ISLAMABAD: Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has said that Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan had taken a wise step by offering India to start dialogue process with Pakistan at foreign ministers level, but Indian leadership after accepting this offer has backtracked that has created disappointment in the business community of Pakistan. He said due to this unwise approach of Indian leadership, the business community of Pakistan has decided to boycott Indian products till the time the Indian leadership has not changed its approach to normalize relations with Pakistan.
Sheikh Amir Waheed said that according to a latest study of World Bank, Pakistan and India has the potential to increase annual trade volume from current $2 billion to $37 billion, but the shortsighted approach of Indian leadership was the biggest hurdle in realizing this huge trade potential between the two close neighbors. He said Pakistan was a peace loving country and wanted to maintain friendly relations with all its neighbors as peaceful environment was the key requirement to promote trade relations. However, it was unfortunate that the political and military leadership of India was deprived of wisdom and farsightedness due to which the two nuclear powers of South Asia were unable to improve trade relations up to the real potential.
ICCI President said that the Indian business community also wanted to promote trade relations with Pakistan which was beneficial for both nations. He said that India and Pakistan were struggling against poverty and unemployment and promoting trade was the best means to address these issues. He said India would gain nothing by maintaining tense relations with Pakistan as tense relations always discouraged business and investment. He said Pakistani leadership has demonstrated wisdom and farsightedness by offering dialogue process with India but India has deprived its people of good prospects. He said if Indian leadership did not change its current approach towards Pakistan, business community of Pakistan would keep boycotting Indian products.
