Sindh vs Punjab

Poor law and order situation: over 10,000 investors relocate their centres to Punjab

 KARACHI  (January 29, 2011) : The persistent poor law and order situation has triggered the internal investment shift from Sindh to Punjab, as over 10,000 investors from Karachi have relocated their centres to different cities of Punjab, market sources said on Friday.

Despite, the gas and electricity load shedding has reduced small-scale business activities in Punjab, investment continued to pour in the province particularly from Karachi, they said. The reason for relocation of investment from Pakistan's commercial hub to its largest province, they underlined a relatively peaceful business environment.

"Peace is important for business growth, which the Punjab government is greatly ensuring to investors in the province, which allured a huge investment," they said. They said Sialkot, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore received the Karachi's desperate investors during the last one year.

The everyday extortion and spontaneous violence in Karachi had resulted in transfer of investments from the country's commercial city to Punjab, said Chairman All Karachi Tahir Ittehad, Muhammad Atiq Mir. He said a huge deployment of police was made to protect the politicians, whereas public had been left at the mercy of target-killers in the city. "Also, the tax payers (traders) and revenue generators have been left at the mercy of extortionists," Mir said.

He said he had also information about the transfer of investment to Punjab, adding there was a simple reason of "dwindling peace" in Karachi. He said there was 80 percent shortage of police personnel in every town of the city to ensure security to public because the major portion of the police force the political elite had reserved for their personal protection.

"As along as police is not freed from political interference in Karachi, the situation would continue to deteriorate with rise in killings and extortions," he said. He observed the criminals were well-equipped with arms, as compared to law enforcers, besides having staunch support from within the government ranks.

Atiq Mir said majority was small and medium size investors who faced risk to life and business from criminals in the metropolis. He said police should be depoliticized to ensure a perpetual peace in the city to help growth of business and trade activities.