Ans: Heavy Industries:
Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such
as numerous or heavy products, large and heavy equipment, huge buildings
and large-scale infrastructure, complex or numerous processes. Due to
these factors heavy industry consumes energy on large scale and depends
more on machines than on human labour.
Following are some important heavy industries at work in Pakistan.
1. Sugar Industry:
At the time of independence Pakistan had only 9 sugar mills. According to
January 2020 statistics we now have 81 sugar mills spread over all the fou
provinces of our country, the Punjab has the largest number. Sugar industry
employs 75 thousand labour force.
2. Textile Industry:
At the time of independence Pakistan had only 17 textile mills. Large part o
our cotton produce was exported to the UK and Japan. Policies adopted b
Pakistan govemments proved fruitful and the industrial sector made fast
progress. Now we have 503 textile mills in Pakistan. Cotton textile is our
largest industry. 45 percent of our labour force is employed in textile sector
We earn 8.5 percent of our GDP from textile products.
3. Woolen Textile Industry:
At the time of independence we had only one woolen mill, now we have 70.
These factories manufacture blankets, shawls, thick woolen cloth (tweed)
and fine woolen cloth as well as wool. Woolen mills are working in all the
four provinces of the country as well as in Islamabad, i.e. Quaid Abad,
Rawalpindi, Lawrencepur, Sahiwal (Panjab), Karachi, Hyderabad and
Larkana (Sindh); Bannu and Noshehra (KPK) and Harnai and Mastung
(Balochistan).
4. Carpet Weaving:
Carpet manufacturing is also a subsidiary off the woolen industry. Pakistan is
a big producer of hand-made and machine-made carpets. Carpet was one of
our major exports few years back almost 5 percent of our total foreign
exchange earnings came from carpet exports.
5. Art-silk Industry:
Pakistan produces about 400 million meter artificial silk annually, imported
silk yarn in used for this purpose. Karachi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and
Multan are the major centres of the art-silk industry.
6. Cement Industry:
Pakistan has abundant raw material required by the cement industry. Total
number of cement factories working in Pakistan is 24; some of these are
very big. These factories are set up in all the four provinces of the country.
the Punjab has 12, Sindh 4, KPK 7 and Balochistan only one. Our cement
production is increasing rapidly. In 2020 we produced approximately 39
million tons of cement which rose to 50 million tons in 2021.
7. Cigarette Industry:
Smoking is injurious to health. Mouth and lung cancers are the major
diseases caused by smoking, lacs of people die of these diseases every
year. Since many million people are addicted to smoking, cigarefte making
has become a very profitable business. Tobacco is one of our importart
cash crops. At the time of independence we had no tobacco processing unt
or cigarette factory in Pakistan. We exported all tobacco we produced. Now
Pakistan has some 30 cigarette factories set up in Jhelum, Lahore, Sukkur
Multan, Karachi and Nowshera. KPK leads the production of tobacco; most
of our production comes from the KPK districts of Charsadda, Swab
Nowshera and Mardan.
8. Steel Industry / Ship-Breaking: .
Industrial development of a country depends largely on the abundant supply
of iron and steel. At the time of independence Pakistan had only one stee
mill in Chitagong (the East Pakistan). In 1971 we lost our only steel mill as a
result of the separation of East Pakistan. After that, a very big steel mill was
established in Karachi with the help of the USSR. Pakistan Steel Mills has a
production capacity of one million tons a year, which can be enhanced three
to mal-administration, dishonesty, corruption and political interference, we
were never able to run the mills on profitable basis, it is running constantly in
deficit and is a great burden on national exchequer. Apart from this Taxila
Heavy Industries is also manufacturing steel. Many big and small steel
production units are also operating in private sector. In 1980s, Gadani was
the largest ship-breaking yard in the world, employing 30,000 workers. It
contributed billions to the economy of Pakistan but slowly and gradually this
industry started to decline mainly due to unwise government policies. The
foremost reason was high tax rate.
9. Edible Oil and Ghee Industry:
Edible oil is an essential part of our daily diet. Numbers of ghee and oil mills
were set up after independence. Ghee Corporation of Pakistan (GCP) was
established with the main purpose to manage the growing demand of ghee
and edible oil but it lost its relevance due to denationalization of ghee mills.
Now we have more than 165 ghee and edible oil processing units. GCP’s
share in the production has gradually diminished; larger part of the
production has gone in the hands of private manufacturers. The industry is
facing crisis for the last many years. Dependence on imported cooking oil is
gradually increasing.