278 employees of Ports & Shipping to be regularized: Minister
By Fakhar Alam

ISLAMABAD—Caretaker Minister for Ports and Shipping Dr Fahim Ansari here on Wednesday said that services of 278 contractual employees of the ministry would be regularized, soon.
In an interview with APP, the minister said that these contractual employees had been working for the last several years in the ministry and were found highly dedicated and efficient workers.
“Given their periodic satisfactory reports, now the ministry has decided to regularize their services and process in this regard is in final stages”, the minister observed. Moreover, the minister said, during his stay, the ministry took some important steps for welfare of its employees.
As part of such efforts, he said that in first phase of the welfare programme, 5,000 plots measuring 200 yards each were allotted to employees in Karachi.
While in the second phase more residential plots have been purchased for the employees, he added.
Replying to a question, he said first trade ship from Canada carrying 75,000 tons of wheat would reach the Gawader Port on Wednesday, but the Port has only 50,000 tons capacity.
Therefor, he said 25,000 tons have been shifted to other ships.
He said that when he took the charge of caretaker minister, he held meetings with heads of departments and emphasized to give boost to public-private partnership efforts.
The Gwadar Port Authority had a bright future and it worked as a catalyst to boost the country’s economy, the minister said.
He said that Ministry had proposed to construct 270-km road from Gwadar to Rattowar, linking with the National Highway.
Replying to another question, Dr. Fahim Ansari said that less education or illiteracy was of the main causes of the recent wave of extremist and terrorism.