MULTAN, Feb 27th: A delegation of probationary officers of 45th batch of Common Training Programme (CTP) from 12 occupational groups of the Civil Service Academy visited Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) on Tuesday and exchanged basic information about the industry and trade of Southern Punjab. MCCI President Malik Asrar Ahmed Awan said ," We have great hopes from you .Almighty Allah has been kind by giving this opportunity to serve your country and the nation. You are among the best of the best. You will have authority to bring change in people's lives by performing their duties based on the principles of justice ,fairness,impartiality, and equality. He said that Pakistan requires hardwork and honest efforts from them. He hoped that selected officers would do their the best to bring a positiive change in the public administration. Khawaja Muhammad Yousaf stressed the need for devolution of powers and constitution of 8/10 new provinces to facilitate the people . He said that there should be one-window operation system to deal with Small and Medium Enterprises but now they are being harassed by 25/30 departments He said that our commercial consulars /Attache do not perform their duties honestly consequently we are losing our buyers. He stressed the need for changing their mindset.He said that Multan in special and South Punjab in general was very important place because it provides raw material to textile industry by producing 70 percent of country's production of cotton,sugar industry and other sectors .Syed Iftikhar Shah told the probationers that he went to Pakistan embassy in Paris ( France )to get informations about the markets of imported goods and buyers.They supplied him 20 year old list of importers and our commercial attache while they were not even aware of the markets in their neighbour hood. Khawaja Muhammad Yousaf also shared his experience of New York embassy where commercial consular provided him outdated list of buyers. Bakhsh Elahi suggested that Statistics and Agriculture Departments should educate the farmers about the demand and supply mechanism to save them from losses. Aasim Saeed Sheikh said that Government had neglected the agriculture sector which can strengthen our economy. He said that Government should ensure the supply of certified seed and take measures to increase the per acre yield of cotton.Participants were of the view that there was a lack of true leadership like Mahathir mohamad of Malaysia .They said that bureaucracy should perform their duties as per law and they should avoid to become a front man of anyone. Bakhsh Elahi,Aurangzeb Alamgir, Asim Saeed Sheikh ,Syeda Sarwat Zahra ,Khawaja Muhammad Farooq and other also exchanged views with visiting probationers.
