Pakistan

Pakistan’s fashion sector is undergoing rapid change, shaped by industrial growth, heritage practices, and sustainability challenges. The country’s integrated supply chain, reliance on cotton, and emerging use of synthetics highlight systemic risks. Traditional eco-friendly practices are fading, while small-scale sustainable brands point to alternative paths. Weak governance, industry greenwashing, and missing education remain critical barriers to meaningful progress.

A new investigation has uncovered the hidden realities of Pakistan’s garment industry, exposing wage theft, forced overtime, and widespread informality across eight factories supplying European brands. Based on 126 worker interviews, the report challenges the effectiveness of social audits and highlights systemic exploitation in one of South Asia’s largest textile and apparel export hubs.

Pakistan's cotton industry faces its worst crisis in decades, with production plummeting to historic lows whilst ginning mills shut en masse. As the government considers emergency tax relief measures, the textile sector's survival hangs in balance, threatening millions of livelihoods and the nation's crucial export earnings.

The Cotton Association of India has joined the nationwide call to boycott Türkiye and urged the cotton trading community “to consider stopping” all trade with Türkiye and explore alternative options to suit “our nation's interest.”

Pakistan can transform its textile recycling industry, reduce environmental impact, enhance economic growth, and position itself as a leader in sustainable textile production by addressing the various challenges and leveraging opportunities, that will not only benefit the domestic economy but also align the country with global sustainability trends, ensuring long-term competitiveness, says a new report.

Cotton production is under multi-dimensional stress in Pakistan brought about collectively by factors ranging from low yields to low government support, to outdated farming methods on many of the farms, to constant fragmentation of farmland from one generation to the next, to the palpable impact of climatic change.

A UNEP-led integrated programme (IP) has been launched to promote sustainable supply chains in the fashion industry in a bid to address the impact of the sector on biodiversity loss, chemicals and waste, climate change, international waters, and land degradation.

A report by the Global Labor Institute warns that if 4 key hubs of garment production fail to make climate adaptation investments, nearly one million new apparel and footwear jobs will be foregone by 2030.

Soorty Enterprises' reverse vertical integration effort sources responsibly grown fibre and improves farmer incomes in Pakistan's most impoverished areas. Eda Dikmen, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager and Mobeen Chughtai, Head of Corporate Communications & Corporate Social Responsibility, talk about fibres, regenerative agriculture and the climate crisis. This is the second of a 2-part interview.

Soorty Enterprises is the only company with LEED Platinum and Cradle2Cradle Gold certifications for both its denim mill and garment factory. Eda Dikmen, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager and Mobeen Chughtai, Head of Corporate Communications & Corporate Social Responsibility, talk about cotton, denim and climate goals. This is the first of a 2-part interview.