The business community has full unity in the metropolis on the issue of saving city’s economy and striving hard to keep the industry’s wheel rolling, said Patron-In-Chief Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) SM Muneer.
He was speaking at the luncheon meeting hosted by the Association in the honor of Civil Award recipients of Sitara-e-Imtiaz, Chairman Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association M Sami Khan, MNA Khushbakht Shujaat and Shujaat Ali Baig on Thursday.
Muneer said situation in the city was extremely worrisome and the business community was altogether vying for the survival of Karachi’s economy.
He said Karachi was the economic capital of Pakistan and it should be saved at all costs. He said there was no difference between the KCCI and other stakeholders on the subject of city’s survival.
He said many industrialists had shifted their business from Karachi and a number of businessmen planning to relocate due to the grim situation in the city.
He mentioned that following some measures taken by the Singh governor, the situation has started improving. He said the governor was also taking interest in community policing and those areas where CPLC Neighborhood Care project has been established, crime rate had gone down significantly.
MNA Khushbakht Shujaat said VIP culture in the country had devastated the entire political system. She said law and order situation in Karachi was deteriorating and stakeholders were receiving threats by some elements. She advised the businessmen to establish community policing system in their respective areas.
KATI Chairman Mohammad Zubair Chhaya expressed his great anguish on country’s dwindling economy. He said while the entire country’s industrial sector is facing sheer crisis of electricity and gas shortage while Karachi is facing dual crisis of utilities shortage and law and order deterioration. He said federal and provincial governments should give top priority to restoration of law and order situation in Karachi for the sake of Pakistan’s economy.
All Karachi Industrial Alliance President Mian Zahid Hussain said following decisions taken in the meeting by the governor with the city’s stakeholders, situation was improving a lot which includes restriction on issuance of mobile SIMs, deployment of 500 additional police force in old city areas and community policing.
He said trade and industrial representatives were scheduled to hold meeting tomorrow with the governor to review progress of the previous meeting and enforcement of its decisions. Senator A Haseeb Khan said unity among the business community was need of the hour. He said that Senate members had staged walk-out in the Senate in protest of target killings in Karachi.
M Sami Khan said the government was revising POL prices upward previously on weekly basis and now keeping mum when the POL prices were declining fast.
He stressed that at least Rs 6 to Rs8 per litre should be reduced on POL immediately. Shujaat Ali Baig said huge police force deployed on the security of so-called VIPs should be withdrawn and deployed in Karachi to control law and order. KATI Vice Chairman Niaz Ahmed also spoke on the occasion.
