KARACHI: More than 82 per cent of industrial units in Sindh are located in Karachi, while Kambar Shahdadkot with 154 industrial units is the second most industrialised district of the province, the Sindh Assembly was informed on Tuesday.

Of the 6,893 industries in the province, 5,630 are existing in Karachi, according to the data presented by Sindh Industries Minister Rauf Siddiqui during the question hour pertaining to the industries department.

Responding to a question asked by Pakistan Muslim League-Functional legislator Nusrat Sehar Abbasi regarding the number of industries set up between 2009 and 2013, the minister said a total of 2,083 industrial units were set up during the years in the province and 1,795 of them were located in Karachi. From 2009 to 2013, he said, 196 industries were shut down out of which 55 were located in the city.

In reply to a question asked by Ms Abbasi about reasons for the closure of the industrial units, the minister said energy crises, poor law and order situation and labour issues were some of the reasons. Also, he added, some ‘unscrupulous’ industrialists had borrowed bank loans for the industries but did not use the money properly or used them for some other purpose before declaring bankruptcy and closing down the industries.

While the minister did provide some additional information to the house about the procedure required to set up industries, he did not respond to the question by Ms Abbasi regarding the number of plots cancelled and the number of those against whom action had been taken for not setting up industries within the prescribed time frame.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement legislator Mohammad Hussain said that work on the buildings of around 11 polytechnics / vocational training centres had been left incomplete owing to which hundreds of millions of rupees of public fund was going down the drain.

Responding to the point, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikander Mandhro said it had been decided to review and resume work on the projects which had been left incomplete to benefit the masses.

The other part of the question hour pertained to Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA).

While Shahid Thaheem was responding to the questions about the authority, MQM legislator Mohammad Hussain objected to it and asked him in what capacity he was answering the questions. Mr Thaheem said he was STEVTA vice chairman and sat down after he was told that a vice chairman could not respond to questions in the assembly. Dr Mandhro then informed the house that Mr Thaheem was also the parliamentary secretary of STEVTA.

MQM legislator Bilquis Mukhtar asked him about the number of polytechnic institutes / vocational schools set up in Sukkur, Shikarpur and Thatta between 2008 and 2013. Mr Thaheem said that no institute or vocational school was established in the districts during that time.

Earlier at the start of the question hour, PML(N) legislator Irfanullah Marwat said he had submitted numerous questions to the assembly for different departments last year, but none of the questions had been included in the question hour. He urged the speaker to institute an inquiry into the issue.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2014