Mirpur: President Azad Kashmir Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry, while terming unemployment as the biggest problem in Azad Kashmir, has said promoting industrialization was a key to overcome the growing unemployment in the region.
He expressed these views while talking to a delegation of local industrialists and members of the business community who called on him here today. The president said that during his tenure as the Prime Minister he had encouraged industrialization and provided facilities to investors. “As a result many people invested and set up industrial units in Azad Kashmir, especially at Mirpur”, the president said, adding that it was quite unfortunate that the subsequent governments could not provide the facilities the investors enjoyed during his period.
Urging investors to invest their capital in Azad Kashmir, Barrister Chaudhry assured the visiting delegates that the government was ready to provide all kinds of support and facilities to them.
Referring to the dwindling job opportunities, he said that it was not possible for the government to accommodate all the unemployed in the public sector.He said that the only way to create job opportunities for the youth was to promote a policy of sustainable industrialization in the liberated territory.
He said that industrialization would not only be instrumental in raising the standard of living of the people in Azad Kashmir, but it would also help to attain the goal of self-sufficiency. Barrister Chaudhry, on the occasion, said that he was well aware of the problems faced by the residents of Mirpur. All the problems, he said, would be solved on priority basis.
Led by the President Azad Jammu and Kashmir Chamber of Commerce (AJKCC) and Industry Syed Sabir Hussain Shah, the delegation was comprised of Vice President Chaudhry Kashif Nazir Bajar, Raja Muhammad Ashfaq Ratvi, Javed Iqbal, Syed Shamriz Hussain Shah, and others. During the meeting, the AJKCC president briefed the President about the Mirpur dry port, Rathoha Hariyam bridge and the restoration of 11 thousand plots in Mirpur Development Authority in recent days.