I refer to yesterday's (22/3) Business Recorder's article on Page 2 with the heading "Pakistan Business Council dumps PTI, lauds PML (N)". We are somewhat disappointed at this heading as it gives a wrong impression of PBC having political preferences. The fact of the matter is that the PBC is a non-political and non-partisan institution as far as the political parties are concerned. Its primary objective is the rapid socio-economic development of Pakistan with the involvement of all the stake holders.
Further, the comparison of National Economic Agenda (NEA) is with the published manifestos of the political parties and not with their detailed position papers, if any, on various issues including energy. The reason is that the comparison is for the benefit of the lay public which has access to the manifestos published by the various political parties and widely reported upon in the media. The PBC will be updating this comparison as and when the major political parties update or publish their manifestos. PBC will most certainly revisit PTI's manifesto to ensure it is correctly reflected in the comparison. We have been given to understand that PTI will be publishing its revised manifesto in the next week or so.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Business Recorder for the interest shown in the comparison of PBC's - NEA with the manifestos of the various political parties. Hopefully, this review will continue for the benefit of the various stakeholders.
(The writer is Chief Executive Pakistan Business Council)