KARACHI: The Sindh government has planned to convene a joint session of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, associations of trade and industry, and concerned industrialists to thoroughly review arrangements of fire safety and protection at industrial units across the province and to suggest emergency corrective measures in this regard.
This was disclosed by Sindh Minister for Commerce and Industries Manzoor Hussain Wassan in his meeting with a delegation of National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) at his office.
The minister said that the forthcoming session would take into account detail arrangements, measures, and resources available to save and protect human lives, assets, and machinery available at industrial units against any fire emergency.
He said that fire emergencies had always posed a grave threat to safety and existence of human lives and industrial assets, and an effective strategy was compulsorily required to deal with such catastrophes. He added that unabated incidents of fire emergencies in industrial units in recent days in Karachi had become a major source of concern for the provincial government.
The minister also said that the concerned industrialists and relevant civic agencies were under strict obligation to take the required preventive and safety measures to effectively deal with such alarming situations. He added that the Sindh government had the resolve to provide utmost assistance to industrialists and industries so that they could progress and excel.
“We want to take all the people associated with the industries along with us,” he said.
Wassan also said that the Sindh government would promote industrialists and businessmen as they had a central role in development and progress of the country. The minister said that the government of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had done a lot in the last year for development in the industrial zones to rebuild roads and provide necessary civic infrastructure essential for working with the industries.
He also informed that the issue of water shortage would soon be resolved in industrial estates. He said that massive development work for the improvement of civic infrastructure had been undertaken in the four industrial zones of the metropolis.
The minister said that the native people of the area would be given employment in the new Larkana Special Economic Zone, adding that Rs300 million had been reserved by Sindh government to develop the proposed Khairpur Special Economic Zone as this work had been completed.
He said that Khairpur city was of special value for trade and industrial activities of the province owing to the massive production of ‘cotton’ in the district for the use of textile industries across the country.
Wassan further stated that the provincial government had rebuilt the National Highway from Quaidabad intersection till Steel Mills, and added that the recent road repair and maintenance work had also been completed in Super Highway SITE industrial zone of the city.
The minister said that the PPP’s government had a complete realisation that cooperation and goodwill of the industrialists are of utmost importance for the success of any administration or authority.
Speaking on the occasion, NFEH President Naeem Qureshi said that a lot of damage had been caused due to fire emergencies and due to severe lack of industries in having mandatory preventive measures such as firefighting equipment, availability of fire engines, water and other fire extinguishing material.
The minister said that similar instances of sheer negligence and carelessness on the part of industrial zones and concerned civic agencies posed a serious threat to human lives and assets belonging to industrial units.
