KARACHI: Chairman Businessmen Group & Former President Karachi Chamber Siraj Kassam Teli, while agreeing to Vice Chairman BMG Haroon Farooki’s suggestion to pass a strong resolution against Finance Minister, said that the House must adopt the resolution in which KCCI should demand immediate resignation of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as he has been indicted in a corruption case and is purely responsible for creating the economic mess.
“The entire world is laughing at us as the sitting Finance Minister has been indicted in a corruption case therefore, Ishaq Dar must immediately step down at least for the time being till the case is decided”, Siraj Teli said, “Although the AGM has vehemently seconded and adopted Haroon Farooki’s suggestion to pass the resolution but another important item must also be inserted in this resolution in which we must add that the economic mess was not solely because of Ishaq Dar but all the Chambers and Trade Bodies including FPCCI except KCCI are equally responsible for the disastrous situation as they continued to cheer Ishaq Dar for his anti-business policies and never missed a single opportunity to present hails to the presence during the last four years, except this year when some of them started criticism.
Speaking at the 56th Annual General Meeting, Chairman BMG stated that it was really unfortunate that 90 percent of the Chambers and trade bodies including FPCCI except Karachi Chamber are marred with those elements who are habitual of presenting hails to the presence despite all odds but the Karachi Chamber is the only Chamber which always spoke the truth throughout all these years and strongly raised voice against the anti-business policies of the government.
Vice Chairmen BMG & Former Presidents KCCI Zubair Motiwala, Haroon Farooki and Anjum Nisar, newly elected President Muffasar Atta Malik, newly elected Senior Vice President Abdul Basit Abdul Razzak, newly elected Vice President Rehan Hanif, retiring President Shamim Ahmed Firpo, retiring Senior Vice President Asif Nisar, retiring Vice President Muhammad Younus Soomro, Former Presidents AQ Khalil, Mian Abrar, Haroon Agar, Abdullah Zaki, Younus Muhammad Bashir, KCCI Managing Committee members and a big number of General Body Members attended the meeting.
Chairman BMG said, “Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who once visited KCCI some four years ago, stayed away from the Chamber as the Karachi Chamber asks questions and only speaks the truth, instead of presenting hails to the presence. During all these years, Ishaq Dar publically said that he will never visit KCCI as they ask too many questions and I am not answerable to them”, he added.
Commenting on CPEC project, Siraj Teli opined that this project was unlikely to create a win-win situation as it was commercially viable only for China whereas Pakistan will benefit in terms of infrastructure development only. He commented that Pakistan’s textile sector was likely to suffer a lot of damages because the CPEC was being connected to Xinjiang province where they plan to establish a huge textile zone in the next 10 years, which is five times bigger than Pakistan’s textile sector, posing severe threat to the future of Pakistan’s textile industry.
Highlighting the journey of Businessmen Group since 1998 when the Group contested in Chamber’s election for the very first, Siraj Teli stated that BMG has been winning all the elections without losing a single seat despite stiff competition in the elections during the initial 9 years in which more than 50 percent voters’ turnout was usually witnessed. The elections held during the last 11 consecutive years were unanimously won by the BMGIANs as not a single member, out of a total of 22,000 members, comes forward to contest in the elections, thanks to the overwhelming support, trust and confidence of the entire business and industrial community.
“During all these years, we strived really hard with all our sincerity and honesty to do something good for the Chamber and also for Karachi and its citizens which has been widely acknowledged by everyone. Even our competitors simply cannot point finger at us for misusing KCCI’s funds or carrying out any unfair or illegal activity. We have been honestly serving the entire business and industrial community from a small shopkeeper to a leading industrialist without any discrimination of cast, color or creed. It is only due to the honesty, hard work and dedication of all the BMGIANs that all three office bearers have once again been elected unopposed to lead KCCI in 2017-18”, he added.
