Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P) has "dumped" the country's long-awaited Industrial Policy due to a lack of interest and frequent changes in top bureaucracy, it is learnt. The sources said former Minister for Industries and Production, Jahangir Khan Tareen, had started consultation process on a 10-year Industrial Policy (2005-2015) and in this connection had held a series of meetings and workshops with stakeholders across the country.
However, Tareen's successors did not focus on the Industrial Policy after which it was discarded despite the fact that the government spent millions of rupees on consultants who prepared an initial draft and later organised consultative meetings. The main industries included in the industrial policy were agriculture sector, automobile sector, bottled water sector, carpet sector, cement sector, ceramics sector, chemical sector, diary sector, edible oil sector, fertiliser sector, glass sector, information technology sector, jute sector, leather sector, mining and quarrying sector, paper and paper board sector, plastics sector, poultry sector, processed food and beverages sector, sports good sector, sugar sector, surgical instruments, synthetic fiber sector, textile sector and tobacco sector.
The incumbent Minister for Industries and Production, Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi also intended to restart work on the abandoned Industrial Policy but he has been unable due to frequent transfers and postings of Secretaries of his Ministry. According to the Industrial Policy draft prepared by Tareen's team, it will cover 19 sectors classified in 2 categories ie the Large Scale Industry (LSI) and Medium and Small Industry (MSA).
Last year, the draft of Industrial Policy was on the website of the Ministry of Industries and Production but later it was unloaded without citing any reason. When contacted, Minister for Industries and Production Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi said that industry is not under the control of his Ministry after the 18th Constitutional Amendment as it has been devolved to provinces.
According to him, his Ministry has to send data to the Senate, National Assembly and Standing Committees and for this purpose the Ministry is entirely dependent on provinces and other departments. He said 'no one is in contact with us as our role is negligible. Our role is only limited to new entrants, new technology in the country and maintaining National Industrial Parks and Export Processing Zones."
In reply to a question, he said that Ministry of Industries and Production had sought a financial package from the federal government to revive Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC) but the government constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Ahsan Iqbal, adding due to a lack of decision making, the unit began to register a loss.
"When we saw that the government has no intention of extending a revival package to HMC, a proposal came that HMC should be handed over to the Strategic Planning Division (SPD) and we gave our consent," he continued. According to the Minister, the story of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) is in the knowledge of every one. He claimed that 80 percent of remaining industrial units are now in profit after efforts made by the Ministry of Industries and Production.
Answering a question, the Minister stated that he thought that the former Secretary Industries, Arif Azeem would start work on the Industrial Policy, but he was made an OSD. "The Ministry could not commence work on the Industrial Policy due to frequent transfers of Secretaries of Industries," he continued.
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