The embroidery factories operating in Faisalabad are in deep trouble due to the rising inflation and importer monopoly, rendering scores of people, especially widows, engaged for threading the ladies ware jobless, reports WealthPK. Haleema Bibi, a widow engaged by a factory for threading ladies embroidery suits, earned more than Rs10,000 a month but nowadays she is in dire straits, as the factory owners are not sending her material for threading. Threading is a process of removing extra threads from the garments and bed ware. The embroidery factories are operating in different localities of Faisalabad where dozens of workers are serving.

Talking to WealthPK, All Pakistan Embroidery Machine Association President Abdul Ghafoor said they were facing a financial crunch. He said they needed inexpensive electricity like textile exporters but instead of providing them with a level playing field, the government withdrew their subsidy on electricity that was being provided to the exporters. He said the government claimed that measures were afoot for betterment of both the business community and the general public but practically nothing was being done for them due to which their workers were finding it difficult to make (both) ends meet. He said scores of factory owners had sold off their machines to keep their business running but the situation was not improving.

Haleema Bibi told WealthPK that prior to engaging in the business of threading, she worked as maid and earned 3,000 to 4,000 rupees. Threading was an easy job for her, as she would earn a modest income from the comfort of home without leaving her children on their own. She said earning her livelihood while sitting at home was a blessing for her but nowadays she was not earning even a penny, as the factory owner had stopped producing new designs due to the rise in the prices of materials.

Talking to WealthPK, Qamar Islam, a worker attached with threading, said he earned enough to feed his family before but these days he was facing a financial crunch owing to the costly raw material. Qamar said sensing the situation, he tried to switch over to some other business but there was hardly any business that was thriving in Pakistan. He said the embroidery sector was once a lucrative and thriving business but now the situation had changed altogether.

“I have a lot of embroidery thread and am trying to sell it but there are no buyers due to the current uncertainty. I offered to sell my thread to some factory owners on deferred payment but none of them was willing to buy,” he said. Like thread manufacturers, the wholesalers and retailers too are feeling the heat of the crisis and are hoping for a better situation. Speaking to WealthPK, Nadeem Ahmed, a ladies embroidered suits wholesaler in Kutchery Bazaar, said they did a roaring business and installed embroidery machines due to a boom in the business but these days the factory owners were facing issues due to the surging prices of electricity and raw material.

He said the tough situation facing the embroidery factories had directly hit the business of wholesalers and retailers. Abdul Ghafoor said scores of widows engaged in threading had been earning handsomely but in the current circumstances they were in dire straits, as the majority of factory owners were not running their factories in full capacity due to the inflated rates of electricity and raw material. “We have knocked every door to convey to those at the helm that the textile sector is a source of income for different segments of the society, particularly the poor ones, and it needed relief against inflation and inflated power rates but to no avail,” he lamented.

Ghafoor said factory owners were unable to provide poor workers, particularly widows, with livelihood due to the financial crunch. He said the government should plead the case of poor people before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rather than accept all their conditions. Haleem Bibi said she had approached some of people she had served in the past as maid so that she could earn for her family but all of them apologized to engage her citing their poor financial condition.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)