Abdul Majid
Faisalabad:Sardar Saleem Haider Khan, Governor Punjab, declared Faisalabad the first circular city of Pakistan during a meeting at the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI), saying the aim is to put the country on a growth trajectory. He praised the business community for working to stabilise the economy despite difficult conditions.
Citing the gap between industry and academia, he said he will direct university Vice Chancellors to visit chambers, form committees and appoint focal persons. A focal person from the Governor’s Secretariat will also be nominated to work with FCCI and resolve issues without bureaucratic hurdles. He acknowledged high electricity costs, interest rates and taxation, and criticised squeezing existing taxpayers instead of widening the tax net. He promised to try to arrange meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and said he would raise the murder of a local businessman at the highest level.
FCCI President Arif Ehsan Malik asked for Faisalabad to be declared a textile circular city, proposed a pilot effluent-reuse project, an IT university campus and commercialisation of university lab tests.
