PESHAWAR Jan 5: NWFP governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah has said the government is working to lift curbs on trade through land route with Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics (CARs) to help promote trade and industrial activities in the Frontier province.

Addressing members of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) at the Chamber House here on Friday night the governor assured the traders and businessmen that the government was doing its best to promote trade and business activities in the province by lifting restrictions on trade through land route from NWFP to Afghanistan and onward CARs.

The governor said negative list prohibiting the export of large number of items through land route from NWFP to Afghanistan and CARs had already been revised in the recent past and restrictions would further be eased in the near future to allow export of a large number of locally-manufactured items to the Central Asian region.

In this respect, the governor said authorities concerned were already in the process of allowing larger number of items’ export through land route from NWFP.

However, expressing strong reservations about the misuse of facility by some unscrupulous elements, the governor sought assurances of ‘fairness’ on the part of members of the business community.

He said the government needed assurances from the trade and business circles that items allowed to be exported through land route to CARs would not find their way back in the local markets.

“Fairness must be ensured,” said the governor in unequivocal terms while expressing the government’s resolve to capture due share in the markets of CARs and Afghanistan.

Inviting the local investors’ attention towards rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan, the governor said that the neighbouring country had great potential and business prospects for the Pakistani investors especially to the trade and business community of NWFP.

He suggested the SCCI members to explore the business opportunities in Afghanistan in joint ventures with the Afghan businessmen having business stakes in NWFP and elsewhere in the country.

Responding to a series of comments and questions concerning the poor state of affairs the flour industry of the province is going through, the governor held the investors responsible for the same.

Former FPCCI president Ilyas Ahmed Bilour had invited the governor’s attention towards the plight of owners of flour mills across the Frontier province.

The governor, holding the owners responsible for their sufferings, said that investors wrongly invested in the sector.

He said that whereas 60 flour mills could have met the local wheat flour requirements in the NWFP there were 300 flour mills, leaving little room for competition.

“Big amount of capital investment was lost,” said the governor.

Explaining some of the development projects his government is planning to execute in the provincial capital, the governor said that police offices in the Gor Ghattri, Peshawar, would be shifted to set up in place an amusement park in the historic Mughal era monument situated in the centre of the inner city.

Similarly, central prison, Peshawar, would also be shifted from its existing building to develop an other park in the sprawling piece of land presently being used to house prisoners.