KARACHI: Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair has stressed on serious and coordinated efforts of the government and private sector to project the economic potential of Sindh, especially of Karachi before the world.
“Now, it is time to sell the potential of Karachi in particular. After a long time of disturbances, Karachi has returned to normalcy and become peaceful enough for trade, and local and foreign investment. Karachi’s economy is now rapidly expanding,” he said while addressing the members of English Speaking Union of Pakistan (ESUP), on Tuesday evening.
ESUP President Aziz Memon, Secretary General Majyed Aziz, Senior Vice President Kalim Farooqui and Deputy High Commissioner of United Kingdom vice president here, former ambassador Jaffar Kadir, Behram Avari, Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, and Consul Generals of France and Germany in Karachi were present at the occasion.
ESUP President Aziz Memon introduced Muhammad Zubair and praised his contributions while working on key positions of the government and in private sector, including international companies like IBM. Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair said that the solution of social and economic problems of Sindh, especially in its big cities Karachi and Hyderabad, lied in a public-private partnership, as the government alone could do a little due to limited resources.
People from the private sector would have to come forward for strengthening public transport system in Karachi and Hyderabad.
The federal government had taken every possible measure for the province in this regard, the governor added.
He listed various development and social programmes for Sindh launched by the federal government and assured more schemes/programmes would be announced soon by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, including the latest transport system for Hyderabad like Karachi.
Muhammad Zubair said that governor’s main job was to lead economic turn-around in the province. Karachi’s development would be very helpful for the rest of Sindh and the country.
He said that the Urban Development Fund was being raised with the private sector’s support, who could invest or fund the development projects.
“We are also trying to bring maximum foreign investment to Karachi and that more than 50,000 jobs would be created in the city in near future,” he re-affirmed.
“We all should make conscious efforts and drum beat the potential of Karachi and the country as a whole.”
To project the economic potential of the country, he added, government-cum-private sector delegations had visited London, New York and Dubai etc. and had received a very positive response.
He urged all the main political parties to give their ownership to Karachi and make Karachiites feel that the parties were really concerned and serious to solve their social and economic issues.
Being the governor, he assured to be fair and equal to all the political parties in their efforts to reach out the people of Sindh.
He said that the federal, provincial and local government should complement each other, instead of going for competition.
Later, the governor answered many queries from the participants.