KARACHI, Feb 1: Following the blow-up of 132kV electricity towers by the extremists a few days ago and the stoppage of gas supplies by the gas distribution company, production at three stock market listed textile companies Babri Cotton Mills; Janana De Malucho and Kohat Textile Mills all located in Habibabad, district Kohat in the NWFP, had been brought to a grinding halt.

Talking to Dawn from the factory location in Kohat, an audibly worried executive director Mohammad Iftikhar Ali said that the mills were without the supply of electricity and gas for the last five days. Worst still, he did not see the resumption of power an imminent possibility.

The executive said that faced with such double jeopardy, the mills had no option but to discontinue operations, pushing 6,000 people out of work and around 25,000 family members of those workers in deeper depth of poverty and want. The company official claimed that each of those three mills had been footing a wage bill of Rs12.5 million per month. “With no production and therefore no income we have had to layoff workers,” he said.

Under the stock market listing regulation no.28 and regulation no.37 of the code of corporate governance, Babri Cotton Mills had earlier on Monday, made the following announcement at the stock exchange:

“The electric installations of Wapda in Dara Adam Khel were damaged due to which supply of electric power to the company for operating its mills has been stopped. Further, gas is also not being provided to the company by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited due to its policy of loadshedding. In view of these circumstances operations of the mills have completely stopped and will be restarted only after power/gas supply to the company is restored.”

The district of Kohat itself with a population of 1 million was being supplied electricity for just the minimum lightening needs. The troubles for mills in Kohat had started following the operations of law enforcing agencies against the extremists in Dara Adam Khel.

Mr Iftikhar said that mainly a tunnel runs between the Dara Adam Khel and Kohat, which separates the two. The spill over of the offensive by security forces against extremists in Dara was being felt by the textile spinning mills in Kohat.

The company official said that according to his knowledge gas supply was also disrupted to the Gadoon Industrial zone, though it was restored on Friday. But he recognised: “The restoration of power towers, high up in the hills of Dara, --which in some cases rise to 6,500 feet and ensuring the safety of those towers does not look to be an easy task”.

The mills’ executive, nonetheless, pleaded for the restoration of gas connectivity, which he thought could be less of an inconvenience as the gas flowed from low level Gorgri in district Karak. The executive director stated that in normal times, the mills ran on 60 per cent gas and 40 per cent electricity.

“If just the gas supply is restored, we may be able to make the wheels of the mills start to turn again,” said the official at Babri cotton Mills, which on Sept 30 this year held Rs1.07 billion in total assets.