LAHORE: The special committee charged with designing the legal framework for the proposed Punjab Industrial Regulatory Authority (PIRA) finalised its recommendations in a meeting on Monday.
The meeting, held at the ACS Conference Rooms in the Civil Secretariat, was presided over by Punjab Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja.
The meeting recommended that all industrial units in Punjab get their site plans approved from the Building Control Authorities (BCA). It also instructed all building control authorities to notify approval seekers of the special building bylaws and regulations regarding structural stability and occupational safety arrangements.
The recommendations mean that all the units situated in industrial estates under the supervision of the Punjab Small Industries Corporation along with the thousands of other industrial units working in the jurisdiction of development authorities and tehsil municipal administrations all over the Punjab are now required to get their site plans approved from the BCA.
PIRA has been proposed for the purpose of enforcing these bylaws.
The draft recommendations have been made to meet the standards present in the Pakistan Standards Control documents, prepared by the Pakistan Engineering Council. The recommendations would then be sent to Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif for approval. Subsequently a draft bill, including the recommendations, would be tabled before the Punjab Assembly for promulgation
Participants in the meeting included Punjab Industries Secretary Mujtaba Paracha, Irrigation Secretary Saif Anjum, Regulation Secretary Dr Muhammad Saleh Tahir, Pakistan Engineering Council Chairman Javed Saleem Qureshi, Punjab Small Industries Corporation Managing Director Bilal Ahmad Butt, Local Government Special Secretary Ms Sarah Aslam, Punjab Industrial Development and Management Company Chief Executive Officer Iftikhar Hussain. Senior representatives from the Faisalabad Industrial Development and Management Company, the Labour Department and the Punjab Law Department were also present.