He was speaking at a meeting of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry to celebrate 80 years of the foundation of the chamber. He said that he himself belonged to the traders community and was conscious of their problems. He said that the previous governments had been interfering by carrying out various unnecessary inspections of the premises of the traders but now there would no unnecessary inspections.
He said that his government wanted to have friendly attitude not towards the businessmen but towards all sections of society, particularly working class and farmers.
“I am serious about it and sincerely believe that you can settle issues with a friendly approach towards the people and in consultation with their representatives,” he remarked.
The chief minister said that his government wanted to reduce the number of various taxes. Like the abolition of octroi, many other provincial taxes could be withdrawn and the federal government could be approached for federal taxes. He said that he had been meeting representatives of commerce chambers to know their problems and grievances with a view to redressing them. He had held discussions with the Multan chamber and Bahawalpur traders during his recent visit to southern Punjab. He said that he would be soon visiting Faisalabad where he would meet the chamber people.
He disclosed that the government would be soon preparing a package for the development of infrastructure along the lines of Sindh package and he had held discussions with Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh who had prepared the Sindh package. He said that chamber presidents from various chambers of province would be invited to give their suggestions for the Punjab package. He said that labour would benefit from the package. The inconvenience caused to the traders and industrialists buy the government inspection of their premises would also be redressed.
Referring to chamber president’s demand for setting up new export processing zone and one-window operation, he said that the government was concentrating on improving the condition of industrial estate at Lahore Township after which new projects would be taken up. He said that the government would be allocating about Rs20 million for this purpose. Similarly, an amount of Rs2 billion had been allocated for the development of industries in Bahawalpur and Rs1.75 billion in DG Khan divisional areas. He said that the 650-acre Multan industrial estate would also be developed and necessary facilities provided for which an allocation of Rs75 million had been made. He said that for export processing zone of Lahore the owners of land had been paid Rs25 million so far and the work on the project on Sunderdas Road would begin soon. He said that expo centres would be set up at Lahore with the help of the local trading community and the Lahore chamber could render necessary help to the government in this connection. These projects would be completed by the end of the current year.
As regards the law and order situation in the province, the chief minister said that the government had made an allocation of Rs1 billion for strengthening and improvement of police administration in the province. Police development plan had been a part of annual development plan of the province. He said that police strength of the province was about of half of Sindh and Frontier police and possessed one third of their equipment . He hoped with the new allocation the police administration would be improved to a large extent. He said that the industrial and commercial activity depended upon law and order of the province. He said that the culprits in the murder cases of Church at Taxila, former law minister Farooq Ahmad in Jhelum and ransom cases of Sialkot businessmen had been arrested and six car snatchers gangs busted. He said that the government would immediately take action in car-snatching cases and measures had been taken to arrest the car-snatchers without delay. He said that the Police chiefs of three border districts of the Punjab —- Mianwali, Bhakkar and Dera Ghazi Khan —- had been asked to hold regular meetings to keep a vigilance on the movement of car-snatchers as from these districts stolen car were taken to Balochistan and the NWFP and the car thieves had been arrested there.
He said that the matters regarding the property tax reduction, commercial fees and safety commission appointment could be examined.
Later, replying to various questions of chamber members, the chief minister said that the government would try to redress the traders complaints of filing of income tax returns by discussing the matter with the federal finance minister but it would not tolerate any threat or warning of non-cooperation from the traders. He said that the banks offered loans for purchase of cars to the people. Along similar lines, the government had approached them to provide finance for purchase or construction of houses. The banks were finding some difficulty to secure their housing loans as unlike cars houses could not be taken over from the defaulters of bank loans. However, the government hopes the matter would be solved and it was discussed in the presence of President Musharraf who had also expressed his desire to sort out the matter, he said.
A member complained that the sugar cess was not spent on the development of roads from farmers to mandis to facilitate the transportation of sugar cane, he said that the government would ensure that all cesses should be spent for the purposes they were collected. As regards the complaint of crisis in sugar industry, he said that the TCP had purchased one lakh ton sugar and was not prepared to purchase another one lakh ton sugar unless the sugar industrialists met the difference of Rs500 million caused by the fall in international prices of the commodity.
Earlier, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Yawar Irfan Khan in his address of welcome pointed out the problems of the trading community regarding the delay in constructing an export processing zone and an expo centre at Lahore, extension of the Lahore Dry Port, law and order problem and its adverse effects on the business community and investment prospects.
Senior vice-president Pervaiz Anwar Shaikh also spoke.