Sheikh Manzar Alam, a former chairman of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (Kati), has urged the government to take appropriate steps to contact the World Trade Organisation (WTO) authorities and convince them to give three years grace period to improve working conditions of Pakistan industrial sector. In a statement, he said that Pakistan had signed the agreement of WTO in 1994, but at that time the government did not realise its impact in industrial sector and exports.
It was necessary that the government and private sector should have started consultations through workshops and seminars on this subject right from 1994. But the government did not pay heed to this problem.
He said that the greatest risk to Pakistani industrialist lay in the economic and environmental laws of WTO, because no satisfactory sewerage system has been established in industrial areas and condition of roads has deteriorated to the maximum.
He referred to Korangi industrial area and said that so far no effluent treatment plant has been installed in this industrial estate. Manzar said that in these circumstances industrialists of this area can not fulfil the conditions of WTO.