Pakistan's industrial giant explores maritime investment as government seeks private capital, but project location, cost and funding remain undisclosed.
KARACHI, Nov. 13 (Focus Pakistan) — Nishat Group, the conglomerate run by Mian Muhammad Mansha, has agreed to explore investing in a new port Pakistan plans to build, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs said on Friday, bringing one of the country’s biggest business houses into a project whose location the statement did not disclose.
Mansha, one of the richest people in Pakistan, met Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, according to the statement, which gave no figure for the investment, no port site and no timeline.
According to the ministry, Mansha showed interest in the project and agreed to study investment options in the port, which officials linked to the needs of Pakistan’s export-oriented industries.
Chaudhry used the meeting to push for wider private-sector participation in port development, including investment and new technology, the statement said.
He described new port capacity as strategically important for Pakistan’s maritime economy and trade connectivity, and said the government would help domestic and foreign investors who want to enter the sector.
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Nishat Group Eyes New Port
Work on new ports began last December, when a 12-member committee from the Port Qasim Authority, Karachi Port Trust, Gwadar Port Authority, the Special Investment Facilitation Council and other agencies started looking for sites for three to four deep-sea ports.The push for more ports comes even though the existing three do not run at full stretch. When he formed the committee, the minister put Port Qasim at about 65% of capacity, Karachi Port at 52% and Gwadar at between 5% and 10%.
Chaudhry has argued that Pakistan must put alternatives in place before its ports reach full capacity, and his ministry’s long-term plan, which runs from 2047 to 2147, foresees the ports operating at 100% capacity by 2047.
In April, he said feasibility studies for the new ports had reached their final stages and announced a Pakistan Maritime Energy City to store oil, liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas for domestic use and re-export.
Chaudhry said another port would open new avenues for growth, create jobs and strengthen Pakistan’s position as a regional trade and logistics hub.
Mansha’s group runs Nishat Mills, D.G. Khan Cement and other companies across textiles, cement, banking, insurance and power, and its textile and cement arms sell abroad.
For now, Nishat’s commitment goes no further than an agreement to explore the opportunity
