Spinning yarn into cloth used to be a path to fortune in Pakistan, but a story of decline encapsulates how far a crippling energy crisis and rocketing inflation are suffocating the economy.
Power cuts sometimes lasting more than 12 hours a day have forced factory owners in the country’s cloth capital Faisalabad to switch off the lights and sell their looms for scrap, leaving tens of thousands of workers jobless.
The country is the world’s fourth-largest producer of cloth and the industry accounts for 60 percent of export revenue according to official data. But the shortages are heaping pressure on Pakistan’s crippled and debt-ridden economy.
Malik Ammanullah Mani, 31, used to be a leading light on the party circuit. As manager of his family’s textile factory, he belonged to a small, rich cabal that regularly graced private members’ clubs and dined at five-star hotels.
Categories: Pakistan