According to newspaper reports, Chinese investors have refused to set up a textile mill in Faisalabad, apparently due to political instability in the country. Earlier in 2013, some Chinese businessmen had visited the city and had decided to set up a textile mill, suggesting being one of the biggest in the world, having 6 million spindles. An agreement had been signed with Masood Textile Mill to purchase its 52 percent shares at a cost of $58.4 million. The Punjab government had also promised that it would provide all the basic facilities to the mill but the Chinese investors have now informed their Pakistan counterparts that they are not interested in the mill anymore. The Chinese had also planned to launch a subsidiary project to export certain waste products to China. It was hoped that a big volume of indigenous cotton would be consumed in the mill and export of cotton products would also increase, but the project has been cancelled and it is also feared that the shelving this mega project will affect the flow of Chinese investment into Pakistan.
The shelving of the project is not a single incident of its kind, as in the past, dozens of mega projects – which were proposed in collaboration with various European countries – have been cancelled for one reason or the other. It seems a nemesis is continuously haunting this nation. Whenever chances of progress and development appear on the national scene, something unusual happens and everything is smashed. Pakistan made tremendous progress during the tenures of Ayub Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but everything finished after their deaths. This kind of situation has been going on for the last several decades. The point to ponder for the present government is that the common man is living in the hope of a better future and this hope should have to be realised. Mere lip service by the government ministers will serve no purpose.
