‘Efforts on to turn AJK into ideal place for tourism, business’

AJK president says industrial zone being built in Bhimber as part
of CPEC will attract local and foreign investment to Azad Kashmir

Azad Jammu & Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has invited the people of Karachi to come to Azad Kashmir in the coming summer to see and enjoy themselves at a number of ideal holiday resorts there.

He was speaking addressing as chief guest a dialogue organised on corporate social responsibility by the National Forum for Environment & Health at the Karachi Gymkhana on Monday.

Khan said the government had been serious about promoting the tourism industry to provide the best of accommodation and other services to people visiting Azad Kashmir.

The AJK president, who has been on a visit of Karachi since February 11, said that so far the private sector had been taking initiatives to cater to needs of tourists coming to Azad Kashmir.

He said the government had been giving special attention to road and energy projects to make Azad Kashmir an ideal place for businessmen and industrialists from Karachi to launch businesses there.

“The industrial zone in Bhimber, which will be constructed as part of the CPEC, would be the one place that would attract investment to Azad Kashmir from China and from within and outside the country,” said Khan, who had led a distinguished career in Pakistan’s foreign service before becoming the AJK president. 

He said eight industrial zones would be constructed in the country, including one in Azad Kashmir, as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.The recent connectivity of Azad Kashmir with the CPEC had improved suitability of AJK to attract investment from Pakistani and foreign businessmen for promoting industrial activities there, he added.

“A motorway is being constructed which will go from Mansehra to Muzaffarabad and from there to Mirpur as this will be the road that will connect us to the CPEC.”

He said that the Kohala Dam, which would generate 1,124 megawatts of electricity and the Karot Dam with a 520-megawatt generation capacity, would be built in Azad Kashmir as part of the CPEC.

He said it was one of the aims of the government that Azad Kashmir should secure self-reliance in fulfilling its energy requirements, which from the present day need of 400MWs would go up to 1,000-1,500MWs, keeping in view the expanding industrial and commercial activities there. Khan said the government would work on a number of projects to build new roads and repair the existing ones across Azad Kashmir.

He urged the prospective businessmen and industrialists of Karachi to come to AJK and hold a dialogue with the Azad Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry in order to know the real strength and prospects the region offered for doing business there.

He said the AJK government had been trying its best to ensure good governance to ensure development and progress in the best of manner.

He said the government would build five new hospitals in as many districts of Azad Kashmir, and district headquarter hospitals in 10 districts would be upgraded in such a manner that they would provide the best of treatment facilities to the public for communicable and non-communicable diseases.

He said the construction of the CPEC and general stability in the political situation would attract massive investments to Pakistan in the coming months and years in the sectors of energy, telecommunication, services, trade and industry.

Khan further stated that prospects Pakistan offered for investment would prove to be meaningful and exceptionally lucrative for prospective foreign businessmen.

“In this regard, it is obligatory upon the government to maintain law and order by gradually eliminating the atmosphere of violence, and to ensure the prevalence of general political stability in the country.”

Expressing his point of view on CSR, the AJK president said that it would be an impracticable option for the government to completely do away with the system of non-governmental organisations.

He said the government authorities could impose systems to regulate and restrict the working of NGOs, but it would not be feasible to altogether ban NGOs in view of valuable social services provided by them in a number of important sectors. One noble social service by NGOs was provision of legal assistance to poor people in matters related to policing and judiciary, said Khan.

He said public and private sector corporations in order to meet their CSR obligations should launch welfare projects in such social sectors where government action had been insufficient, especially areas related to public health and education services.