Karachi: Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday said that new industrial cities are imperative to lessen joblessness.
He said rapid industrialization is a proven way to increase production and thus create new jobs. He said in Karachi there is a capacity to establish half a dozen more industrial estates especially in Gadap area near the M-9 Motorway and the Northern Bypass where ample land is available. He said the ideal scenario is to make Karachi-Hyderabad and Karachi-Keti Bunder industrial corridors to eradicate joblessness from the whole of Sindh.
He said more than a dozen small ports and fish harbors could easily be developed on different creeks from Karachi to Keti Bunder to boost exports, marine transportation and fishing. He said new modern cities could also be developed at creeks and large islands near Karachi. This will attract foreign direct investment; create jobs in the construction industry besides solving acute urban housing problems. He said the principal government of Sindh can take a brave lead in this regard to develop its coastal and creek areas.
Altaf Shakoor said import substitution needs setting up a wide range of industries to manufacture the goods that are presently being imported from other countries. He said relocation of many labor intensive industries from China to Pakistan is also a good option for creating thousands of new jobs. He said Bangladesh has attained a huge prosperity by focusing on textiles and garments alone, while in Pakistan conditions are even more favorable than Bangladesh to earn more from textiles and garments if we train our female workforce in these sectors.
Altaf Shakoor said we are teaching an old and almost useless syllabus in our colleges and universities. Students graduating from these institutions carry just ‘paper degrees’ but no marketable skill. He said we should abolish the present teaching method in our colleges and universities and introduce practical training based courses and diplomas leading to degrees. He said our students should be trained outside the classrooms to see what the real challenges of practical life are.
Altaf Shakoor demanded modernizing urban centers especially the megacity Karachi that is being continuously ignored by both the federal and provincial governments. He said haphazard development on public transport systems should be properly focused upon and all rapid bus transit systems should be linked with each other. He said despite a lot of hype there is no practical work on Karachi Circular Railway (KCR). The second phase of Green Line is yet on the back burner which deserves an immediate “Shahbaz speed”. He said the Red Line system is facing a snail paced progress and Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah should personally visit it to get the bottlenecks removed.
