New tax-free port planned



By Amir Wasim


ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: Pakistan will have its fourth port along a new city with the name of "Aladin City" and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is expected to approve its plan in the first week of February, says Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghouri.

Talking to Dawn here on Thursday, the minister said this new port would be constructed on the pattern of Gwadar Port along a tax-free city, to be known as "Aladin City."Mr Ghouri said that his ministry had identified two places for the construction of the new port and these names would be presented before the prime minister for final approval in a meeting next month.

The minister, however, refused to disclose the proposed locations for the new port, saying the name would be disclosed only after the final approval.

Earlier, speaking in the Senate the minister told the members that President Gen Pervez Musharraf would inaugurate the Gwadar Port in Balochistan on March 23 this year. He termed the Gwadar Port as the biggest project of the present government and it would be beneficial for the country, as well as for the people of Balochistan.

He said it was wrong to say that the Gwadar Port had been handed to any other country, saying only the port operation was being given to Singapore Port authorities.

The minister during the Question Hour told the Senate that roads linking Gwadar with China and Central Asian countries would be completed by the year 2009.

He admitted that earlier the roads projects were expected to be completed in 2006.

In reply to a question by MMA Senator Liaquat Ali Bangalzai, the minister said a study for re-building of eight berths at the Karachi Port was being carried out to allow docking of deeper and large vessels with great cargo capacity.


http://www.dawn.com/2007/01/19/ebr6.htm

Aladin City???????? ... WTF!.. lol


Whats next... They'll name the airport in the new Aladin city The International Magic Lamp Airport...

While they're at it... why not bestow the Aladin city's Nazim the title of Sinbad... & the MP from Aladin City the Forty Theives...

surely this is a joke right!

for God's sake, if this was true I think we should heavily petition for a name change!

A big Joke ?????

Oh my god....

Come on guys .. name is not important ... diversification is always good and planning today for future is no way bad ..

Maybe when the port will be envisaged and actually built in the next 30 years .. we might vote it to be named as "Gen. Musharaff port" !

"In the line of Ports"................lol

Come on .. !

Name is not a big issue ... it would be changed

question is why no one else before took such intiative to start such projects in Islands/ports of Pakistan ?

From last 3 years they have initiated new projects eg Emaar's investment in Karachi Islands etc

And thus transformed Karachi Port into a Modern, Competitive, User Friendly and a Transshipment Hub of the Region.

Credit goes to President Pervaiz Musharraf and MQM's Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghouri

aladin city, surely that's a spoof right?!

What will we have next, Plutostan?

Sallam,

Am sure its a printing error, the name will most likely be Allah-Deen and not Aladin. As the proper name for Aladin is Allah_Deen. Or I could be wrong. I hope not!!

Anyways brothers the name should not realy matter as we can change it, the main thing is to get the project completed.

Sallam

That was just a fun part, all of us are proud to have another port and surely it wont take decades now as the growing confidence of world on Pak economy.

Name realy doesnt matter, but i would likt it to be "Pervez Musharaf Port", The guy deserve it

Here are some of my choices

Adana, Aila, Aladdin, Altair, Ammar, Ansar (Al Ansar), Aqaba, Askari (Askaristan), Asqalan, Azeemabad, Baradar, Becca, Bukhara, Citadel, Charsadda, Cordova (Cordoba), Damishq, falisteen, Faris, Gaza, Hamza, Mocha, Mouza, Ossama, Palmyra, Panjsher, Pashtun, Petra, Rayhan, Samarra, Samarkand, shaam, Silwan, Suleiman, Turania and Thaj

Mashallah nice to hear!

It's a smart PR-stunt!

The port is basically drawing ARABIC attention and MORE investments from those rich arab countries!

And what you can compare generally with the arab countries is that, they don't have a tax-system on a personal level because of their oil-income and are used to pay low-taxes on the business-level.
So I would likely say that, this port will somehow live up to arab-expectations...

Smart move.

Why not make Gwadar a tax free port too?

The true or Arabic pronunciation of Aladin is Alaouddin. By the way, what's so wrong with naming Aladin, afterall the story is part of our culture and history. They didn't name it "Aladin ka chirag" lol.

Why not make Gwadar a tax free port too?

Investors don't come in provinces where there is daily bombing of electricty pole or rocket launches on security personnel.

We cannot keep on delaying projects .. look at Gwadar due to security concerns the inaugration got delayed for atleast a year ...

From a few Baluch's which I know, the local population of Gwadar think that Gwadar is a natural port and due to this the GOP is inclined to use Gwadar. HOwever, on pointing out that in this era of time any port can be created artificially by dredging and in Gwadar Phase I there was dredging and for Phase II there is a major dredging part. Furthermore GOP already holds Ormara ! even if it is for PN .. there exists already another port in Baluchistan province.

Hence, similarly GOP has already managed to develop PQ and is now contemplating another port, making the Gwadari's realize that if they don't behave than they would be the net losers & not the population of Pakistan.