Businesses saw a massive $2.5-billion decline in exports and imposition of Rs40 billion in additional taxes during Muneer’s tenure. PHOTO: ONLINE
A rival of the United Business Group (UBG) in the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has criticised the prime minister for congratulating the UBG chief for winning the chamber’s poll.
“I would like to extend my heartfelt felicitation to you on the victory of the United Business Group in the FPCCI elections under your able patronage,” said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a letter sent to SM Muneer, Chairman of UBG and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP).
TDAP is an organisation working under the Ministry of Commerce. The TDAP chief, who holds the government office while simultaneously leading the UBG, has been chastised for dabbling in and strongly influencing politics within the business community.
This was said to have had a detrimental impact on the business community which saw a massive $2.5-billion decline in exports and imposition of Rs40 billion in additional taxes.
In a petition filed earlier in the Islamabad High Court, a stay order had been issued against Muneer restricting him from flexing his muscles and interfering in the federation elections, said former senator Haji Ghulam Ali, who was also the contesting presidential candidate of the rival Businessmen Panel.
Ali noted that the Ministry of Commerce, in its reply to the court’s petition, had categorically stated that Muneer was a full-time government employee.
Despite the stay order, he said Muneer was found “interfering in elections all the time”.
He pointed out that the premier’s letter was clear evidence that the “government has given him this important office for politicking and dividing the business community rather than promoting exports.”
Highlighting the important role that the chambers of commerce play, he explained that as an independent body, the federation was in the business of advising governments by providing objective evidence and making a case for the betterment of the entire business community.
However, Pakistan stood as a novel example where politics had stifled the traders’ united voice by dividing them and sullied the entire landscape with petty politics. Ali grimly concluded, “This is the reason that our exports are continuously falling while regional competitors, like Bangladesh and India, are enjoying a positive growth.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 9th, 2016.
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