Karachi continues to suffer

This apropos a Business Recorder news item “NIP discouraging foreign investment in Karachi?” carried by the newspaper yesterday. According to it, the industrial investment at the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) located at Bin Qasim Industrial Area (BQIP), Karachi, operated by National Industrial Park Pvt. Limited (NIP) has come to a standstill due to unavailability of utilities such as electricity, gas and water promised under the Special Economic Zone Act 2016.

Last week, Al Futtaim Motors backed out from its $ 150 million investment in BQIP to manufacture Renault cars. Instead, it decided to move its location to FIEDMC (Faisalabad Special Economic Zone) due to an eight-month delay by NIP Board of Directors to approve its land allotment.

Quoting sources, the newspaper has also said that at least three other investments totaling Rs 6 billion in BQIP, namely Tecno Auto Glass Ltd (to produce auto glass under Japanese joint venture), Hi-Tech Auto Parts (to produce alloy wheels) and Horizon Steel (to produce steel bars) are running from pillar to post to get the required utilities.

That the NIP board has taken an approach inimical to Karachi’s economic interests is a fact. Pakistan’s largest industrial and financial hub has been a victim of official neglect for the past many decades. How ironic it is that a city that boasted a tramway service since pre-partition days till April 1975 does not have even a single mass transit for its teeming millions as yet. The Karachi Circular Railway, which was launched in 1969, is a dead entity for the past many years.

Karachi Nazir Ahmed