MULTAN, Jan 12th: Muhammad Anees Khawaja Chairman of All Pakistan Bedsheet & Upholstry Manufacturers Association (APBUMA) has said that Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on Tuesday suspended gas supply to all textile mills located in Punjab and NWFP for an indefinite period, impacting 75 per cent of the textile mills in the country.Closure of mills for one day is estimated to cost approximately Rs2 billion in terms of production losses. Since the decision of the cabinet committee, it said, the textile industry had faced on an average 18 days of gas supply suspension against 12 days as per the committee’s decision. All Pakistan Bedsheet & Upholstry Manufacturers Association said in a press statement that the Cabinet Committee on Gas Load Management which said gas supply would be suspended for only two days in a week. The industry was already enduring 10 to 12 hours of electricity load-shedding a day and hence no backup energy source was left for the industry to run its operations, it said.APBUMA expressed fear that the disruption in energy supply would cause huge financial losses to the spinning and weaving industry, 70 per cent of which were dependent on uninterrupted supply of gas. All Pakistan Bedsheets & Upholstery Association Chairman M. Anees Khawaja said that the textile sector is heading towards the disaster. He was responding to the suspension of Gas Supply to the industry for an indefinite period of time. He said that at one hand the Government is accepting all the conditions of IMF just to get meager financing of few millions Dollars at the other hand the industry which brings home billions of Dollars without any preconditions is deprived of its basic requirements. “Number of Pakistani Exporters who are in Germany to Attend Heimtextile Fair, are left in a state of confusion whether to accept new orders amid the fears of non completion due to energy crunch, thus a loss of new business opportunity”. He said that keeping in view the available resources of gas the textile sector had already made sacrificed for 2days and agreed for the supply 5days a week in the light of decision of Cabinet Committee on Gas Load Management.He was of the view that SNGPL must comply with the agreed share of gas supply to the textile sector as per the load management schedule and must divert more by suspending supply to KESC and others which could be converted to crude oil. “Already suffocating industry Owing to shortfall of more than 4000MW will have no space to breath in the absence of Gas”. Pointing to the other problems like prices of yarn, he said “it was not such grave in nature as it was available though at high prices, but as far as the availability of Gas & Electricity is concerned, these are not available even at rising prices which is an enigmatic and will result in a disaster beyond expectations. He urged Ministry of Textile and Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources to intervene for the restoration of Gas supply to the Textile industry as per schedule agreed and direct the SNGPL authorities to take into confidence all the stakeholders before tacking any such decision. He said that thousands of families are dependent for their bread & butter on this industry, will lose their jobs if the current scenario prevails for long and can lead to anarchy.