian prosperity, favorable balance of payments, practical self-reliance, etc., is just for the manifestos of political parties or for the harangues of politicians during election time. The ancillary industries leaders should have understood all this at this point in time.

The apparel organizations are sincerely advised to forget everything because no matter what they do, they can never, repeat, never beat the APTMA warriors. The battle has been lost even before the arrival of APTMA in the arena. To paraphrase a quaint American truism: What’s good for APTMA is good for the country !

Sincerely:

SATTAR TEXANA