Industry and Manufacturing Zhob
Introduction
The industrial sector in the district is underdeveloped and negligible. There is no industry or manufacturing unit in the district. There are only small industrial units in the district.
Small Enterprise Development (SME)
There is only one carpet centre in Zhob city. There is no other significant small enterprise development.
Manufacturing
The following are the manufacturing units. There are 20 shellers and hullers, 15 flour mills, 8 ice factories, 8 oil expellers and 35 brick clins.
Trade (import/export)
In Zhob district no trade is noticed as import or export, but a wide variety of goods is smuggled into the district from Afghanistan through Qamar din Karez and other shingle routes.
Tourism
The district is endowed with a number of picnic spots and has scenic beauty, however, no regular tourism development has taken place. Important picnic spots are Saliaza Kapip, Viala, Babar, Shinghar and Badanzai, all in 50 km. distance from Zhob city.
Objects of major archaeological interests in the district are a number of mounds, ruins, and caves. By some they are believed to be part of a very early period of history, but most experts say that they belong to the Mughal period. They are now turned into ruins and have been dug by the local population for coins, gold and mud. Some people have found coins, silver figures and pieces of gold while digging mud for the construction of houses and ploughing agricultural land.
At a distance of 5 kilometres from Zhob lies mound "Paryano Ghundi" (the mound of witches). It is the biggest of all mounds found in the district. It is also known as "Mughalo Ghundi" (in British imperial gazetteer mentioned as "Maghlia ghundi"). The ruins are spread over an area of 200 yards, and still show the signs of a city that existed in the past. The mound was excavated by Sir Aurel Stein in 1924 and revisited in 1950. According to his dairy, the Zhob civilisation belonged to the period of 2500 BC. Items found are figures of the Zhob mother goddess, lead shaped stone, and bronze arrow points and magnificent bull figures of terra-cotta. Also pieces of fine black on red pottery has been found, some of which suggests the famous Harappan pottery. Other mounds can be found in Mina Bazaar and near Dera village.
Handicrafts
The handicrafts include traditional women’s embroidery work. Embroidery is not done on a very large scale. Sometimes women sell their work to earn some extra money. The work is bought by middlemen at a very low price. This situation is the result of lack of home industry, lack of access to the market for women and lack of attention from the Industrial Department to this unique skill.
Directorate of Small Industries
Zhob has no services for small and medium sized enterprises and industrial development.
GO/NGO/SME, etc. involvement in Industrial Development
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Coverage Commercial Services |
Local Govt. |
Prov. Govt. |
Fed. Govt. |
NGO |
Internat. Donor |
Private Entr. |
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Vocational Training |
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- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
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Management Training |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
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Acquisition |
- |
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- |
x |
- |
- |
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Marketing |
- |
- |
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- |
- |
x |
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Legend: |
- x xx xxx |
no involvement minor involvement substantial involvement major involvement |
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Conclusion and major Development Issues
The area has potential for development of agro-industry. It has the availability of cheap labour, land, roads and rail links, and electricity supply. Still, the industrial units which were issued NOCs have not started functioning yet. It is because infrastructure facilities have not been made available by the government. There are rich and influential landowners in the area, but they are not interested in starting up industries. The landlord culture surpasses the industrial one.
There are no vocational and training institutes, nor are there credit or marketing facilities available. Women are involved in embroidered handicrafts, but this time consuming activity is not properly rewarded. Credit and marketing facilities are required in this respect.
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