KARACHI: Cabinet okays sale of SRTC assets to district govts : Debt retirement
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 24: The Sindh government has decided to hand over all properties, including land, workshop and depots, belonging to the defunct Sindh Road Transport Corporation to the district governments after its valuation by the approved assignee of the State Bank of Pakistan.
Briefing journalists about the decisions taken by the cabinet at its meeting here on Wednesday, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim said that a committee comprising secretaries of the local government, finance and law departments would supervise the entire process of valuation. The amount of the assessed value would be recovered from the district governments and the collected funds would be utilised in the repayment of the loans obtained from the World Bank and spent on the disbursement of the dues to the SRTC employees under the “golden handshake” scheme.
The chief minister, who was accompanied by his adviser Maj (r) Hamid Abdi, and Information Secretary Fasihuddin Khan, said that the cabinet also gave approval to the setting up of the proposed “Garment City” and “Textile City” which would be spread over an area of 300 acres and 1,250 acres, respectively. The land would be transferred to the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) at a nominal rate of Rs1 million per acre. The lands would later be allotted to the interested entrepreneurs.
However, it was made clear that the allotted land would not be allowed to be used for any purposes other than the specified one.
The cabinet deferred a decision on the bids received in connection with the privatisation of Thatta Sugar Mills and Dadu Sugar Mills, citing that the offers fell below the reserved valuation.
The cabinet decided to transfer the land reserved for a sports complex on M.A. Jinnah Road to the sports department on a 99-year lease for the construction of the proposed facility. The sports department would build it on a private-public partnership basis. Sixty per cent of the project site area would be used for the construction of the sports complex and the rest for commercial purposes, it noted.
In reply to a question, the chief minister said that his government would remain in power till Dec 11, 2007. He, however, added that the date was extendable depending on the situation and developments.
KARACHI, Oct 24: The Sindh government has decided to hand over all properties, including land, workshop and depots, belonging to the defunct Sindh Road Transport Corporation to the district governments after its valuation by the approved assignee of the State Bank of Pakistan.
