Cotton is not merely an agricultural crop or economic commodity for Pakistan but also an important part of the country’s cultural heritage, Pakistan’s Ambassador to France Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said while addressing the event.
PARIS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 12th Sep, 2026) A special conference was held in Paris to highlight the thousands-year history of cotton cultivation and the textile industry in Pakistan, its cultural heritage and its role in the global fashion industry.
Titled “The Thread of Cotton: Thousands of Years of Cotton Culture in Pakistan,” the conference was held at the Embassy of Pakistan in Paris and attended by diplomats, UNESCO officials, representatives of the French textile industry, fashion designers and experts.
Addressing the event, Pakistan’s Ambassador to France Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that the history of cotton’s discovery and cultivation in ancient Pakistan dates back approximately 7,000 years.
She said farmers, spinners and weavers in the region had built a strong textile tradition over centuries, which later played a key role in laying the foundations of the global textile industry.
The Pakistani ambassador said that when cotton reached different continents, it was not merely a valuable trading commodity; it also carried knowledge, skills, craftsmanship and a tradition of cultural exchange among different civilizations.
Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that textiles and garments remain a central part of Pakistan’s industrial production and exports and that the sector provides employment to a large portion of the country’s industrial workforce.
From spinning mills in Faisalabad to export houses in Karachi and Lahore, the textile industry holds a central position in Pakistan’s economy.
She said cotton is not merely an agricultural crop or economic commodity for Pakistan but also an important part of the country’s cultural heritage.
Centuries-old traditions of spinning, weaving, embroidery and textile craftsmanship remain part of Pakistan’s cultural identity.
The ambassador said these living traditions constitute intangible cultural heritage, whose preservation receives special attention from UNESCO.
They include knowledge, skills and craftsmanship passed down from one generation to the next.
Frederika Sundberg, founder of M. Sundberg and president of Cercle des Amis du Pakistan, also addressed the conference.
She shared her expert views on Pakistan’s textile sector and reviewed the thousands-year history of cotton in Pakistan, from the Indus Valley to the modern textile industry. She also highlighted the export potential of Pakistani textile products in global markets and said the country’s textile sector had significant scope for further expansion internationally.
French archaeologist Catherine Jarrige, former co-director of the French Archaeological Mission in the Indus Valley, highlighted evidence of cotton cultivation in ancient Pakistan.
She said archaeological evidence indicated that cotton was cultivated, spun and woven in the Indus Valley civilisation approximately 7,000 years ago.
The conference was organised under the Embassy of Pakistan’s public and economic diplomacy initiative to highlight the historical and contemporary links between Pakistan, cotton cultivation, the textile industry and cultural heritage.
The event showcased both Pakistan’s thousands-year-old textile tradition and the importance of the textile sector to the country’s economy, exports and the global fashion industry today.
