Minister for Ports and Shipping Kamran Michael has informed the National Assembly that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has approved nine projects costing .7 billion to make Gwadar port functional.
Responding to a question in the house, the minister said that the port is the third deep-sea port of the country which is ready to cater to both import and export.
Presently, it is handling the imports of bulk urea for the Trading Corporation of Pakistan according to the Economic Coordination Committee’s decision, and soon it will handle exports as well.
“Gwadar port can handle ships of 50,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT), making it comfortable for imports as well as importers to ship maximum cargo on a single large ship,” the minister said.
Cement prices
Parliamentary Secretary for Industries and Production Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan raised the matter of the government not determining the prices of cement.
“The cement industry is part of the private sector and cement prices are governed by market mechanism only, the government has no control on any price fixation,” Rao Ajmal added.
He said that prices of several items including cement are monitored by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, and as per report retail prices of cement for the week ended in April 2014, in federal and provincial capital cities, were recorded at Rs513 for Islamabad, Lahore Rs515, Karachi Rs533, Peshawar Rs501 and Quetta Rs550 per bag.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2014.
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