KARACHI, July 3: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yusuf has promised to include business representative in the Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) that will have rules and regulations of international standard and provide facilities on a par with other ports of the region.

Speaking to members of the Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA) at a dinner meeting late Wednesday evening, the chief minister clarified that the ban imposed on purchase and sale of land in Gwadar was to keep the entire planning of the port area under a master plan prepared by NESPAK.

He said necessary amendments would be made in the GDA rules to accommodate business representative from Karachi in the GDA and ensure that facilities at the port are second to none.

“There is no reason to be apprehensive about the ban as well as security problem as the government of Balochistan is committed to providing you facilities and protection,” Jam Mohammad Yusuf asserted.

He advised the business community not to lend ears to rumours being floated by vested interest about the security problems at Gwadar and pointed out that ground realities were different from what was being highlighted in the media.

The chief minister said it was also wrong to say that people of the province would not welcome “you because they fear they would be turned into minority.”

Accompanied by his chief secretary and finance minister the chief minister was quite optimistic about the economic benefits the Gwadar deep sea port would have on prosperity and progress of the province.

Responding to a demand raised by PHMA chairman M. Zubair Motiwala, the chief minister said once the master plan for Gwadar port and its surrounding area was completed the government of Balochistan would give industrial plots as per plan to individual investors and to trade bodies.

He further said the other reason for imposing ban was to control the prices that started to heat up against the provincial government’s commitment to allot land on fixed prices.

Zubair Motiwala asked the Balochistan chief minister to give a piece of land for setting up knitwear training institution in Gwadar to which Jam Mohammad Yusuf agreed and said, “you all will have to wait till the master plan is completed.”

He also promised to give 500 acres of land to the PHMA for allotment of plots to its members, who liked to set up industrial units in the Gwadar duty free industrial zone. He hoped the development work of the port would be over by 2005.

Gwadar Nazim Babu Ghulab on the occasion said there was no problem of security in this area and all such stories only appear in newspapers and given by those who do not want to see Balochistan to progress.