MULTAN:Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) president Mian Rashid Iqbal on Friday urged the government to
set up a new industrial zone in Multan terming it mandatory amid growing industrial activity at the existing Industrial
estate.
The MCCI president expressed these views in a meeting with Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Captain (Retired)
Saqib Zafar, after he called on the south Punjab administration chief, leading a delegation of industrialists, according
to a release issued by MCCI spokesman here Friday.
Mian Rashid Iqbal condemned the May 9 attacks on state installations and termed it a conspiracy against Pakistan.
MCCI senior vice president Nadeem Ahmad Sheikh, former president Khawaja Muhammad Hussain, and secretary
general Muhammad Shafiq accompanied by him on the occasion.
MCCI president said that the traders and industrialists community was a bigger stakeholder in the country’s economic
development and financial well-being and described ample facilities for investors and traders as a prerequisite to
materialize the goal of economic stability, the release said.
He also stressed setting up a small industrial estate to shift the small Industry out of the city area and demanded
that government should provide land for the purpose.
He demanded that crop zoning be introduced to ensure that cash crops like cotton and wheat cover the maximum
area in south Punjab.
He said that over a century old clock tower building be converted into a centre of excellence decorated with books
and literature on Multan culture and heritage, artefacts and books authored by saints.
ACS south Punjab Captain (Retired) Saqib Zafar said that industrial development would be instrumental in securing
the goal of economic development and to create more jobs for the educated unemployed.
He promised to present their demands before Punjab Governor and Caretaker Chief Minister for approval. He
disclosed that recommendations would also be sent to the Punjab government to establish special economic zones
in south Punjab.
He said in a recent international conference attended by ambassadors of 40 countries in Islamabad, a six-point
the guideline was finslized and all efforts for development were being taken in the light of these guidelines.
He said, the south Punjab secretariat was fully aware of the problems of the area and moving in the right direction to bring
about robust development.