LAHORE, Feb 26 :Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Regional Chairman and Vice President Zaki Aijaz, United Business Group (UBG) Punjab\u2019s Chairman Aamir Atta Bajwa; and presidents of various chambers have opposed the proposed amendments to Trade Organization Rules.
\nAddressing a joint press conference here at the FPCCI Regional Office on Thursday, they demanded that the bill should not be passed in its present form and that immediate, comprehensive, and meaningful consultation with all stakeholders must be carried out.
\nThey emphasized that separate and effective representation of district chambers, women chambers, and small traders must be ensured at all costs, as Pakistan\u2019s economy is not driven solely by major cities but by every district, every market, every industrial unit, and every woman entrepreneur. Weakening representation will ultimately weaken the economy, they argued.
\nThe business community representative stated that today they are not merely discussing a legal amendment but the future of Pakistan\u2019s business community, and they are standing as the voice of millions of traders, industrialists, women entrepreneurs, and young entrepreneurs whose representation could be jeopardized by this proposed amendment.
\nThey further noted that the proposed amendment to the Trade Organization Rules 2013 has caused serious concern across the country\u2019s business community. This is not just an administrative change; it is a structural change that could disrupt the entire system of business representation. Under the 2013 Rules, district chambers have legal status; women chambers enjoy a separate identity; small traders have their own voice; and every city, district, and sector is represented. However, the proposed changes are steering the system toward a \u201ccity-based model,\u201d raising concerns that certain elements seek to establish monopolies for personal gain, they alleged.
\nUnder FPCCI, 308 trade bodies represent the country\u2019s industrial, commercial, and services sectors. If the amendment is approved in its current form, dozens of district chambers will be adversely affected, and the independent identity of 32 women chambers and small chambers will be at risk. This is not merely about dissolving institutions; it is about eliminating representation.
\nDue to internal and external trade barriers and pressures, the business environment is already facing uncertainty, they said and added that they are not opposed to reforms, transparency, or improvement; however, reforms that concentrate power in a few major cities, suppress the voice of SMEs, eliminate women\u2019s representation, and ignore rural and semi-urban economies are unacceptable. In its current form, the proposed bill will weaken business unity, undermine confidence, and harm overall economic activity, they concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAHORE, Feb 26 :Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Regional Chairman and Vice President Zaki Aijaz, United Business Group (UBG) Punjab\u2019s Chairman Aamir Atta Bajwa; and presidents of various chambers have opposed the proposed amendments to Trade Organization Rules. Addressing a joint press conference here at the FPCCI Regional Office on Thursday, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":63921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94321,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94312\/revisions\/94321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}