Daily Times

The founder Chairman of Pak-US Business Council Iftikhar Ali Malik on Sunday urged the United States to provide direct market access to Pak products to stabilise its fragile economy that suffered irreparable colossal losses in the fight against terror in the region.

Talking to a delegation of exporters led by Muslim Khan Buneri here today, he said Pakistan was one of the front-line coalition partners with the US to stamp out the menace of terror, offering more than 90,000 human sacrifices, besides suffering trillions of dollars in economic losses in addition to the collapse of major chunk of its infrastructure.

He said still Pakistan economy could not absorb the vast financial losses inflicted by war on terror. He said the whole of the world, including US and West, several times publicly acknowledged Pakistan’s role and the tremendous sacrifices of its valiant armed force in flushing out the terrorists from their hideouts. He said Pak exports during the last two decades were also severely affected due to insecurity in the region which went nosedived hitting the national economy to its lowest ebb besides rampant disruptions in the balance of payment.

Iftikhar Ali Malik, who is also President SAARC Chamber, said both countries have many shared interests as Pakistan-US cooperation is a major factor of stability in South Asia. He said ground realities and our bleak economy due to the war on terror speaks volume of scrambling devastation in every sphere of life. He said in the prevailing scenario of financial crunch, heavy losses in the wake of covid, catastrophic floods followed by the Russia-Ukraine conflict , Pakistan must be provided free market access at zero duty for one decade to provide oxygen to its fractured economy.