MUZAFFARABAD, April 12: National Kashmir Committee Chairman Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan has called upon President Gen Pervez Musharraf to direct the authorities concerned in the AJK Council and the Central Board of Revenue to implement his (President’s) decision regarding the establishment of a dry port in Mirpur, Dawn learnt from reliable sources on Thursday.
In a letter to the President, Sardar Qayyum is stated to have observed that early establishment of the dry port in Azad Kashmir’s business and industrial hub could go a long way in ensuring foreign investment and economic activities and in increasing exports from Pakistan.
The Mirpur-based Azad Jammu and Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been consistently demanding that a dry port should be set up in the southern city for 10 years.
The President accorded approval to the demand at a meeting in Islamabad in August last year with the chamber officials, led by its president, Zulfiqar Abbasi.
In the following month, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and the Economic Coordination Committee also accorded approval to the project, following which the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) asked the AJK Council to make constitutional amendments to extend the CBR’s jurisdiction to the territory of Azad Kashmir before the issuance of a notification for the dry port.
Sardar Qayyum has lamented in his letter that an issue of extreme national importance had been pending with the council for nine months and had rather been diffused by bureaucratic red tap, causing unrest among the business community.
According to the sources, the Kashmir Committee chairman also drew the attention of the President towards a highly resourceful and strong Kashmiri expatriates’ community in the United Kingdom and Europe which, according to him, own around $22 billion as liquid assets outside Pakistan and more than Rs120 billion in cash in local banks.
“These expatriates are a big potential market for Pakistani exports possibly routed through Mirpur, which enjoys a unique status that could be utilized to achieve the goal of increasing exports.”
Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan is of the view that the approval of the Mirpur dry port by the highest authority of Pakistan had got wide publicity among the overseas Kashmiris.