‘Dr Gohar Group’ once again clinches control of APTMA

Lahore saw the Dr Gohar Ejaz Group reaffirm its leadership of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) for an unprecedented seventeenth consecutive term. This victory was announced on Monday during a press conference at APTMA House, attended by Patron-in-Chief Dr Gohar Ejaz and Secretary General Raza Baqir.

Out of thirty-four candidates from the group, all were elected unopposed to the Central Executive Committee, with fourteen from the Northern Zone and twenty from the Southern Zone. Zonal leaders included Siddique Javed Bhatti as Chairman of the Northern Zone, Habib Anwar as Senior Vice Chairman, Muhammad Ali as Vice Chairman, and Danish Aslam as Treasurer, with nineteen additional members joining the Zonal Managing Committee.

Dr Ejaz hailed the repeated victory as a remarkable achievement, expressing his pride in leading APTMA, a trade body founded in 1957. He expressed optimism that the new leadership would intensify efforts to boost the textile sector's export capabilities. However, he pointed out that export growth had stagnated due to high energy tariffs, heavy taxes, and escalating business expenses.

Furthermore, Dr Ejaz noted that a tariff favoring export-oriented sectors, which his group had advocated for, had since been revoked, negatively impacting exports. Despite being the industry’s backbone, employing nearly ten million people and generating over sixty percent of national exports, the sector reportedly needed more attention.

Highlighting the industry's potential, Dr Ejaz suggested that with a more favorable business climate, the sector could generate over ten billion dollars in exports within a year. He introduced a new initiative aimed at promoting value-added exports, noting that the incoming Central Chairman had extensive experience across the textile chain and the Northern Zone’s new leader was renowned for his contributions in the garment sector, one of the nation’s leading exporters of value-added textiles.

Lastly, Dr Ejaz announced the establishment of the APTMA Education Foundation and the APTMA Technical Foundation, both under the leadership of outgoing Chairman Kamran Arshad, marking a new social responsibility initiative.