ISLAMABAD: Senate’s Standing Committee on Defence Production observed onMonday that Gwadar was an ideal site for the construction of a modernshipyard, as there was no shipbuilding facility in the entire Gulf regionas of now.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Lt Gen (r) AbdulQayyum at the Parliament House.
Senators Nauman Wazir Khattak, Nuzhat Sadiq, Muhammad Akram, PervaizRasheed, Muhammad Ali Shah Jamot, Defence Production Minister Zubaida Jalaland Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KS&EW) Managing Director RearAdmiral Ather Saleem were also present on the occasion.
The committee chairman observed that shipyards were considered strategicassets for any country as they not only contributed to the country’sindigenous commercial and defence pursuits but also earned a lot of revenuethrough ship exports.
He noted that the summary for the construction of a shipyard at Gwadar wasapproved by the previous government.
It was informed that presently, 750 acres of land with 4km of seaport hasbeen demarcated and allotted at Sur Nullah, while Rs200 million have beenreleased for the activation of the Project Management Cell. The committee,however, stressed the need to expedite the work on the project so that itcould be completed in a given timeframe.
It asked the Ministry of Defence Production to supervise all the work,besides conducting feasibility studies from infrastructure to future loadand density requirements.
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The meeting was informed that labour and administrative training was beingprovided in Balochistan so as to facilitate the local population.
It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan only inherited one shipyard atChittagong which was modernised in 1922 by the British. Bangladesh with 23shipyards has now become a ship-exporting country, while India has over 43big shipyards. Pakistan still remains dependent on KS&EW, constructed in1957.
Karachi Shipyard was established in 1956 as a public limited company andcovers an area of 71 acres. The shipyard is headed by a managing directorand has a total of 2800 people working in it.
The shipyard has two graving docks, three ship-building berths and two quaywalls. Till date, 448 ships have been designed and prepared by theshipyard, including some ships made for UAE, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran andBelgium.
