All 600 textile processing units in 4 major cities of the country including around 225 in Karachi have been closed in protest against the imposition of a 17% sales tax on 5 zero-rated sectors. Though the processing units’ owners are yet to lay off hundreds of thousands of workers, they say they may take this decision within the next 10 days if the govt. continues ignoring their genuine demands. They added that the current budget gave an impression that the govt. was going to kill the industrial sector and convert Pakistan into a trading country. They demanded that the govt. restore SRO 1125.