Hyderabad businessmen form alliance
The BOI secretary said that economic uplift was an area of priority for the government, which was introducing economic reforms to increase the confidence of business community. Photo: File
Some of the politically active members of the trade and industry have come up with a yet another group which claims to be true representative of the two communities in the district.
The Hyderabad Alliance of Trade and Industry was formally announced at a press conference on Wednesday.
The bodies like Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) and Hyderabad Chamber of Small Trade and Small Industry (HCSTSI) already exist in the city.
"A group continues to occupy the historic office of HCCI," said Ikram Rajput, patron in chief of the alliance.
"The business community is coping with a range of problems but there is no organised forum to fight their cases."
He requested all businessmen to join the alliance and strengthen them. Notable businessmen Iqbal Baig and Adeel Siddiqui have been designated as chairman and president of the alliance.
Baig argued that currently no officially authorised chamber of trade and industry existed in Hyderabad, discrediting both HCCI and HCSTSI.
"The need for a representative forum was being felt.
That is the reason a platform has been created so that all traders can join and we can try to address their issues."
Siddiqui said the purpose of creating the alliance is not political.
He added that they only wanted to struggle to find solutions to the problems being confronted by the trade and industry. According to him, because of cancellation of license of HCCI, no authorised chamber is functioning in the city.
"We are trying to establish a new chamber and to get it licensed as well," the alliance's president disclosed. He claimed that soon a new government authorised chamber of commerce and industry will be set up in a new building.
The Directorate General of Trade Organizations, Islamabad, had issued a license to the HCCI in 2008 for a period of three years. The chamber later thrice appealed for the license's renewal in 2013 and 2014, but the directorate rejected the requests.
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The HCCI also failed to obtain a compliance certificate from Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.
The chamber's then-ruling body also could not conduct elections because of a serious clash between two factions of the community in 2013.
The directorate twice sent show-cause notices to the chamber in 2015, asking for submission of the required documents.
Though the chamber took the matter to the Islamabad High Court, the bench ordered the directorate in October 2019 to decide its fate in two months.
In December 2019, the regulator reached the conclusion that HCCI had failed to comply with the statutory requirements. And, on January 10, the HCCI was served another show cause notice, but its reply failed to convince the authority and led to its license cancellation.
The HCSTSI was formed in April, 2016, under the Trade Organizations Ordinance, 2013. Its stated aim was about serving the businesses with the turnover of Rs50 million. But many traders and industrialists complained of not being represented through that organization.
"The industry is also suffering because it lacks representation through the chamber," Siddiqui said. He argued that his community is a victim of myriads of problems which required dedicated efforts for the solutions.
He informed that some earlier this week teams of Sui Southern Gas Company visited the industrial zone and tried to suspend gas supply to industries.
He complained that without prior notice the supply of gas to the industries is disconnected which suddenly stopped the manufacturing process, resulting in economic losses.
The alliance's leader claimed that because of their intervention, SSGC gave them two-day notice during which they also began preparing for the litigation.
Siddiqui said that the economy of the rapidly evolving upmarket commercial area of Hyderabad, the Autobahn Road, is also at stake because the Pakistan Railways have claimed that dozens of commercial building structures are built on the PR owned land in that area.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 16th, 2021.