Punjab Chief Minister promises cheap industrial land, local testing labs and less red tape as she unveils an innovation drive; several of her headline figures do not match her government’s own data.
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif said on Friday that closing factories in the name of environmental protection was not the answer to pollution, a notable signal to industry in the middle of a smog-season crackdown that has sealed hundreds of units across the province.
“I have no desire to shut down anyone’s business, but there will be no compromise on standards,” she said at the launch of the Punjab Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology (PIET) initiative in Lahore. Inspections should be strengthened and factories helped to meet environmental rules without workers losing their livelihoods, she said.
The government did not publish the initiative’s budget, partners or components. Some local media reported the programme under a different name, PIVOT.
A softer line amid the smog
Her remarks came a day after Lahore’s air quality index reached 419 on IQAir’s ranking, the worst of any major city in the world. In the month to Oct. 27, the Environment Protection Department inspected 6,650 industrial sites, sealed 191 and demolished 22, and also sealed 163 brick kilns, Dawn reported. Earlier in the season, seven industrial units were sealed and a brick kiln demolished in a single operation.
Business groups have long complained that sealing orders halt production and wages for weeks while owners contest them. The chief minister’s call to fix rather than close factories suggests enforcement may lean more on compliance deadlines, though she did not announce any change in policy, and the EPD’s operation is continuing.
Land on lease, not for speculation
In one of her sharpest remarks, Maryam Nawaz said Punjab’s industrial estates and special economic zones had largely turned into real estate ventures, with plots bought and held rather than used to make things.
Her government plans to lease industrial land at Rs80,000 to Rs200,000 a month to people who will actually build factories, she said. The province first floated performance-based industrial leases of 30 years or more in January, when the then LCCI president Faheemur Rehman Saigol pressed for cheaper land and a long-term lease policy, The Express Tribune reported. The new rental rates are the first figures the government has given.
Chinese state firm PowerChina has separately shown interest in energy projects in Punjab’s special economic zones, where the cost and reliability of power remain a bigger deterrent to investors than land.
Fans tested in China, footballs and FIFA
The chief minister gave a candid example of what local industry lacks. Punjab makes cutlery and electric fans, she said, but manufacturers send products to China for glazing, material testing and even noise testing of fans because there are no local certification facilities.
International buyers including FIFA were reluctant to procure sports goods without proper certification, she said, and the government would work to build testing capacity at home. The gap is striking for a province whose Sialkot cluster has supplied match balls to recent FIFA World Cups; much of the formal certification for such products is still done abroad, adding cost and time for exporters.
The numbers behind the pitch
Maryam Nawaz said around Rs200bn in loans had been issued under the Asaan Karobar scheme and more than 200,000 people had obtained no-objection certificates and approvals through the e-Biz portal. Government figures reported by Bol News on Oct. 26 put e-Biz applications processed at 210,031 across 28 departments, consistent with her claim, but put interest-free business loans at Rs70bn to 112,000 businesses. The government has not explained the gap, which may reflect different schemes being counted together.
She said Punjab’s revenue had grown from Rs200bn to Rs1tn. The Punjab Revenue Authority, the province’s main tax collector, reported a record Rs368bn for the 2025-26 fiscal year, up 36pc, Finance Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman said in July. The chief minister did not specify what the Rs1tn figure covers or over what period, and no published provincial account matches it. The PRA has also set up a digital monitoring cell to curb evasion.
On farming, she said the government aimed to distribute 45,000 tractors this year, compared with about 3,000 in the previous two decades. Her information minister put the figure at 50,000 a day earlier. When the fourth phase of the Green Tractor Scheme was launched in September, about 24,000 tractors had been delivered and 19,500 more were planned.
The government’s figures have drawn scrutiny before; a recent Lahore Times column examined several of the chief minister’s claims against official records.
Skills, startups and clusters
Punjab has a workforce of 36 million and industry increasingly needs skilled labour, she said. The government had trained 400,000 workers and planned to train 600,000 more, and had brought its skills programmes under one roof.
More than 1,200 startups were operating in the province, she said, and 50 common facilities had been combined to develop industrial clusters. She did not name the clusters or say how the facilities would be run.
Red tape, bribes and protocol
Departments had been told to eliminate red tape before PIET was launched, she said, and officials caught taking bribes were being dismissed. She urged banks to simplify procedures for business lending, and asked her own ministers to keep security and protocol to a minimum.
The government was broadening the tax base rather than imposing new taxes, she said, and supporting small and medium investors while allocating substantial funds to agriculture and livestock.
Streets, protests and food
Encroachments and the so-called “dala culture” of armed convoys were being removed, she said, and street vendors had been given designated spaces so roads stayed clear. Lahore police had targeted dala culture and aerial firing in their security plans this year.
She said frequent protests, unrest and vandalism disrupted business and made it hard for workers to earn. “People are my family, and ensuring the safety of the food they consume is also my responsibility,” she said, adding that the government wanted businesses to flourish without compromising quality or public health.
For Lahore’s manufacturers, the test of Friday’s message will be whether factory inspectors in the coming weeks follow the chief minister’s lead and offer time to comply before reaching for the seal.
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