KARACHI: As Pakistan’s textile sector faces a shortage of cotton yarn, local exporters have requested the government to allow them to import the commodity from India for at least four to six months, industry insiders said, with a top government official saying no decision on the matter had been taken as yet.
Trade and diplomatic relations between the longtime nuclear-armed rivals deteriorated after India unilaterally revoked the special constitutional status of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region in August 2019, with Pakistan downgrading diplomatic ties and suspending all kinds of trade with its eastern neighbor.
Last week, India and Pakistan agreed to observe a cease-fire agreement along the Line of Control — the de facto border between the Indian- and Pakistani-administered parts of Kashmir — after their senior military commanders communicated with each other on a military hotline.
Pakistan currently only imports lifesaving drugs from India.
“Everything is up for discussion,” the prime minister’s adviser, Abdul Razak Dawood, told Arab News regarding the possibility of importing cotton from India. “No decision has [so far] been taken to allow import of cotton [from the neighboring country].”
“We approached the prime minister’s adviser on commerce, Abdul Razak Dawood, in February and shared our concerns with him regarding the shortage of raw material and its rising prices in the country,” said Ijaz Khokhar, chief coordinator of the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
“We have requested him to allow the import of cotton for at least a brief period of four to six months since that will allow us to deliver our export orders without delay,” he said, adding that the prime minister’s aide had “agreed to look into the matter.”
Pakistan has seen a reduction in its local cotton production over the last few years, though its textile sector continues to contribute about 60 percent to the country’s overall exports. Pakistan also consumes about 15 million bales of the commodity, though it is projected to produce about 5.5 million bales this year.
In this context, the textile sector meets its domestic demand by importing cotton from the United States, Brazil and Uzbekistan.
“If Pakistan can allow import of medicines from India despite its diplomatic and security differences with that country, it can also import cotton through Wagha border,” Khokhar noted. “We cannot use Chinese cotton in our exports due to the US embargo. Our buyers closely monitor us.”
“The prices of the commodity have locally increased by 40 percent during the last two months,” he said, adding: “The import of cotton will also discourage the cartelization and hoarding of the raw material.”
According to local exporters, the country’s yarn consumption had increased by about 25 percent due to the growth in value added exports that made hoarders and speculators jump into the market.
“Regional trade is important, and that also includes India,” Khurram Mukhtar, patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association, told Arab News. “Greater competition will lead to greater growth in our exports.”
However, the Pakistan Textile Mills Association on Wednesday rejected the demand to import cotton from India.
“Allowing import of cotton yarn from India ... will create a crisis for the spinning industry of Pakistan and lead to the closure of spinning mills,” it warned in a statement, adding that the step would also “strengthen the economy and the spinning industry” of the neighboring country.
Independent analysts say there is no harm in importing cotton from India.
“Imports of cotton from India will be cheaper and the commodity will reach Pakistan within three to four days,” Naseem Usman Osawala, senior cotton broker and analyst, said. “It will ensure the availability of the raw material.”
Pakistan mulls textile exporters’ request to import cotton from India
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Pakistan mulls textile exporters’ request to import cotton from India
- Domestic cotton production has declined over the last few years, forcing Pakistan to import from US, Brazil and Uzbekistan
- Prime minister’s adviser on commerce says no decision reached yet as local exporters request allowing Indian imports for 4-6 months
Shaheen Shah Afridi quells team discord rumors, says Pakistan eyeing T20 World Cup victory
- Afridi briefly served as Pakistan’s T20I captain following the team’s underperformance in last year’s ODI World Cup
- The leadership change at the helm followed contentious statements, triggering debate about solidarity within the team
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi on Friday dismissed concerns about unity within the national cricket team ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup, saying there was no discord within the squad where every player was focusing on winning the big tournament next month.
Afridi was appointed as the T20I captain after Babar Azam announced his decision to step down following the team’s underperformance in last year’s Asia Cup, hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as well as the ODI World Cup played in India. However, his tenure was brief and ended in March 2024, following Pakistan’s 4-1 defeat in the T20I series against New Zealand.
Azam was brought back to lead the national team, but the leadership change was surrounded by contentious statements that triggered a debate about the lack of solidarity within the team.
“If there are ever small misunderstandings, these happen in every family,” he said during his appearance on the Pakistan Cricket Board’s podcast focusing on his career and the team’s ongoing dynamics. “And when there are brothers, they also sometimes have disagreements over little things. But thankfully, there is nothing like that in this team.”
“Our effort is always to play with unity,” he continued. “This is not the time where there can be argument or discord. This is a time when everyone has to be involved in one process, moving together with unity toward achieving the same goal.”
Afridi said he had fully recovered from his injury last year.
He maintained it was the team’s “job to play cricket and bring joy to our nation.”
“We are also tired of telling people that we will win the World Cup,” he said with a smile. “But God willing, this time we will make this happen.”
Pakistan’s state minister for IT says 5G launch preparations underway to boost digital economy
- Shaza Fatima Khawaja says the move will create employment opportunities for Pakistan’s youth
- The country last completed the auction for 3G and 4G networks about ten years ago in April 2014
KARACHI: Pakistan State Minister for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja has announced that preparations are underway to launch 5G spectrum services to promote the digital economy in the country, state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Friday.
Last year, Pakistan’s federal cabinet greenlighted the much-anticipated auction of 5G spectrum services in the country. Pakistan last completed the auction for 3G and the more advanced 4G networks— the first of its kind in the country— in April 2014.
“The launch of 5G will facilitate the country’s youth and create enormous employment opportunities in the IT sector,” the report quoted the state minister as saying while addressing a ceremony in Islamabad in connection with the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
The state minister highlighted the government was liaising with optic fiber companies and working to bolster the volume of their exports, capitalizing on the country’s potential in this sector.
She said that five billion rupees had also been allocated for the skill development of youth.
Khawaja added that the incumbent coalition government was working to expand the exports of around 35 companies engaged in manufacturing mobile phones.
Pakistan throws weight behind full UN membership for Palestine, urges Security Council action
- UNGA last week overwhelmingly backed Palestinian bid to become full member by recognizing it was qualified to join
- Palestinian push for full UN membership comes seven months into war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip
KARACHI: Pakistan has expressed support for a “historic” call by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to admit the state of Palestine as a full member, the Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad said on Friday, urging the UN Security Council to decide the matter “favorably.”
The UNGA last week overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it was qualified to join and recommending the UNSC “reconsider the matter favorably.” The vote by the 193-member General Assembly was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member — a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state — after the United States vetoed it in the UN Security Council last month.
“Pakistan supports the historic call made by the UN general assembly made at the 10th emergency session to admit the state of Palestine as a full member,” FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters at a weekly press briefing.
“The resolution determined that the state of Palestine is qualified for membership of the UN and recommended the security council to decide the matter favorably.”
Baloch said the UNSC had been provided another opportunity to lift its objections to the admission of Palestine to the UN and “restore the credibility of the assurances that have been given in support of the two-state solution.”
The Palestinian push for full UN membership comes seven months into a war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and as Israel is expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the UN considers illegal.
Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people, mostly civilians after the war broke on Oct 7 when Hamas fighters stormed across the border into Israel.
Pakistan does not recognize the state of Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on internationally agreed parameters and the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Suspected militants bomb second girls school in a month in northwest Pakistan
- The attack damaged part of the facility in South Waziristan, however, no one was injured in its wake
- Though nobody claimed responsibility for the bombing, suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban
PESHAWAR: Suspected militants blew up another school for girls in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police and residents said on Friday.
The attack happened in the South Waziristan district that borders Afghanistan. It was the second one this month after another school was badly damaged in the region, according to district police Spokesman Habib Islam.
The overnight attack damaged one room of the facility, however, no one was hurt in its wake.
“A loud bang was heard in the night and police found early morning that a newly built girls’ school in Karikot, a village close to district headquarters of Wana City, was damaged in the explosion,” Islam told Arab News.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for bombing the school, but suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, who have targeted girls’ schools in the province in the past.
A police officer from Wana said the management of the damaged school had received several threats in the past.
Jalal Wazir, general secretary of the Wana Welfare Association, regretted the bombing and said education was of “paramount importance” to beat illiteracy in the region.
“We can’t compete in today’s world if our girls are left uneducated,” Wazir said. “We will work to promote women education because if you educate a single girl, you educate an entire family.”
On May 9, unidentified militants had blown up a girls’ school on the outskirts of Miran Shah city in the neighboring North Waziristan district, prompting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to direct authorities to immediately rebuild the damaged facility.
In May last year, two girls’ schools were blown up in the Mir Ali area of the North Waziristan district.
Pakistan witnessed multiple attacks on girls’ schools until 2019, especially in the Swat Valley and elsewhere in the northwest where the Pakistani Taliban long controlled the former tribal regions. In 2012, the insurgents attacked Malala Yousafzai, a teenage student and advocate for the education of girls who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Pakistan says will accelerate progress on major connectivity projects with China
- The understanding to this effect was reached during Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar’s visit to China
- The visit comes amid Pakistan’s push for foreign investment, with Islamabad seeing flurry of high-level exchanges
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have resolved to accelerate progress on major connectivity projects and strengthen cooperation in multiple fields, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on Friday, amid an increase in bilateral engagements with longtime ally Beijing to boost foreign investment in Pakistan.
The understanding to this effect was reached during Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar’s ongoing visit to China, where he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other top officials.
Beijing has been one of Islamabad’s most reliable foreign partners in recent years and has invested over $65 billion in energy and infrastructure projects as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The project, part of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, aims to connect China to the Arabian Sea via a network of roads, railways, pipelines and ports in Pakistan, and help Islamabad expand and modernize its economy.
“The two sides will work together to forge an upgraded version of CPEC by jointly building a growth corridor, a livelihood enhancing corridor, an innovation corridor, a green corridor by aligning them with Pakistan’s development framework and priorities,” said Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, a Pakistan foreign office spokeswoman, while briefing reporters on Dar’s visit.
“Together we will accelerate progress on major connectivity projects, including upgradation of ML-1 (Main Line-1), the Gwadar port, realignment of KKH (Karakoram Highway) phase-2, strengthen cooperation in agriculture, industrial parks, mining and information technology.”
The $6.8 billion ML-1 project is aimed at upgrading and dualizing the 1,872-kilometer existing railway track from the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi till Peshawar in the country’s northwest, while the port in Pakistan’s southwestern Gwadar city lies at the heart of CPEC.
Dar’s visit comes amid Pakistan’s recent push for foreign investment, with Islamabad seeing a flurry of high-level exchanges from diplomats and business delegations in recent weeks from Saudi Arabia, Japan, Azerbaijan, Qatar and other countries.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said the premier had invited a Chinese research and investment firm, MCC Tongsin Resources, to invest in Pakistan’s mining sector and assured it of “maximum facilitation.” The statement came after Sharif’s meeting with a delegation of MCC Tongsin Resources, led by Chairman Wang Jaichen, in the federal capital of Islamabad.
“The government is taking steps on priority basis to increase foreign investment in the country,” Sharif was quoted as saying by his office. “In order to increase the exports of Pakistan, investment for the extraction of minerals, their processing and export will be fully facilitated.”
Sharif has vowed to rid the country of its chronic macroeconomic crisis through foreign investment and efficient handling of the economy.
