Daily Times

KARACHI: Former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) and Businessmen Group (BMG) Chairman Siraj Kassam Teli has stated that BMG would not participate in the forthcoming election of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), nor would it support any group in the election.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Siraj Teli said, “FPCCI continues to follow the same old policy of pandering to the bogus paper-based trade associations and chambers.” The BMG chairman was of the view that this made the true representatives of the business community voiceless, which was the basic reason why BMG and KCCI preferred to stay away from the FPCCI election.

While referring to numerous contesting groups of the election who approached BMG to seek support, Siraj Teli said that all these groups were informed that BMG would not support anyone as FPCCI had been unable to effectively expel fake and bogus associations. He added, “FPCCI is still marred with corruption and continues to represent dozens of fake chambers and trade bodies.”

Highlighting KCCI’s stance against registration of bogus trade associations in FPCCI, Teli said that because of these bodies, FPCCI had lost its credibility.

He said that BMG and KCCI had serious reservations over FPCCI’s way of working as instead of highlighting core national issues and giving recommendations on policies at the federal level, FPCCI was engaged in carrying out activities that did not fall under its domain. He added that FPCCI should take input about policy issues regarding budget, trade and economy from its members and forward them to the policymakers at the federal level.

The BMG chairman on various occasions had urged FPCCI to revert back to the Trade Organisation Ordinance (TOO) 2007 with a few amendments and abolish TOO 2013 which had provided room for bogus trade bodies to flourish.

He said that even though FPCCI had assured time and again to cleanse itself of bogus trade bodies, no progress had been achieved in this regard.

Siraj Teli assured that KCCI and BMG would fully support initiatives aimed at banishing bogus trade bodies from FPCCI.