RECORDER REPORT

PESHAWAR: The poor performance and domination of the public sector representatives on the Board of Directors of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Management Company (KP-EZDMC) has disappointed the industrial and trading sectors of the province.

Talking to this scribe, President of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI), Zahid Khan Shinwari expressed deep concern over the attitude of the public sector representatives on the Board of Directors (BoD) of the company.

Shinwari, who had been recently re-elected as president of the premier trade body of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, complained that public sector members on the board were used to give least importance to the opinion of private sector and even sometime allegedly manipulate minutes of the meeting in their favour.

He expressed dismay over the unanimity of the public sector representatives on the BoD of the KP-EZDMC for the purpose of the selection of new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. He said that that nominated CEO of the company is lacking local experience and is totally unfamiliar with the local environment and issues faced by the industries of the province.

He said that the nomination of other candidate, Javed Iqbal Khattak due to long local experience and familiarity with local environment would have proved more beneficial for the province. Due to these reasons, he said the majority of the private sector representatives on the board had supported Khattak.

Similarly, a prominent industrialist, who is also affiliated with ruling PTI in the province, confided on condition of anonymity that the management of the company had miserably failed in the implementation of the industrial policy.

He said that under an attractive industrial policy announced in 2016, the chief minister offered 5% concession on loans, 25% rebate in electricity and 25 rebate on transportation of imported raw material from Karachi to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

For the purpose, he said the company had sought an amount of Rs.4.8 billion. Out of which the provincial government had already released Rs 700 million to the company. But not a single penny of the amount was utilized so far. The agony of the matter is that the KP EZDMC had so far even not designed the application form for the purpose.

Furthermore, he said that the government wanted to reconstruct the infrastructure in industrial estates by June 30, 2018 and the management of the company, which is receiving higher salaries than the officials of Sarhad Development Authority (SDA) made the claim of the completion of the scheme by June 30, 2017, but now they had extended their deadline till June 30, 2018.

Fayyaz Bacha, a member of the Board of Management, KP Economic Zones Development and Management Company, Risalpur Industrial Estate, Nowshera has also expressed disappointment over the selection of a non-local CEO for the company and called for the selection of a local honest and competent person, which should have understanding of the problems of the industries.

He reminded that the experience of the imported CEO has miserably failed to deliver and demanded the Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to reject the nomination made by the Board of Directors for the post of the CEO KP-EZDMC.