29 September 2004	Wednesday	13 Shaban 1425

GILGIT, Sept 28: A former member of the Northern Areas Legislative Council from Hunza has called for complete inquiry and audit of the accounts of the Silk Route Dry Port Trust. He claimed that Rs10 million were involved in it.

Speaking at a news conference here on Sunday, former NALC member Wazir Baig with vice-chairman of the trust, Fazal Rabbani, and other office-bearers of the trust claimed that the affairs of the trust had been kept by one person.

They alleged that since the formation of the trust in 1998 no general body meeting had been convened to inform the members about the financial accounts of the trust.

He said the dry port was set up by the government at Sust, border town of Gojal-Hunza, the only region which links Pakistan with China through the Karakoram Highway (KKH) to facilitate and promote border trade between the two countries.

They said that when a Chinese transport company took interest in the construction of the dry port, the local community formed the Silk Route Dry Port Trust by donating 201 kanals of land for this project. The local population, village organizations and other businessmen became members of the trust and contributed Rs17.5 million for the investment.

The objective of the dry port was to provide better trade facilities to the business community and get access to the marketing. They demanded convening of the general body meeting and present all accounts, auditing of the accounts of the trust, cancellation of the registration of the two companies.