Prime Minister, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, has not approved the provision of more concessionary financing to the textile sector in violation of the established market conditions. Presiding over a special Cabinet meeting to approve Textile policy 2009-14, the Prime Minister said the textile sector should be made self-reliant and not dependent on continuous cash support from the government.

There should not be any intervention in the established system as the industry already has access to concessionary financing. The rates should be adjusted by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) according to the market conditions; the sources quoted Gilani as directing the Ministry of Textile Industry. The cabinet was also informed that the Textiles Policy was prepared in consultation with all stakeholders - industrialists, exporters, agriculture experts, investors, SBP and other relevant public and private representatives to make it a result oriented policy.

The cabinet was also apprised of the mission statements which aimed at developing and implementing a Textiles Policy for the promotion of consistency, predictability and transparency in government actions and programmes.

According to the sources declining trend in the textiles sector was due to poor infrastructure, fragmented industry, outmoded technology and machinery, export constraints, unprepared transition to WTO regime, restrictive competition, poor skills pool, regulatory bottlenecks, and absence of a truly zero-rated regime.

It was also explained that textile sectors of China and India were improving by leaps and bounds because of a generous support by their present governments. Due support would be provided for branding, grading, labelling, and the government would also use the information and communication technology to promote this sector. It was also brought to the notice of the cabinet that the job of stitching was being done by children which was against international labour laws.