Daily Times

The federal government has decided to form Government-Citizens Liaison Committee (GCLC) in order to resolve Karachi based industrialists’ problems related to federal ministries and authorities.

This was announced by Sindh Governor Imran Ismail while addressing industrialists of Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) at SITE Association’s office on Thursday.

Ismail said GCLC will have representatives of industrials and the committee will be responsible for effective resolution of industrial community’s problems. “Setting up this Cell at Governor House will save the industrialists from visiting Islamabad for getting small jobs done and will ultimately improve the working efficiency of federal bureaucracy,” he added.

Furthermore, the governor also sought proposals of the business and industrial community in respect to composition and terms of references (TORs) of GCLC.

Sindh Governor maintained that Karachi was among the top priorities of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government. He said that the people of Karachi had given mandate to the PTI by making 14 of the party’s candidates win on National Assembly (NA) seats.

“As committed by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, the federal government funded projects which include seawater desalination plant, green bus metro project, TP-4 water treatment plant, widening of Northern bypass and re-enforcement of Lyari Expressway for heavy traffic will be executed through Karachi Infrastructure Development Company (KIDC),” announced Imran Ismail.

Imran Ismail also promised to talk to PM Khan for immediate execution of construction work of Combined Effluent Treatment Plants in Karachi. He said that the industries will also get recycled water from TP-4 treatment plant. He also promised that all the main roads in SITE Area will be repaired on a prioritiy basis.

On the occasion, Zubair Motiwala proposed that funds worth Rs50 crore be allocated for infrastructure uplift in SITE area. On this, the governor said that it was the responsibility of the provincial and local governments to construct and repair all the roads. “Let the government functionaries do their job as it is not the job of industrialist to carry out development projects,” responded Ismail.

Responding to another question, the Governor Ismail said that the federal government was already allocating funds to revamp the Karachi Fire Brigade. He said that the Centre had agreed to provide fire tenders to SITE Association for quicker and more effective action during fire eruption in the area.

Responding to the concerns of Siraj Kassam Teli regarding issuance of notices to industrialists by FIA, Sindh Governor stated that FIA had not been given any new authority or powers. “The current notices have been issued to persons having undeclared properties in UAE and those who have not paid their tax liabilities. The government will never harass or penalize the legitimate taxpayers,” maintained the governor.

Published in Daily Times, October 5^th 2018.