Dr Ishrat Ul Ebad Khan, Governor Sindh has said that political consensus amongst all parties a pre-requisite to face challenges faced by the country.
Addressing the Annual Dinner 2010 of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), the Dr Ebad said that the country and nation is facing various challenges particularly law and order and declining economy and all the stakeholders should sit together as the government could not face the challenges alone and without the help of all parties and the people. He said that MQM has already rejected the recent increase in POL prices announced by government. He said that MQM had rejected the POL price increase in the past as it was a big burden on the general masses. Governor said that though condition of economy is not good but still some indicators such as building up foreign exchange reserves and increase in exports are showing that the situation is not that bad either. He said that industry in Karachi has been exempted from load-shedding and the gas shortage has also been resolved with the consultation of KESC and SSGC's managements and the stakeholders. He mentioned that KATI has become a distinctive trade and industrial body through its efforts for the betterment of trade and industry. While paying tributes to Patron In-chief KATI, S M Muneer and his team he advised other trade bodies to follow his footsteps.
S M Muneer while expressing his dismay over 10 per cent increase in POL prices, said that the economy is already reaching on the verge of collapse the government has once again increased the prices of petroleum which would be extremely detrimental to the national economy and the break the backbone of general masses. He said that due to anti-people decisions would result in unrest among the people. He pointed out that one day strike in Pakistan causes Rs5 billion revenue loss to the national exchequer and government should also realize this factor and instead of increasing POL and utilities prices should try to avoid greater losses in the shape of strikes, industry's shut down and export shipments' failures. He once again demanded of the government to hand over the management of loss making public organizations such as PIA, Railways, Pakistan Steel, PEPCO, etc. to the some honest and professional stakeholders in private sector in order to bring them out of red and save Rs500 billion subsidies given to these organizations annually. The Chairman, KATI, Syed Johar Ali Qandhari in his welcome address pointed out the grim situation of the economy and asked the governor to give priority to the ongoing crisis of utilities shortage such as power load-shedding, water and gas shortage in the country's industrial and commercial hub - Karachi."Government should have to address the economy on first priority as the industries are closing down, exports declining, raw materials are getting expensive frequently and the Pak rupee has been devalued by 40 per cent in the last three years", Qandhari said.
The outgoing Chairman, KATI, Razzak Hashim Paracha said that Pakistan's industry is in really bad shape and the government should have act positively to save the industrial base to avoid mass scale unemployment in the country.
Former Chairman, Mian Zahid Husain pointed out that Karachi's industry has been exempted from load-shedding only due to the efforts by the Governor Sindh. Senior Minister, Sindh, Agha Siraj Durrani, Provincial Minister for Industries, Rauf Siddiqi, Vice President, FPCCI, Khalid Tawab and Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan also spoke on the occasion.
