BAHAWALPUR: President Chaudhry Javed Iqbal of Bahawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has demanded that the federal government link the city with CPEC highways and restore the status of a full-fledged provincial status for Bahawalpur.

At a press conference here on Monday, the BCCI chief expressed concern that the city was kept out of the range of CPEC’s Multan-Sukkur (M-5) motorway. He expressed apprehension that with the keeping of Bahawalpur out of M-5, the trade and business activities would slow down in the region.

It merits mentioning that presently the CPEC’s part of M-5’s Multan-Sukkur portion passed near Uch Sharif, about 70-kms from here. The local industrialists and the investors said the city was ignored in the project.

Dawn has learnt that Commissioner Asif Iqbal Chaudhry has made a proposal to the provincial government to link the city with M-5 through East Jhangra, about 31-kms from here.

The BCCI president lamented that there was an inordinate delay in the development of the new industrial estate for new investors.

He said the project of the industrial estate had been initiated by the previous regime in 2013 but by now the project could not be materialised due to ‘apathy’ of the provincial government.

He expressed surprise that the government’s agencies were demanded high prices of the industrial plots in the estate. He urged the authorities to remove all sorts of administrative and official hurdles in the establishment of new industrial estate.

Earlier, the BCCI head and President Naseer Ahmed Nasir of Bahawalpur Press Club signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for mutual cooperation between the chamber and media for the resolution of chamber’s issues and highlighting the local problems by the media.

DEMO: A group of special persons on Monday demonstrated at DC Chowk to press for the acceptance of their demand for provision of government job to them.

The demonstrators told the media that that they were not being provided with job under the government policy due to which they were facing crisis. They appealed to the chief minister to accept their demand and provide them government jobs.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2020