Cotton is the way out.

There are a few sectors of the economy that are the backbone of the economy and textile is one of these sectors. Among all the sectors, the most important industrial sectors, the textile industry plays a significant role in national economies, employment generation, and exports to developing countries like Pakistan. The global textile market size, estimated at USD 993.6 billion in 2021, is expected to grow at a rate of 4.0 percent annually. In 2021, among Asian countries, China is the leading global textile exporter, while Pakistan accounts for 2 percent of global textile exports.

The trend of export of Pakistani products to the US market has been seen since the last financial year and it has been continuously maintained till now. But this year the cotton crop in Pakistan has been affected to a great extent due to floods. In the year 2020, India and Bangladesh were completely shut down due to the coronavirus, while the industry was functioning in Pakistan. As the US market needed supplies that could not be met due to the closure of India and Bangladesh, international buyers turned to Pakistan. Will Pakistan's textile industry, which has been given all the facilities by the government, learn to continue the tradition of contributing to Pakistan's economy by making textile products that are competitive in the global market?

The textile industry is the backbone of the Pakistani economy, while the cotton crop is the main artery for this industry. Therefore, whenever there is a disruption or reduction in the supply of cotton, as a result, the textile industry starts shutting down automatically. The surprising thing is that on one hand the exports of the textile industry continue to increase and on the other hand the problem of reduction in cotton production due to various reasons has been intensifying for the last several years. The crisis has been aggravated by the recent floods as the cotton crop cultivated on an area of more than 1.45 lakh hectares in Sindh has been completely damaged, while the crop that has survived the inundation is of substandard quality and can't be used by textile industry at least. An immediate solution to this problem is that the government of Pakistan should immediately remove the ban imposed on the import of cotton and thread from India. The prices of imported polyester yarn have also increased by more than 50 percent due to which the crisis in the textile industry is getting worse with each passing day. This year...