ISLAMABAD: The Chamber of Small Traders on Sunday urged the government to take steps to end exploitation of the surgical industry of Pakistan by international players. Pakistan is producing 90% of the world’s production of disposable and reusable surgical instruments but it is getting only 2% share of the seventeen billion dollar global trade, said Shahid Rasheed Butt from Islamabad’s Chamber of Small Traders “Pakistani companies are earning mere 359 million dollars due to lack of the interest of officials concerned and exploitation by the developed nations,” he said. This is keeping local companies from development and resulting in lost opportunities as local institutions have not helped the companies to develop any international brand. Rasheed said that are three thousand companies in Sialkot are producing ten thousand types of instruments which are sold at dirt cheap price to the companies located in developed countries that sell it after putting their stamp on it. Many companies have closed down their production facilities and opted for selling Pakistani products under their brand names which is not justified as the country producing 170 million instruments annually must get a fair share, he demanded. The top ten buyers of Pakistani instruments include USA, Germany, UK, France, Italy, UAE, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and Russia. It is unfortunate that Pakistani companies are unable to export their production to other Islamic countries and India let alone EU and US, he noted.