Pakistani carpet industry is fast losing the skilled artisans, Turkmen nomads who were manufacturing hand-knotted carpets for the local and foreign markets.
The Turkmen carpets are admired for their primitive geometric designs and simple bold colors, manufactured with coarse hand spun wool in a particular style known as Turkmen knot.
Popular designs of hand knotted carpets in Pakistan and India are made with a skill little known to other people, taught nowhere in the technical and vocational institutes and there is no facility of providing training in multiple skills of carpet manufacturing.
The local carpet industry has been facing shortage of skilled labor in order to meet growing demand from international market following return of Afghan refugees to their country.
In year 2000-2001 total carpet production of Pakistan was 5.5 million square metres that has dropped to 4 to 4.5.
Kashmiri refugees laid the foundation of carpet industry in Pakistan in 1947.
The Kashmiri carpet industry was greatly inspired by Persian style that has remained dominant as their knots are of a very fine quality adorned with designs having artistic details made with varying ratios of silk and fine wool.
The local carpet manufacturers developed new ideas by utilizing skilled Afghans and applied vegetable dyeing instead and created a unique style that became a fashion rage in US and Europe.
Pakistani carpets were the perennial choice of foreign buyers due to antique designs.
Earlier, the local manufacturers used machine mainly imported from Australia and New Zeeland to make worsted wool.
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