Haroon Akhtar Khan, the prime minister's adviser on industries, announced a gemstone centre in Islamabad while chairing a meeting there on 2 October. Radio Pakistan reported that the centre is intended to support development of the gemstone sector and its economic potential.

Khan said work had begun on formulating and implementing a gemstones policy, and that modern technology and improved processing could raise the value captured from stones. The report gave no centre budget or opening date and recorded no realized increase in output or exports; the billions-of-dollars potential was the adviser's assessment.