WITH the induction of Khalid Maqbool as Punjab governor, the people of Faisalabad have attached very high hopes about solution to their longstanding civic problems and demands commensurate with the status of the city.

Khalid Maqbool happens to be a son of the city belonging to a respectable middle class family and educated in ordinary local schools. Naturally, he is expected to know the problems of the city and the difficulties faced by its citizens.

In the past, the citizens of Faisalabad had seen VIPs and political bigwigs moving with pomp and show. But in the case of Gen Maqbool, it was quite opposite. Only district Nazim Zahid Nazir, city Nazim Mumtaz Cheema, DIG Talaat Mehmood, DCO Tahir Husain and SSP Tasadduq Husian received him at the airport on Tuesday last. There was no big cavalcade; only three vehicles moved with him. These vehicles stopped at every traffic signal, and this VIP movement did not cause any disturbance to the public.

Maqbool is fond of paying surprise visits to government offices, hospitals, educational institutions, police stations, dispensaries and going into details of documents. During such visits, he leaves a distinct impression that he is aware of the procedural requirements for redressing public grievances. He puts straight, pertinent and calculated questions to officials who are often cornered during the cross-examination.

During his visit to Faisalabad, the governor went straight to an eye hospital being run by a philanthropist, Mian Muhammad Haneef. He was reportedly surprised to see the latest equipment for operations, treatment of patients and above all qualified doctors.

He regretted that the hospitals in which the government pumped millions of rupees for providing treatment to the people had not been rendering appreciable services to the needy with the required zeal and enthusiasm like private hospitals such as the Madina Eye Centre. He said other philanthropists should follow the example set by Mian Haneef and come forward for the well-being of their brethren.

He was informed that hepatitis screening tests were being conducted in the hospital before eye operations while the same was not being done in government hospitals. The governor advised his staff officer to order the health department to advise all government hospitals to conduct hepatitis tests before all operations.

From the eye centre, the governor went to the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry where chamber president Mian Naeemur Rehman demanded a grant for upgradation, beautification and face-lifting of the city and other civic amenities, including a dual carriageway from Faisalabad to Sheikhupura.

The FCCI chief also demanded provision of state land for the construction of chamber offices on the pattern of Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot and other cities and a piece of land for setting up an export processing zone, a project which has been in the doldrums for the last many years for want of land. He advocated resumption of the abandoned M-3 project between Faisalabad and Pindi Bhatian which was originally scheduled to be completed by June, 2000.

The governor said the traders community had been operating their lucrative business on the decades-old pattern which was required to be changed. He said the time had come for the yarn market to transact business on the pattern of New York and other leading stock exchanges instead of CDRs and chits.

He said the people normally relied on police for protection against dacoities and robberies but never realized their own folly of keeping millions of rupees in homes and shops. He said the people should change their lifestyle and create a conducive atmosphere in society, promote tolerance and groom their kids in decent norms.

He urged the businessmen to maintain a complete record of their transactions and make a habit of paying taxes and duties. He said the taxation system was being simplified and the discretionary powers of income tax officers were being curtailed to win the confidence of taxpayers. He made it clear that no-one would be allowed to harass or exploit taxpayers. He said 28 provincial taxes had been reduced to eight.

He said the time had come when the state could not undertake the responsibility of providing each and every facility to the citizens. It was for the private sector to come forward and participate with the government in reformation development efforts in various spheres of life which directly affected the private sector and the public due to lengthy and cumbersome procedures and unnecessary delays.

He said the government was giving a serious thought to establish an export processing zone in Faisalabad. A project of advance information technology had been approved for Faisalabad while work on Motorway-3 from Pindi Bhatian to Faisalabad would also start soon. The dualization of the Faisalabad-Sheikhupura Road would be taken up in the near future on build, operate and transfer basis, he said.

On the request of the chamber president, the governor handed over the recovered gold worth Rs8.1 million looted from Bano Bazaar.

The governor performed the opening ceremony of the state of the art neurosurgery operation theatre and emergency block in the Allied Hospital which has been established through community participation by various businessmen and industrial groups and philanthropists.

The professor of neurosurgery, Dr. Tariq Salahuddin, said with addition of the present block, the capacity of the emergency ward had been increased from 30 beds to 60. The new addition included an advanced neurosurgery operation theatre with a covered area of 1,500 square feet, including operation rooms, a recovery room and changing rooms, surgeons’ offices and sitting area for 15 attendants.

The governor later visited Chak 7-JB where he gave proprietary rights to more than 1,100 landless people and inaugurated the Sui gas supply for the locality completed at an expenditure of over Rs5.4 million under the Faisalabad Area Upgrading Project.

Gen. Maqbool also visited the Jamia Qadria Rizvia. He was impressed with the standard of the computer institute being run there. He said the federal government had allocated Rs15 billion for the extension of