The companies, including three from the auto sector, have commenced construction of industrial plants in Bin Qasim Industrial Park (BQIP) Special Economic Zone, National Industrial Park (NIP), Karachi, with a combined planned investment of Rs 35 billion.
The federal cabinet recently approved Rizwan Bhatti as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NIP, whose formal notification is yet to be issued.
"It seems that the PTI mandate of "Naya Pakistan" is not being implemented in letter and spirit by the concerned Ministries and Government organizations mandated to facilitate and support industrial investments. Our investment of Rs 35 billion has been hijacked due to the callous attitude of NIP and its inability and incompetence to take decisions," said Shoib Sultan, one of the affectees, in the letter to the PM's Advisor.
According to the affected persons over the last year, more than 9 meetings have been held to facilitate BQIP investors by the Provincial Government (Sindh Economic Zones Management Company, SEZ Authority, Government of Sindh) and yet the Federal Government/concerned Ministries/NIP have not moved even an inch to resolve their issues.
The companies, in their SOS, have claimed that they have suffered massive losses due to the Federal Ministry of Industries/BoI/NIP's inability to deliver on its SEZ obligations, obligations on which the companies had agreed to purchase BQIP's Pakistan Steel Mill (PSM) land at almost double the land price prevailing in Port Qasim Eastern Zone.
"Despite holding billions of rupees in their bank account, NIP has failed miserably in meeting its obligations, as per SEZ Act /Rules, to deliver state-of-the-art industrial park with provision of utilities (electricity, gas, water, sewerage, effluent plant etc.), infrastructure (road boundary walls, security etc) & allied facilities," said Sultan.
The affectees further stated that the most critical and long pending issues that need to be resolved immediately by NIP are as follows: (i) execution of lease agreements & permission to mortgage letters - PSM has already approved the lease draft and is awaiting execution from NIP since last 3 months; (ii) Provision of Electricity- KE has already provided the requisite documents to NIP for release of payments to KE so that work on the electricity connection can begin; and (iii) availability of water and sewage connections, development of boundary wall and road network inside BQIP and availability of natural gas or RLNG.
The SOS further stated that Hi-Tech Alloy Wheels Ltd applied for SEZ status 12 months ago and its process has not yet been completed so far, and the imported plant is lying in bonded warehouse and attracting penal levies.
"These critical issues have choked the implementation of our projects, resulting in time delays of almost two years and causing massive cost overruns including impact of currency devaluation," he said, adding that an urgent meeting of the Board of Directors of NIP should be convened to resolve the issues.
