GILGIT, April 7: Sust Dry Port Arbitration Committee Hunza has announced holding Sust Dry Port Trust’s elections on April 22. Addressing a news conference on Saturday here, members of the arbitration committee Sultan Madad, Amanullhah Khan, Ghulam Mohammad and Wazir said that they had requested all stakeholders of the Sust Dry Port to participate in the elections.

They said that they had received many applications in response to their call in which claims were sought from various shareholders of the trust for protecting their investment and legalising their land that had been utilised for the construction of the dry port.

They said that they had prepared the lists of genuine shareholders after thorough scrutiny and investigations regarding the received claims, which also helped in assessing the total volume of the shareholders’ money invested in the dry port.

Mr Madad said that landowners of the port and shareholders would be allowed to get themselves registered as trustees so that they could participate in the elections.

They appreciated the role of Northern Areas deputy chief executive Mir Ghazanfar Ali Khan in setting up of the Sust Dry Port.

The sources said that a tug of war continued at the Sust Dry Port for one year as various trustee members and board of directors claimed their right to run the port, which led to serious rows at the border town of Sust.

The sources said that more than 300 stakeholders, who had either provided land for the port or acquired shares, were yet to get their share from the income of the port, which was formally inaugurated by President Gen Pervez Musharraf last year.