The SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tuesday appealed for the government to immediately open the letters of credit (LCs) with the availability of foreign exchange for import of raw materials to meet the industrial sector’s needs. Chairing an emergency meeting of the Founder Group of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to discuss the prevailing economic scenario, President Iftikhar Ali Malik said a total of 13 senior former presidents of LCCI, including Mian Muhammad Ashraf, Sheikh Muhammad Asif, Tariq Hameed, Mian Muzaffar Ali, Bashir Bakhsh, Mian Misbah ur Rehman, Shahzad Ali Malik, Almas Hyder, Farooq Iftikhar, Shahid Hassan Sheikh, Abdul Basit and Tariq Misbah, were invited to the meeting to share their points of view and suggest viable solutions for prompt economic revival.

He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Federal Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar both belonged to the Founder Group and as former presidents of LCCI, they were rightly expected to steer the economy out of the current financial crunch. He underscored the need to urgently open the LCs with the availability of foreign exchange. Iftikhar said the meeting was of the view that a number of foreign countries had recently promised billions of dollars to Pakistan for supporting the relief measures and early rehabilitation of flood victims, which will help stabilize the foreign reserves. He said in light of the foreign support assurance, necessary instructions should be issued to the State Bank of Pakistan to provide relief to the hard-hit industrial sector, otherwise poor workers will also continue to suffer. He said all the former presidents collectively made an impassioned appeal to the premier and federal finance minister to intervene and bail out the industrial sector from the looming crisis.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk