PM assures to meet Hazara community
Islamabad: Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday assured the Hazara community that he would visit them the same day they buried the slain miners and said the perpetrators of the heinous incident would be brought to justice.
Addressing here at the inauguration of Special Technology Zones Authority, the Prime Minister said all demands of the Hazara community following the Mach incident had been accepted, however said making the burial of killed miners conditional with his visit was inappropriate.
“I have sent a message to the Hazara representatives that as soon as they bury their martyred community members, I will visit and meet them,” he said.
Imran Khan said he was deeply grieved by the tragic deaths of the Hazara community, which he said had suffered a lot over the decades, and lost precious lives, and suffered economic losses.
Expressing solidarity with the Hazara community, the Prime Minister said the government stands by them in their hour of grief.
He said most of the slain miners were the sole breadwinners of their households and assured them that the government would fully compensate their families.
He said the tragic incident at Mach was part of the conspiracy hatched by India as per intelligence reports.
The Prime Minister said the enemies of Pakistan were bent upon creating a situation leading to sectarian chaos and mentioned that intelligence agencies had already foiled four similar terrorist incidents.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had visited the sit-in of the Hazara community and agreed to accept their demands. However, the community demanded that they would not bury the slain colliers, till the Prime Minister visits them. Ministers Ali Zaidi, Zulfi Bukhari the Balochistan government and opposition leaders have also appealed the Hazara community not to delay the burial.
On the launch of STZA, Imran Khan said Information Technology was a revolutionary sector that needed to be exploited by companies in the country to meet the demands of the contemporary world.
He said only those companies gained during coronavirus pandemic that adapted to IT well in time.
He said the main objective of the establishment of Special Technology Zones was to give incentives to the IT sector and to make it flourish for the benefit of the country.
He said with the second youngest population in the world, Pakistan could utilize the IT sector in providing employment to its youth.
Also, the Pakistani nationals working in other countries could benefit from the Special Technology Zones, he added.
The Prime Minister said great responsibility lay on Chairperson STZA Amer Ahmed Hashmi for creating a boom in the IT sector of Pakistan.
Earlier, the Prime Minister inaugurated the Special Technology Zones Authority which will focus on the growth of the scientific and technological ecosystem.
Khan said the Special Technology Zones Authority will serve to create a space for foreign investors, indigenous companies, and educational and training institutes to collaborate for Information Technology-driven industrial revolution in Pakistan.
The Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) is a leading government body mandated to promote the national innovation system in Pakistan.
The launch marks the beginning of an era of the dedicated and integrated national knowledge-based ecosystem in Pakistan. The specific mandate of STZA is to lead the development of Special Technology Zones (STZs) in the country.
These zones will help increase high-tech exports of Pakistan and facilitate technology transfer from major global Science and Technology hubs.
Chairman STZA said the zones would foster skills development, job creation, technology transfer and new economic value generation.
Industrial clusters formation has not only led to rapid industrialization and social development of countries like China, Japan, and South Korea, but have become the global best practice for high-speed growth and development.
