Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a high level committee under convener ship of Provincial Minister for Planning and Development to analyze the sale of land allotted to the industrialists for the purpose of setting up industrial units in the governmental industrial estates. Minister Industries, Commerce and Investment (ICI) will be the co-convener while Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) will operate as Secretary of the committee. The other members will comprise of Secretary Industries, Secretary Live Stock & Dairy Development, Special Secretary Finance and Member Colonies Board of Revenue. Second meeting of the committee was held at the committee room of BoR on Tuesday. While addressing the meeting, provincial minister ICC Sheikh Alauddin lauded the decision to establish such committee as it was necessary to meet one of the biggest challenges presently being faced by the local industry. “The government allots land to the industrialists on nominal cost for establishing industrial units under definite terms and conditions but that was afterward sold out without constructing an industry. It damages our policies that aim at flourishing the industry in Punjab. So the committee is mandated to sort out and threadbare analyze cases of where such land was sold out with or without permission of the government for purposes other than that it was acquired originally. The committee will also threadbare analyze the policy framework under which such permission for sale was granted. It will also come up with the calculation as to how much land was allowed to sell, actually sold at what price and how much of such amount was utilized to pay off the loans of creditors and banks.” He added.
The secretary ICC delivering a detailed presentation told that the committee was also meant for ascertaining how much amount was deposited in the Government exchequer under each case where such lands were sold out under the pretext of retiring loans. The other participants also discussed the matters regarding working of the committee and preparation of a comprehensive report to be submitted to the high ups.