ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) Senior Vice President Muhammad Naveed Malik said that Pakistan’s total debt and liabilities have reached Rs 29.861 trillion while external debt and liabilities have crossed $95 billion by June 30, 2018 indicating that every person of the nation owed a debt burden of Rs 144,256 which was a cause of concern and called upon the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government to devise a new strategy to get rid of debt and liabilities as without coping with debt issue, the country cannot achieve sustainable economic growth. He said that Pakistan spent a huge amount of $7.479 billion on debt serving during 2017-18 which showed that debt burden was consuming a lot of financial resources of the country. He further said that instead of depending on debt sources to run the affairs of the country, the new government should focus on indigenous sources and adopt austerity measures to control unnecessary expenditures. He was talking to a delegation of Traders Welfare Association (TWA), G-7/1, Islamabad that called on him led by its president Raja Safeer Ahmed. Senior vice president Chaudhry Muhammad Salim, Faizan Shahzad, M Fahim Khan, Muhammad Ramzan and Rana Aqeel were also in the delegation. Muhammad Naveed Malik said that G-7/1 market was one of the oldest markets of Islamabad and stressed upon the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) to focus on better development of this important market to facilitate the traders in promoting trade activities. He urged that CDA and MCI should arrange filtration plant and public toilets in addition to repair of roads, footpaths and streetlights in G-7/1 market in order to provide a conducive business environment. He assured that ICCI would fully cooperate with TWA G-7/1, Islamabad in resolving key issues of the traders. Speaking at the occasion, TWA President Raja Safeer Ahmed and TWA SVP Muhammad Salim said that due to the inattention of CDA, no development work was done in their market due to which the traders were facing difficulties in promoting trade activities. They urged that CDA and MCI should provide facilities in G-7/1 market including a filtration plant and a public toilet. They said that CDA had agreed for a flower market in G-7 Sector, but no measures were taken so far for its setup. They urged that the civic body should develop a flower market in G-7 to meet the needs of people, adding that due to absence of rent control act in Islamabad, rent disputes of traders were on the rise and emphasised that new government should arrange early passage of amended bill of rent control act from the parliament so that this longstanding issue of the traders could be resolved once for all. Faizan Shahzad, M Fahim Khan, Muhammad Ramzan and Rana Aqeel also spoke at the occasion and called upon CDA and MCI to focus on development works in G-7/1 Market for the facilitation of traders. Published in Daily Times, August 18th 2018.