Public-private liaison could help correct things on economic front
The high-powered committee, formed by the Chief Minister Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, on Tuesday had marathon talks at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on the issues being faced by the business community.
LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar, Vice President Mian Abuzar Shad, LCCI former Presidents Shahid Hassan Sheikh, Mian Anjum Nisar, Mian Muzaffar Ali, former Senior Vice President Malik Tahir Javaid, Khawaja Shahzeb Akram, Amjad Ali Jawa and a large number of LCCI Members gave detailed sector-specific presentations to MNA Pervaiz Malik, Advisor to Chief Minister on Health MPA Kh Salman Rafique, Advisor to Chief Minister on Trade Mohammad Ali Mian, Provincial Secretary Home Shahid Khan, Secretary Health Arif Nadeem, City Chief Police Officer ( CCPO) Amjad Javaid Saleem and District Coordination Officer (DCO) Noorul Amin Mengal.
The meeting, which continued for well over two hours, took a number of important decisions regarding trade and industry.
The meeting also decided to form a committee comprising representatives of Pharmaceutal manufacturers, govt and technical experts to find out the facts regarding syrup issue that led the deaths of addicts and to prepare future course of action to avert any untoward incident.
It was also decided that the two representatives of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry would be included in the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee. MNA Pervaiz Malik, in his opening remarks, said that the promotion of trade and industry in the province is the only objective that is being pursued by the government with full vigor and all impediments to this regard would be removed. The LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar was of the view that a strong public-private sectors liaison could help correct things on the economic front that have gone wrong beyond repair because of multiple challenges for the last many years.
Farooq Iftikhar said that certain powers and scope of drug inspectors representing federal and provincial governments overlap and confuse the business community while dealing with them. There should be clear differentiation given by the Health department.
"Lot of local companies, dealing in herbal and homeopathic medicines, are not registered with department of health. Any unforeseen incident occur- ring due to their negligence is also reflected on the whole pharmaceutical industry which is not fair."
LCCI President also highlighted the issuance of notices to industries by the Environment Department without even properly probing the issue is not justifiable. The field staff of Environment Department should be instructed to desist from such practices in future that are bound to undermine the government efforts to revive the economy.
The LCCI President said that for the business community, the cost of doing business matters the most. But so far no concrete solution has come up. Punjab is facing the real brunt of electricity load shedding and gas load management which is not the case in other provinces. He said that there was a plan of utilizing solid waste for generating electricity but practically nothing has been done in this connection.
The LCCI President suggested to the committee that the Provincial Energy Department should separate all those electricity feeders which simultaneously provide electricity connections to the industrial as well as domestic users. Keeping in view the law & order situation in other provinces, we will praise the efforts of government of Punjab for maintaining peace in the province. The security plan for Moharram was praiseworthy and district government did whatever was possible within given resources. However, street crimes need to be dealt with on priority.
There were many issues like traffic, road networks, encroachments, parking, water & sanitation services etc. which were being compromised due to construction of bridge for Metro Bus. As now things are getting back to normal, therefore, we would like to have the attention of the management of district governments towards these issues.