KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that he would never allow the federal government to wind up the Textile City project in Port Qasim.

“This project is most important in terms of employment and economy of Sindh,” he said and added that if textile city was feasible in Faisalabad and Gujranwala, then a textile city was more suitable in Karachi as it is a port city and Sindh is a cotton-growing province.

He said this while presiding over a meeting on Pakistan Textile City Limited (PTCL) here on Thursday at CM House.

The meeting was attended by Industries Minister Manzoor Wassan, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Principal Secretary to the CM Naveed Kamran Baloch, Industries Secretary Abdul Raheem Soomro and others.

“The project of Karachi Textile City cannot be given up, which in terms of employment would generate 150,000 jobs and could earn over $2 billion revenue from its exports,” the chief minister said and directed the industries minister to take up the issue with the ministry concerned in the federal government to clear the liabilities and start the project as it was planned, otherwise other options could be worked out as the project was of immense importance.

The chief minister said that the land belonged to the Sindh government and Port Qasim Authority (PQA) could not retain it even after winding up the PTCL.

He directed the industries minister to make necessary arrangements to take over the land if the federal government took any drastic measure like winding up the project and to get ready to file a case in court for land and other issues.

Earlier, briefing the chief minister, Industries Minister Manzoor Wassan said that after the federal government, which had 40 per cent share in the project, Sindh, with 16pc shares, was the largest shareholder, but it had only one director on the board which was an injustice.

He said the PQA had allotted 200 acres for the PTCL project of its land and the Sindh government paid it Rs200 million for development of the PTCL and also provided 1,250 acres to the PQA in return of the allotment of land.

In reply to a question, the secretary of industries Raheem Soomro told the chief minister that the federal government felt that the PTCL project was not feasible.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2017