President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Muhammad Saeed Shafiq was shocked on the demand of President FPCCI appeared in the press to overturn Trade Organisations Ordinance 2007 and reintroduce the Trade Organisations Act 1961 after necessary amendments.
While defending, he said that TOO-2007 was promulgated for the fulfilment of the long standing demand of the Business & Industrial Community to change the outdated Trade Ordinance of 1961 through which mushroom growth of many bogus and non-representative trade bodies had taken place and it is interesting to note that FPCCI and all the trade bodies of the country were part of the process and had given consent for promulgation of TOO-2007.
We would like to request Moula Bakhsh Chandio, Federal Minister for Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs to understand the situation and he should consult and take on board all the trade bodies of the country and our point of view as well. Saeed Shafiq said that Siraj Kassam Teli, Chairman Businessmen Group and he himself as President KCCI, in the meeting held on 1st December, 2010 at National Assembly's Secretariat with the Chairman & Members of Standing Committee on Commerce defended and urged to validate TOO-2007 whereby some amendments in ordinance and rules were also proposed.
He said that the TOO-2007 was made with the consensus of all the Business and Industrial Community of Pakistan for the betterment of the trade bodies. The Provisions of TOO-2007 served as deterrent against the registration of the fake and paper-based trade bodies and it has constrained the mushroom growth of fake and paper-based trade bodies which remained a huge problem that necessitated the promulgation of the Trade Organisations Ordinance-2007 and consequent to the promulgation of TOO-2007 the counterfeit trade bodies lost their registration, which has proved the merit of the Ordinance.
He said that the TOO-2007, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, allowed women to form their own chambers of commerce and mandated that at least two-women must sit on the board of directors in all of the Pakistan's Chambers, prior to this women entrepreneurs in Pakistan lacked representation in Trade Bodies.
He said that we at KCCI are of the strong opinion that the Government must make sure that the Trade Bodies of the country are represented by genuine stakeholders only. He said that today, the world is a global village and economic power is in the name of the game and it is imperative to have correct economic policies to survive in the comity of nations, therefore, it is very important to have genuine representative trade bodies for interaction, resolution and formulation of right policies with the Government. Implementation of TOO-2007 has already corrected the system of the trade bodies to the extend of 75 percent in blocking the entry of non-representative people.
He said that the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Commerce according to our understanding is preparing to make amendments to improve upon TOO-2007 and as per our request we hope that all the business and industrial community will be taken on board before making any changes.
He firmly opposed those who raised objections on the TOO-2007 as the Ordinance was promulgated and prepared in the light of recommendations and proposals given by the business community across the country. He recalled that a neutral committee headed by former Justice Saleem Akhtar of Supreme Court, consulted all stakeholders of the Business & Industrial community of Pakistan . After detailed deliberations and meetings and finally over a period of two years TOO-2007 was promulgated and recommended with consensus.
He highlighted that those seeking abolition of the Ordinance have malafide intentions to strengthen the fake/paper-based trade bodies in the country and they are also against the empowerment of women entrepreneurs in the trade and industry. He said that the implementation of TOO-2007 had curtailed re-registration of most of those non-representative/bogus chambers and associations which number came down from 220 to 107.-PR