Sindh High Court on Tuesday ordered the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Textile, the FBR, Customs and Aptma not to violate the yarn exporting limit of 35 million kgs per month imposed by the Ministry of Commerce through its order/notification issued on February 25, 2010.

On a constitutional petition filed by Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association and others, the court issued notice to the respondents as well as DAG for March 24, 2010 and ordered till then the respondents are not going to violate the order dated February 25, 2010 of the Ministry of Commerce. The petitioners were represented by Abid S Zuberi and Ayan Memon Advocates in the court.

The court in its order said: "it is contended by the counsel that international prices of cotton have exceeded and there is also low productivity of cotton except Pakistan, where there has been a bumper crop on account of which the Ministry of Commerce has allowed export of yarn including value added yarn to foreign countries which have gravely affected the local textile industry and the yarn has become dearer and not available for value added textile industry."

"The counsel stated that initially large quantity of yarn was allowed by the Ministry of Commerce to be exported but through an order dated February 25, 2010, the Ministry of Commerce has imposed a limit and such limit may not be violated by the respondents in exporting yarn from Pakistan."

The Ministry of Commerce on February 25, 2010 had ordered that export of yarn will be restricted to 35 million kilogramme per month for all types of yarn for the next four months form March 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010.

It also ordered that the value added yarn fetching a price more than or equal to $3.5 per kilogramme will be allowed over and above the quota only to those units which are registered with the ministry of textile industry as value-added exporters and within limits of their assessed capacities as determined by the Ministry of Textile Industry and the export will be monitored by Customs on actual shipment and on first-come-first-served basis and the registration with the Trade Development Authority (TDAP) shall be dispensed with. back