LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) senior central leader and Deputy Prime Minister Ch Parvez Elahi has said that the Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) is working on a plan to establish new export zones in all the four provinces of the country and its exports this year would amount to $600 million.
Elahi said this while presiding over the meeting of the board of directors of the EPZA at the State Guest House here on Monday. The meeting was attended by Industries Secretary Shafqat Hussain Naghmi, Additional Secretary Iqbal Ahmad, EPZA Chairman Tariq Hassan, members Riaz Ahmad Shaikh, Zahid Iqbal Chaudhry, Abdul Rauf, Zaigham Adeel Rizvi, Engineer M A Jabbar and G M Sikander. Elahi said a year ago when we got the charge of the EPZA, its land was occupied by the mafia and now 100 acres of land has been retrieved on which the EPZA would be established.
He said the EPZA offices would be set up all over the country including Karachi so that more industrial estates could be established and new job opportunities created. He said EPZA was established in 1981 and work is in progress day and night to remove the black clouds, which are hovering over it for some time.
He said that he would very shortly apprise the president and the prime minister about the problems being faced by the EPZA.EPZA Chairman Tariq Hassan said during the briefing that now only 32 acres of land of the authority is under forcibly illegal occupation, which would be retrieved from the land grabbers very shortly.
The meeting was informed that talks are in progress with the chambers for opening of more zones in Islamabad, Mirpur, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Khanewal, Gujrat and the south region. The meeting accorded approval to appoint Saadat Cheema as general manager north and Zahid Iqbal Chaudhry as vice chairman north and filling of the vacant posts in the northern and southern zones. – Dailytimes
