The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) has urged the police to take decisive action against land mafias in Sindh for the growth of industries, and businesses and to attract new investment to the province.
Riffat Mukhtar Raja, Inspector General of Sindh Police, visited the FPCCI Head Office in Karachi and met the top leadership of business and industrial fraternities.
The IG was accompanied by top officers of Sindh Police including, Khadim Hussain Rind, Additional IG Karachi; Syed Pir Muhammad Shah, DIG Establishment; Iqbal Dara, DIG Traffic and Syed Asad Raza, DIG South and Syed Ali Asif, Additional IG Admin.
Speaking on the occasion, Atif Ikram Sheikh, President of FPCCI, said that the land mafia in Sindh had discouraged investments in industries of the province and damaged the image of Pakistan as a potential destination for investors.
Law and order is the lifeline for investment, industrial, trade, logistics, commercial and economic activities, he added.
Saquib Fayyaz Magoon, SVP FPCCI, explained that the federation could help unleash an industrial revolution in Sindh if the government could curb and eliminate the land mafia in the province.
He added that due to criminal activities of the land mafia, the prospective industrialists were not attracted to new industrial areas and instead, the industrial plots in established industrial areas in Karachi had become so expensive that they are now available at the exorbitant price of Rs 400 million per acre. No new industry can afford these expensive plots and expansion of the existing ones is also not possible, he added.
He apprised the police authorities that incidents of extortion or Bhatta after kidnappings had also witnessed an increase of over 300 per cent as the figures showed that 50 incidents of extortion were reported in 2023; whereas 12 such cases had appeared in 2022 – reflecting a significant increase in of 317 per cent.
Zaki Aijaz, FPCCI VP, stressed that the business, industry and trade community is worried about the safety and security of goods transportation routes from Karachi to upcountry as there are widespread theft and security issues both ways; first, transporting imported raw materials from Karachi to other provinces and then transporting back the finished goods to Karachi for export.
Riffat Mukhtar Raja, IG Sindh Police, proposed that committees were required to be formed under deputy commissioners to address the matters of land grabbing; and, representatives of all stakeholders from governmental institutions; law-enforcement agencies and private sector should be part of the committees. Deputy Commissioners are the custodians of land and revenue records; which make them take informed decisions and, then law enforcement agencies could help implement those decisions, he added.
IG Police informed that the issuance of learner’s driving licenses will now be made online and it will provide relief to the general public.
He also apprised that the police wanted to e-tag 25,000 repeat offenders of crimes; but, there are financial constraints as each e-tag costs $400.
