KARACHI, Oct 20: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has granted permission to the F.B. Area Industrial Trading Estate and North Karachi Industrial Trading Estate Development and Management Company to carry out infrastructure development work in their respective areas.

The FITE and NKITE Development and Management Company are guarantee companies with share capital incorporated in public-private partnership. With the formation of these two infrastructural development companies, the F.B. Industrial Area and the North Karachi Industrial Area have become autonomous bodies like the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) to undertake rehabilitation and upgradation of the existing infrastructure and identify the projects for future needs, says press releases of the two associations.

Former F.B. Area Association of Trade and Industry chairman Rehan Zeeshan and Capt Moiz A. Khan of North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (NKATI) have been appointed chief executive officers of their respective management companies.

Each board of the two companies (FITE and NKITE) are comprised of 12 and 14 directors from the private sector, including industrialists of their areas, while four ex-officio officers of the Sindh government, including secretary industries, finance, local government and the managing director of KWSB, have been nominated on the board.

Rehan Zeeshan said President Pervaiz Musharraf and Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan had announced Rs200 million for the four industrial estates, including Landhi and Korangi, for undertaking infrastructure projects. “However, much depends on the quick disbursement of the amount in order to expedite the pace of infrastructure development process.”

He said the establishment of FITE on the pattern of SITE should have been done one and a half years back.