KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Monday approved Rs1.37 billion for reconstruction of all the dilapidated roads of Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) Ltd Karachi and also decided to transfer collection of property tax to SITE Ltd.

He took this decision in a meeting held with the delegation of SITE Association led by Siraj Kassam Teli here at CM House.

The other delegation members were Zubair Motiwala, Suleman Chawla, Farhan Ashrafi, Jawed Bilwani, Saleem Parekh, Abdul Hadi and Abdul Rasheed. Provincial Ministers Saeed Ghani, Jam Ikram Dharejo, Nasir Shah, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab and others also attended the meeting.

The industrialists told the chief minister that the condition of the roads of SITE Karachi was already dilapidated and they were further destroyed by recent heavy rains. They said that the roads were no more motorable these days, therefore transport of finished goods had become a difficult task.

They also pointed out that the financial condition of SITE Ltd was precarious because it was overstaffed.

Minister Industries Jam Ikram endorsing their statement said that against a requirement of 450 employees SITE Ltd was overburdened with 1,500 employees, therefore, the funds generated locally were utilized on salaries and pensions.

He further said that the Sindh Small Industries was also facing a similar condition. He added that extraordinary recruitments were made during the tenure of Gen Pervez Musharraf.

The SITE Association delegation told the chief minister that the recovery of property tax of SITE Karachi be given to SITE Ltd so that the funds generated locally could be utilized on the development of SITE area.

The chief minister said that his government would reconstruct all the roads under the Karachi megaproject. He approved an amount of Rs1.37bn for reconstruction of roads for SITE Karachi.

Mr Shah also agreed in principle to hand over collection of property tax to SITE Ltd so that they could enhance recovery and then utilize the recovered amount on the development of SITE.

Meanwhile, Murad Ali Shah said that his government was working hard to promote information technology (IT) industry in the province, therefore he was going to establish software technology parks in all divisional headquarters.

He said this in a meeting held with a delegation of the ministry of information technology and telecommunication led by federal IT Minister Aminul Haq. The delegation members included secretary IT Shoaib Siddiqui, chairman Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) Shahzad Shahid and others.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2020