LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) strongly opposed conversion of Kahna Kacha Industrial area into a residential society and said that it would deprive millions of people of their jobs.
LCCI president Sheikh Muhammad Arshad expressed these views while talking a delegation of Kahna Kacha Industrial Estate here.
Terming it a bad policy decision, the LCCI president said that the decision to establish residential colony at Kahna Kacha industrial area would hit economy of the province hard besides applying reverse gear to the government efforts aimed at progress and prosperity.
The LCCI president said that it would also bring down the graph of government popularity. He urged the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to shelve the plan of sacrificing the Kahna Kacha Industrial Estate for the sake of residential scheme as this initiative would result in dire consequences.
“Not only the industry but government would also be the looser as closure of hundreds of industrial units of Kahna Kacha Industrial Estates would cause huge lose to the national exchequer in term of taxes and utility bills etc. Punjab government should well aware of the fact that residential colonies cannot be important than industrial clusters.”
He said that priority to residential colonies over industrial area is a matter of concern for the business community.
He said that it is the worst usage of Land Acquisition Act 1894 which is now eating up Kahna Kacha Industrial Estate where over hundreds industrial units are not only providing employment to the thousands workers but also bringing in precious foreign exchange.
Sheikh Muhammad Arshad said that industrial estates and free zones always attract local and foreign investment and contribute in economic development of any country. These make a vital contribution to the national exports besides generate huge employment opportunities. He said that Pakistan had already lost a number of international markets while the condition of both local and foreign investment is also precarious. In the present scenario when country is struggling to enhance exports, collapse of Kahna Kacha Industrial Estate would further aggravate the situation.
The LCCI president said that Lahore Development Authority (LDA) have never bothered to take business community on board and started serving notice to the industrialists of Kahna Kacha Industrial Estate.
He said that this act of LDA would waste the investment of billions rupees and turn the industrial units of Kahna Kacha Industrial Estate into derrises of heap which would not raise the graph of unemployment but would also discourage the local investors and they would be compelled to shift their businesses to the other countries. He said that foreign investor would also lose their interest and shelve their plans to start businesses in Punjab.
The LCCI President also feared a surge in street crimes because of unemployment, saying that law and order situation is bound to aggravate if Lahore Development Authority implements its plan forcefully.
Sheikh Muhammad Arshad urged the Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif to take notice of this grave situation and act promptly to save the industry of Kahna Kacha Industrial estate and social fabric of Punjab.
