Annual Meeting of Pakistan Textile Council - 30th August 2025 - Karachi

Pakistan Textile Council Annual Meeting 2025 – Key Highlights

The Pakistan Textile Council (PTC) held its Annual Meeting on 30th August 2025 at Marriott Hotel, Karachi, chaired by Mr. Fawad Anwar with Mr. Musadaq Zulqarnain as Vice Chairman. The meeting was attended by leading textile exporters who are members of PTC and PTC officials. Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Mr. Jameel Ahmad, joined as Chief Guest in the afternoon session.

Council Review & Deliberations

CEO PTC, Mr. Muhammad Hasan Shafqaat, presented a review of activities since October 2024, covering lobbying on captive power plants, Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS), Textile & Apparel Policy 2025–30, Budget 2025–26 proposals, and EDF-funded initiatives.
Members discussed the recent amendments in EFS, rising cost of doing business, and future roadmap of PTC.

Key Member Inputs:

Chairman, Mr. Fawad Anwar, emphasized that high costs of doing business especially energy costs are the root cause of spinning sector challenges, and that raising raw material costs for exporters will not resolve structural inefficiencies. Policy support from Government can help in enhancing market share of Pakistan’s value added exports.
Vice Chairman, Mr. Musadaq Zulqarnain, noted that government notifications on EFS deviated from earlier agreements, unfairly subjecting cotton and yarn to both GST and import duties. He stressed that misuse of the scheme should be addressed through enforcement, not penalizing genuine exporters.
Mr. Muhammad Ali Tabba argued for balanced advocacy across the entire value chain, cautioning against supporting policies that are being misused at the cost of local manufacturers.
Mr. Saqib Bilwani supported continuation of duty-free raw material imports, urging that misuse of EFS be checked by government agencies rather than changing the scheme.
Mr. Zaki Bashir proposed that Pakistan should learn from Bangladesh’s model of allowing duty-free imports to strengthen value-added exports and then investing in backward integration.
Mr. Shahid Soorty proposed to aggressively advocate for value-added sector, noting that imposing duties on raw materials makes Pakistan uncompetitive globally.

Consensus Points:

Advocate for re-inclusion of cotton, yarn, and grey cloth in EFS and a refundable sales tax cap of 3–5%.
Prepare proposals for renewable energy financing, DLTL support, and schemes to offset energy and wage pressures.

Governor SBP’s Address

Governor Jameel Ahmad shared Pakistan’s macroeconomic progress since the crisis of 2022–23:

Reserves grew from USD 2.8 billion (2023) to USD 14.3 billion (2025).
Remittances increased to USD 38.3 billion in FY2025, expected to reach USD 40 billion.
Inflation dropped to 3.2% by June 2025, allowing policy rate cuts from 22% to 11%.
GDP growth was 2.7% in FY2025, projected at 3.25–4.25% for FY2026.

He assured exporters that SBP would continue to maintain monetary stability, facilitate financing, and strengthen external accounts.

Interactive Dialogue

During the Q&A, members raised pressing issues:

Mr. Tabba discussed about availability of dollars for acquisitions and machinery imports, and converting TERF financing into Shariah-compliant facilities.
Mr. Bilwani suggested incentives for exporters who achieve higher export growth compared to previous years.
Mr. Yousaf Abdullah highlighted difficulties in accessing export financing from banks.
Mr. Zaki Bashir sought clarity on inflated exchange rate projections in the budget.
Mr. Zulqarnain stressed that only sustainable export growth can counter external account pressures, pointing out rising costs for value added exporters and urged that exchange rate should be allowed to be determined by market forces to keep exports of Pakistan internationally competitive.
Mr. Shahid Soorty highlighted that listed textile companies’ balance sheets show severe stress, urging recognition of wage disparities and policy inconsistency.