The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Chief Coordinator Mirza Abdul Rehman has rejected the allegations of the clash between the Commerce Secretary and the Director-General Trade Organizations (DGTO) levelled by the United Business Group.

Mirza Abdul Rehman, who is also the spokesperson of the Businessmen Panel (BMP), the ruling group of the FPCCI, while condemning the false accusation, stated that the cases of the rival group are pending in the Appellant Board Secretary, DGTO and Higher Courts and instead of waiting for the final ruling, the opposition is trying to blackmail by spreading the bogus news against the high officials. He said that the opposition is not interested in resolving the issues of the business community and they only appear on the scene at the time of elections, therefore, they are rejected by voters.

He said that the UBG patron-in-chief S.M Munir, who was appointed as the chief executive of the TDAP in previous governments, could not show performance, as the exports were nosedived in his period. He rejected the demand of the opposition groups regarding the resignation of commerce advisor Razaq Dawood, saying the Pakistan Exports have witnessed tremendous growth under his leadership. He said that the DGTO and Islamabad High Court have given their rulings against the spokesperson of the UBG Gulzar Feroze due to his fake association membership. 

“The UBG news appeared in a daily is false, fictitious, baseless, contrary to the actual facts and yet another attempt to hide the realities and coming into power through wrong ways. It is utter surprising that the UBG which was always favouring the DGTO is now criticizing him, the spokesperson added.

In rebuttal, the FPCCI Chief Coordinator said the lawyer of the UBG had made arguments for these allegations against DGTO proving them without any prudent evidences. He said that the opposition has again resorted to deceiving the business community and DGTO who is now very well aware of the actual facts and the misappropriation and malpractice perpetrated by it.

Mirza Abdur Rehman observed that the UBG has always alleged the FPCCI for ignoring issues of the business community but they have never informed about their own services for the community.

He said that the rejected elements instead of facing the cases in the courts are least interested in the resolution of the problems of the business community as they have a history of broken promises. 

He said that the opposition has failed to tell what the FPCCI had achieved during its tenure to enhance trade between Pakistan and the rest of the world. He also strongly rejected various UBG claims in its previous tenure regarding holding of seminars, FTA with China, Pak-Vietnam trade, MoUs with Turkmenistan Chamber, visit of Malaysian Prime Minister to Islamabad, and a number of other several claims.

He said the BMP will defeat the UBG in the upcoming FPCCI Election for the third consecutive time. He said that the UBG is facing crushing defeats for the last three years in FPCCI Election and they would meet the same fate in December this year. He said that the opposition group always tried to come in power through the backdoor and now they are spreading the fake news, using wrong tactics to get desired results. But he was confident that the businessmen will reject their pressure and vote the Businessmen Panel to power for the third time in a row.