Senate Standing Committee on Commerce and Textile Thursday directed the ministry to explain why the power loom industry was in a collapse at Faisalabad. The committee held its meeting in parliament house with Senator Syed Shibli Faraz in the chair. They discussed the matter of collapse of power loom sector in Faisalabad in connection with a point of public importance raised by Senator Mian Muhammad Ateeq Sheikh in the House that was subsequently referred to the Committee. The mover of the matter as well as the committee were not satisfied with the reply provided by the ministry and decided to dig deeper into the matter as to what number of power looms have been shut down and what are the possible reasons thereof. The Committee was told in detail about why the power loom sector is struggling in wake of new technologies in place now and what measures are being taken and can be taken to help address the issue. The mover while explaining the issue said that power loom units were being shut down in Faisalabad and employees are suffering as a consequence. The ministry, however, responded that as of now only six power-loom units are closed and the rest are working as per previous practice and the statistics show that production of yarn and cotton produced and exported has been consistent. Senator Rana Mahmood ul Hassan, Nauman Wazir Khattak, Mian Muhammad Ateeq Sheikh, Secretary Textile Division Shahrukh Tariq, Additional Secretary Commerce, Chairman NICL and Director Textile Research attended the meeting. The Committee also discussed the implementation status of its recommendations regarding the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) and the issue of transfer of rupees one billion to the Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) by NICL. Additional Secretary Commerce told the Committee that several correspondences with SRB have taken place and a significant amount of the money will be recovered soon after the next meeting takes place. The Committee also deliberated upon having value chain analysis of industries in Pakistan, addressing the matter of export-import trade deficit with China, and accurate statistics about energy consumption of industrial sector. Published in Daily Times, July 20th 2018.