Economy thrives when investors encouraged, respected: Murad

Sindh’s chief minister said on Wednesday that the economy of a country flourishes when local and international investors are given respect, the agreements made with them are honoured and, on top of them, an environment-friendly atmosphere is created.

“Sorry to say but all these things are in the negative in Pakistan. Therefore, the country is facing an energy crisis and international investors are reluctant to invest, while local investors and traders are running from pillar to post to protect their business and for respect.”

Syed Murad Ali Shah was addressing a 97-member delegation of the National Defence University’s National Security Workshop led by Major General Asif Ali at the CM House.

The delegation comprised three senators, 14 National Assembly members, 16 provincial assembly members, four civil bureaucrats, three army officers, 48 civil society members and nine faculty members. The chief executive said Benazir Bhutto had invited a Hong Kong-based Chinese investor for Thar coal mining and power generation.

“After her government’s removal, the successive government did not honour the commitments and scrapped the entire agreement for the sake of a mere 0.3 cents.” CM Shah said that had that agreement been honoured, today Pakistan would have been exporting electricity to its neighbours.

He said the provincial government of the Pakistan Peoples Party had spent around Rs100 billion on the development of road infrastructure in Thar, persuaded Chinese investors to work with them and partnered with Engro for coal mining.

“The results are historic. We have started producing 660 megawatts of electricity on a commercial basis,” he said, adding that another project was in progress under which 1,360 MW would be produced.

Talking about law and order, the chief executive said that a few years ago Karachi had been turned into no-go areas and every day eight people on an average were killed. “Thanks to the Pakistan Army, the Rangers, the police and intelligence organisations, we launched a targeted operation and today the city has been taken off the list of the most dangerous cities.”

He added that to achieve this, more than 500 police officials of the country had laid their lives, while a large number of Rangers and army officers had also sacrificed their lives for restoring peace in Karachi. “This peace is very dear to me because we have achieved this by sacrificing valuable lives.”

Talking about health facilities, Shah said his government has adopted a public-private partnership policy under which health facilities have been outsourced to the Peoples Primary Healthcare Initiative and other well-reputed organisations.

He said mother & child health programmes, including nutrition, are yielding good results. He added that he was quite upset that despite making all-out efforts, polio cases are on the rise in the province.

“I have directed the East deputy commissioner to ensure proper cleanliness of his jurisdiction so that no case can emerge from Sohrab Goth or Gadap.” Replying to a question, he said that tangible results have not been achieved in the education sector. “Despite our efforts, we have failed to hire the best teachers, even though the hiring process was completely handled by a third party.”

He continued that only ensuring the teachers’ presence in the class is not enough, but the teachers must be quite capable and competent to take their classes professionally.

Responding to another query, the CM said he has constructed a road from the Metropole to Tharparkar. “This is not a joke. The road from the Metropole hotel to Malir has been constructed from the provincial package, while from Malir to Thatta on public-private partnership mode, and then onward up to Mithi through the Annual Development Programme.”

He also spoke about the provincial economy, fiscal discipline, the Sindh Revenue Board, water issues and various others issues. He urged the delegation to visit Thar, which he said would turn into a hub of national economy in the near future.