ISLAMABAD: Business community has urged the mainstream political parties for sitting together to evolve a joint strategy for the economic development of the country.
They said that political stability was vital to face internal and external threats including new US Trump administration and Indian aggressive policies towards Pakistan.
In a statement Vice President SAARC Chamber of Commerce Iftikhar Ali Malik urged the political parties for adopting a unanimous approach to scale down US pressure on Pakistan and give a message to foreign powers that entire Pakistan stands united and on one page to face internal and external security challenges.
Iftikhar Ali Malik, who is also founder Chairman of Pak-US Business Council slammed the US President Donald Trump policy about alleged terrorists’ safe haven in Pakistan, said his illogical stance was singularly unhelpful in achieving the objective of strategic stability and durable peace in the South Asian region.
He said the US administration should offer fruitful help to Pakistan for revival of its economy so that it can fight more efficiently against terrorism.
He suggested for expanding cooperation on 2013 Joint Action Plan on Trade and Investment as the United States remains Pakistan’s largest bilateral export market and a significant source of foreign direct investment.
He said the United States was Pakistan’s largest bilateral trading partner. He said it would be in the interest of both the countries to enhance their trade volume which had been hovering around $5 billion for the last five years.
He said that the Trump-led US administrations should recognize the colossal sacrifices rendered by Pakistan to stamp out terrorism in the region as the country was bearing irrecoverable losses due to active participation in war on terror.
Pakistan and the United States have been close allies in the fight against terrorism, which is a common threat to all nations of the world adding he said as a matter of policy, Pakistan does not allow use of its territory against any country.
Instead of relying on the false narrative of safe havens, the US needs to work sincerely with Pakistan to eliminate the menace of terrorism, he remarked. Business community urges for evolving joint strategy of economic uplift
