‘Gwadar to be declared duty-free port’

PM Nawaz says the city should be a gift for the entire region.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced on the floor of the National Assembly on Thursday that Gwadar would be declared a duty-free port. “Gwadar should be a gift for the entire region.”

The premier informed the house that although he had not formally approached any party for the change in status for the city, he intended to do so. “I request all parties to sit with us and give Gwadar the status of a free port and make a new administrative system for it.”

Referring to his recent trip to Dushanbe, Nawaz said Tajikistani leaders had expressed their desire to increase connectivity between the two countries and pave the way to Central Asia through Gwadar. “Over Rs30 billion have already been reserved for western routes under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.”

On the subject of motorways, he assured the lawmakers that they would be constructed across the country in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Responding to the points raised by Pakistan Peoples Party’s Nawab Ali Wassan in his budget speech, the premier said: “Work on the Hyderabad-Karachi section of the Lahore-Karachi Motorway has begun.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2015.