KARACHI: Businessmen Group and Former President Karachi Chamber, Chairman, Siraj Kassam Teli, while agreeing to BMG, Vice Chairman, Haroon Farooki’s suggestion to pass a strong resolution against Finance Minister, said that the house must adopt the resolution in which KCCI should demand immediate resignation of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as he has been indicted in a corruption case and is purely responsible for creating the economic mess.
“The entire world is laughing at us as the sitting finance minister has been indicted in a corruption case therefore, Ishaq Dar must immediately step down at least for the time being till the case is decided”, Teli said, “Although the AGM has vehemently seconded and adopted Farooki’s suggestion to pass the resolution but another important item must also be inserted in this resolution, that the economic mess was not solely because of Dar but all the chambers and trade bodies including FPCCI except KCCI are equally responsible for the disastrous situation as they continued to cheer Dar for his anti-business policies and never missed a single opportunity to present hails to the presence during the last four years, except this year when some of them started criticism.”
Speaking at the 56th Annual General Meeting, BMG Chairman stated that it was really unfortunate that 90 per cent of the chambers and trade bodies including FPCCI except Karachi Chamber are marred with those elements who are habitual of presenting hails to the presence despite all odds but the Karachi Chamber is the only Chamber which always spoke the truth throughout all these years and strongly raised voice against the anti-business policies of the government.
Commenting on CPEC project, Teli opined that this project was unlikely to create a win-win situation as it was commercially viable only for China whereas Pakistan will benefit in terms of infrastructure development only. He commented that Pakistan’s textile sector was likely to suffer a lot of damages because the CPEC was being connected to Xinjiang province where they plan to establish a huge textile zone in the next 10 years, which is five times bigger than Pakistan’s textile sector, posing severe threat to the future of Pakistan’s textile industry.
“During all these years, we strived really hard with all our sincerity and honesty to do something good for the Chamber and also for Karachi and its citizens which has been widely acknowledged by everyone. Even our competitors simply cannot point fingers at us for misusing KCCI’s funds or carrying out any unfair or illegal activity. We have been honestly serving the entire business and industrial community from a small shopkeeper to a leading industrialist without any discrimination of caste, colour or creed. It is only due to the honesty, hard work and dedication of all the BMGIANs that all three office bearers have once again been elected unopposed to lead KCCI in 2017-18”, he added.
