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Pop-up shops, textile firms move into Pakistan’s frenzied mask market

Children sell facemasks on a street after the government eased a nationwide lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Rawalpindi on May 16, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 25 July 2020
Khurshid Ahmed
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Pop-up shops, textile firms move into Pakistan’s frenzied mask market

  • An improvised, chaotic new market for face masks has sprung up in Pakistan as the novel coronavirus has spread
  • WHO estimated in March that 89 million medical masks were required for the COVID-19 response globally each month
Updated 25 July 2020
Khurshid Ahmed

KARACHI: As the novel coronavirus has spread across Pakistan, an improvised, chaotic new market has sprung up: for face masks, the demand for which is growing faster than even the disease they’re meant to fend off.

In the early days of the pandemic, frontline medical staff and the public clamoured for masks and other personal protective equipment, as production companies in Pakistan and around the world battled a host of obstacles, from illness to freight costs, from hoarding to a supply squeeze on filter fabric.

In Pakistan, which has recorded over 250,000 infections so far, shortages of masks were so acute in March and April that health workers took to social media to appeal to authorities for help and citizens hoarded supplies, pushing prices by up to 2,000 percent.

But all these problems are now a thing of the past as hundreds of new mask brokers and businesses have emerged around the country. 

The commerce ministry said it did not have official figures for how many masks were currently being produced in Pakistan, given the entrance of thousands of new players in the market, from small time tailoring shops to major textile firms that had switched over to making and selling the protective covering. 

“I had lost my job after the coronavirus pandemic triggered lockdowns and all businesses were shut down, but now I am satisfied because I have found a better alternate,” said Owais Ahmed, a manager at a garment factory who has been selling masks at a stall in Karachi’s Bolton Market for the last two months. 

Everyday, Ahmed said, he sells up to 20 boxes of masks (an average box has 50 marks), with each box costing up to Rs600. The hot commodity in the mask trade, the N95 device, sturdier than surgical masks and better able to filter out much smaller particles such as the coronavirus, sells for Rs300 a piece. 

Abdul Samad Memon, the senior vice chairman of the Pakistan Chemist and Druggists Association, said a box of surgical masks that was imported from China for up to Rs100 had been selling for as much as Rs2,300 in March. 

But raids and arrests by authorities had helped push the prices slowly down and they had now normalized almost completely, officials said, as more production units had been set up and major textile firms had switched their assembly lines to mask manufacturing. 

The price of a box of surgical masks is now around Rs500, Memon said, and the price of the KN95 mask had come down to around Rs300 from Rs1,800.

“Previously prices were also higher because many countries including China had imposed a ban on the export of masks but now they have lifted the embargo,” he added. 

In early March, the World Health Organization estimated that 89 million medical masks were required for the COVID-19 response each month, which required a 40 percent increase in manufacturing globally. 

In Pakistan, many industries have shifted to manufacturing masks to meet rising demand, with some textile firms even moving to ‘masks only’ production. 

Ijaz Khokhar, the chief coordinator for the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said many textile units operating in Faisalabad, Lahore and Karachi had switched entirely to producing masks both for local supply and export. On average, he said, 500,000 to 600,000 masks were being produced a day at textile factories in Faisalabad city alone. 

Medical suppliers and health care industry officials complain the frenzy to produce masks has also broken down standard quality controls, opening the market to an influx of masks of uncertain origin and effectiveness.

But manufacturers said they met all quality standards for masks that were to be exported, especially to the United States and the United Kingdom, and were working hard to bridge “quality deficiencies” in masks supplied to local buyers.

“Definitely this is new field in Pakistan and there are certainly quality issues but it will be covered and god forbid if the global demand for masks persists then Pakistan will be a big import destination,” Zubair Motiwala, chairman of the Council of All Pakistan Textile Associations, told Arab News. 

Manufacturers say they have set an export target of $2 billion masks and sanitizers this year but as virus infections have steadily declined in Pakistan and around the world, vendors have begun to fear for the prospects of their new businesses.

“I think the mask business will continue for the whole year,” said Shahzad Ahmed Siddiqui, who switched to selling masks when his readymade garments business closed due to coronavirus lockdowns. 

But Ahmed, the manager at the garment factory, said he feared the mask business would decline after the upcoming Eid ul Adha Islamic holiday began on August 1. 

“The business will continue up to Baqra Eid [Eid Al-Adha,” he said as he arranged masks at his store. “Maximum business will go on for 15 to 20 days, not beyond that.”

Topics: Pakistan textile CORONAVIRUS PAKISTAN Coronavirus (COVID-19) mask

On World Press Freedom Day, Pakistani PM says journalists in Gaza ‘heroes of humanity’

Updated 03 May 2024
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On World Press Freedom Day, Pakistani PM says journalists in Gaza ‘heroes of humanity’

  • Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 97 press members killed in Gaza war, 92 of them Palestinians
  • UNESCO on Thursday awarded its world press freedom prize to all Palestinian journalists covering the war in Gaza
Updated 03 May 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday the journalists who were covering the war in Gaza, especially those who had died in the line of duty, were “heroes of humanity.”
Sharif said this in his statement on World Press Freedom Day, observed on May 3 each year to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The day also marks the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in Windhoek in 1991.
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 97 members of the press have been killed since the war in Gaza broke out in October, 92 of whom were Palestinians.
“The male and female journalists who sacrificed their lives during coverage in Gaza are heroes of humanity,” Sharif said. “I salute them.”
Separately, UNESCO on Thursday awarded its world press freedom prize to all Palestinian journalists covering the war in Gaza, launched by Israel over seven months.
“In these times of darkness and hopelessness, we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances,” said Mauricio Weibel, chair of the international jury of media professionals.
“As humanity, we have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression.”
Audrey Azoulay, director general at the UN organization for education, science and culture, said the prize paid “tribute to the courage of journalists facing difficult and dangerous circumstances.”
The war started with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a media tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 34,596 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
With inputs from AFP

Over the moon: China launches high-stakes lunar mission with Pakistani satellite bound for orbit

Updated 47 min 50 sec ago
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Over the moon: China launches high-stakes lunar mission with Pakistani satellite bound for orbit

  • The launch is part of China’s Chang’e-6 mission that aims to obtain the first-ever soil and rock samples from the lunar far side
  • The samples will contain material ejected from lunar mantle, be used to provide insight into history of moon, earth and solar system
Updated 47 min 50 sec ago
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: China on Friday launched a Pakistani satellite, ‘ICUBE-Qamar’ or ICUBE-Q, that is set to enter the lunar orbit on a high-stakes moon mission to reach the lunar side, Pakistani state media reported.
The launch was part of China’s Chang’e-6 mission, a planned robotic lunar exploration mission, that aims to obtain the first-ever soil and rock samples from the lunar far side and return them to earth.
The samples will contain material ejected from the lunar mantle and will be used to provide insight into the history of the moon, earth, and the solar system.
“The satellite has been designed and developed by IST (Pakistan’s Institute of Space Technology) in collaboration with China’s Shanghai University and Pakistan’s national space agency SUPARCO,” the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“The primary purpose of CubeSats is to facilitate scientific research, technology development, and educational initiatives in space exploration.”
The satellite launch was broadcast live on the IST website from the Wenchang space launch site in Hainan, China.
The primary phase of the mission is expected to last about 53 days. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e.
ICUBE-Q has two cameras as payload for taking images of the lunar surface that will be transmitted back to earth for analysis, according to its developers.
They described the launch as a “historic moment” that would open new avenues for future deep space missions from the South Asian nation.
“This is Pakistan’s first deep space mission which is indeed a historic moment and following that maybe in the future other deep space missions can be planned,” Khurram Khurshid, the head of the electrical engineering and computer science department at IST and a co-lead on the satellite project, told Arab News.
Pakistan’s proposal to build the satellite was accepted by the China National Space Agency (CNSA) from plans submitted by eight member states of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO).

Topics: Pakistan China Ties pakistan china space program

Amid investment push, Pakistan prepares for upcoming visit by Saudi business delegation

Updated 03 May 2024
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Amid investment push, Pakistan prepares for upcoming visit by Saudi business delegation

  • Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been working closely in recent weeks to increase bilateral trade and investment 
  • Pakistani PM has visited Saudi Arabia twice in a month, met crown prince and top ministers and banking heads
Updated 03 May 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday he hoped for “fruitful” meetings when a high-level delegation of Saudi businessmen that will visit Islamabad in the “next few days” amid a push by the South Asian nation to attract foreign investment. 
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been closely working in recent weeks to increase bilateral trade and investment deals, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also reaffirming the Kingdom’s commitment to expedite an investment package of $5 billion.
On Thursday, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said a “high-powered” delegation of Saudi businesspeople and heads of major Saudi companies would be in Islamabad in the “next few days” to discuss private sector investments. 
“The best hospitality should be given to the Saudi delegation,” Sharif said as per a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office after a review meeting on Saudi investments in Pakistan. 
“It is hoped that the meetings of Pakistani businessmen with the Saudi delegation will be fruitful.”
The business delegation’s visit comes on the heels of one by Sharif to Riyadh from Apr. 27-30 to attend a special two-day meeting of the World Economic Forum. On the sidelines of the WEF conference, the Pakistani PM met and discussed bilateral investment and economic partnerships with the crown prince and the Saudi ministers of finance, industries, investment, energy, climate, and economy and planning, the adviser of the Saudi-Pakistan Supreme Coordination Council and the presidents of the Saudi central bank and Islamic Development Bank.
This was Sharif’s second meeting with the crown prince in a month. Before that he also met him when he traveled to the Kingdom on April 6-8. The Saudi foreign minister was also in Pakistan last month, during which Pakistan pitched projects worth at least $20 billion to Riyadh.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong trade, defense and cultural ties. The Kingdom is home to over 2.7 million Pakistani expatriates and serves as a top source of remittances to the cash-strapped South Asian country. 
Saudi Arabia has often come to Pakistan’s aid in the past, regularly providing it oil on deferred payments and offering direct financial support to help stabilize its economy and shore up forex reserves.
As things stand, Pakistan desperately needs to shore up its foreign reserves and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new bailout deal, for which it needs to signal that it can continue to meet requirements for foreign financing which has been a key demand in previous loan packages. 
Last year Pakistan set up the Special Investment Facilitation Council, a body consisting of Pakistani civilian and military leaders and specially tasked to promote investment in Pakistan. The council is so far focusing on investments in the energy, agriculture, mining, information technology and aviation sectors and specifically targeting Gulf nations.

Topics: Pakistan Saudi Ties

Pakistan envoy highlights Kashmir, Palestine at UN debate on ‘Culture of Peace’

Updated 03 May 2024
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Pakistan envoy highlights Kashmir, Palestine at UN debate on ‘Culture of Peace’

  • Munir Akram says the realization of the culture is intrinsically linked with adherence to the principles of the UN Charter
  • ‘We must also confront and reverse the dark forces of fascism, aggression and occupation,’ Pakistan’s envoy tells the UN
Updated 03 May 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), Ambassador Munir Akram, on Thursday participated in a general debate of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on the ‘Culture of Peace,’ where he highlighted the issues of Kashmir, Palestine and growing Islamophobia in the world.
The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir has been a flashpoint between Pakistan and India since their independence from the British rule in 1947. Both countries rule part of the Himalayan territory, but claim it in full and have fought three wars over the disputed region.
Pakistan also 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. Akram has repeatedly raised the issue of Israeli war on Gaza at the UN in recent months.
In his address on Thursday, Pakistan’s permanent envoy said the world was witnessing the “rise of hate, violence and war” despite a unanimously expressed desire to promote peace, noting that more than 300 conflicts were presently raging across the world.
“The right of peoples to self-determination is being brutally suppressed, especially in Palestine and in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said in his address. “We see the spread of discrimination, bigotry, xenophobia and Islamophobia even in mature democracies.”
Akram said his country welcomed the consideration of the agenda item, adding the realization of Culture of Peace, as delineated in Article 3 of the UN Declaration, was intrinsically linked with the adherence to the principles of the UN Charter.
“In our turbulent world, promotion of a Culture of Peace is not only desirable but imperative. Our strategy must energetically promote the values of peace and harmony under the dialogue among civilizations,” he said.
“But we must also confront and reverse the dark forces of fascism, aggression and occupation and the threat they pose to peace, prosperity and stability and a world order based on the principles and purposes of the UN Charter.”
Speaking with regard to growing Islamophobia in the world, the envoy noted Pakistan and member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had initiated the adoption of a resolution designating March 15 as the Day to Combat Islamophobia and on the same day this year, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on Measures to Combat Islamophobia.
“We look forward to the appointment of the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Islamophobia and the initiation of a Plan of Action to Combat Islamophobia,” he added.

Topics: Pakistan at UN

Pakistan takes stringent measures to broaden tax net ahead of IMF loan talks

Updated 03 May 2024
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Pakistan takes stringent measures to broaden tax net ahead of IMF loan talks

  • Islamabad expects an agreement with the IMF by July, though both sides have refrained from commenting on the program’s size
  • Law Minister Azam Tarar says IMF is insisting on increasing tax net, implementing energy reforms and ensuring good governance
Updated 03 May 2024
KHURSHID AHMED   

KARACHI: Pakistani authorities have taken some stringent measures to broaden the country’s tax net, including blocking mobile phone connections of individuals and registering retailers, ahead of Islamabad’s talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this month for a new loan program.
Pakistan and the IMF are expected to begin formal talks after the arrival of an IMF team in Islamabad in the mid of May. Islamabad has said it expects a staff-level agreement by July. Though both Pakistani and IMF officials have refrained from commenting on the size of the program, the South Asian nation is expected to seek around $7 billion bailout from the global lender.
Last month, Jihad Azour, the IMF director for the Middle East and Central Asia, said that “reform is now more important than the size of the program.” The Fund is insisting on increasing the tax net, implement energy reforms and ensure good governance as part of the reforms, according to Pakistani officials.
Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the IMF had recommended a number of measures and the government would utilize this revenue for the betterment of the masses.
“The IMF has recommended to expand tax net, control electricity theft and ensure good governance to save the resources,” Tarar said, adding that introducing reforms in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was top priority of the government to address economic issues and broaden the tax net.
The Pakistani government has reshuffled officials within the tax collection agency to streamline operations and enhance its transparency, according to the official. It has decided to block more than half a million mobile phone connections of individuals, who had not filed their tax returns, and emphasized on the registration of retailers ahead of formal talks with the IMF.
“FBR has taken decisive action by issuing an order to disable mobile phone SIMs associated with 506,671 individuals who fall under the aforementioned category,” the tax collection agency said in a notification issued on April 30.
“These measures are aimed at encouraging individuals to fulfill their tax obligations and contribute to the country’s economic development.”
In an another move, the FBR has decided to expedite the registration of around 3 million retailers, under the Tajir Dost Scheme, which focuses on traders and shopkeepers operating through a fixed place of business, including a shop, store, warehouse, office or similar physical place.
However, representatives of trade bodies say the scheme, launched on April 1, had not produced the “desired results.”
“The scheme is failing because there is no awareness among traders about the pros and cons of the scheme, while business conditions are also not supporting such a move,” Atiq Mir, chairman of the All Karachi Tajir Ittehad (AKTI), told Arab News on Friday.
“Amid high inflation and slow business activities, traders are struggling to survive and they can’t afford another burden of taxes.”
To deal with the situation, the FBR has appointed Muhammad Naeem Mir, chairman of the All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajran’s Supreme Council, chief coordinator of the Tajir Dost Scheme.
Naeem, who has not yet taken the charge, said he would analyze and discuss the strategy with FBR officials next week.
“From Monday onwards, we will draw strategy and work on the scheme after discussing and getting know-how of it from FBR officials,” he told Arab News.
Naeem denied any resistance from traders, saying the FBR had not run a comprehensive campaign to introduce the scheme, but people were “voluntarily registering themselves.”
Under the scheme, the FBR has notified registration of retailers in six major cities, including Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Quetta. The tax agency expects around Rs100 billion revenue by imposing advance tax in these cities from the July this year, according to FBR officials.
If the FBR successfully implemented the scheme by bringing about 3 million more taxpayers in the net, the overall active taxpayers would increase to more than 7 million from the existing 4 million in Pakistan.

Topics: Pakistan IMF Talks

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