Razak Dawood says he is shareholder in Descon

LAHORE: Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood has said he has resigned from the Descon management, and has nothing to do with its working.

Talking in the Geo News programme Naya Pakistan on Sunday, the host Shahzad Iqbal said Dawood has said Pakistan will witness record exports this year. Iqbal said Descon, which has won the dam bidding, is a family company of Dawood. Questions are being raised whether there is a conflict of interest as Dawood is an adviser to the PM. The government’s stance on this is that the bidding was transparent and the procedure for it had been started in the PML-N government’s tenure.

During the show, Shahzad Iqbal questioned that whether he is a majority shareholder in Descon, Razak Dawood said that he is a shareholder and will bear the cost whether there is profit or loss in the dam contract.

Dawood said there is no conflict of interests as he has nothing to do with the Descon management. He said that he has left the company and had informed the prime minister about it. He said that the concerned ministry should be asked about the bidding process, adding that he used no influence to win the bidding. He said he has no objection to any kind of investigations into the bidding.

He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was taking solid steps and working to enhance the volume of exports. The incumbent government, with effective measures of promoting country’s export products, would make a huge breakthrough of achieving the export target of 27 billion dollars this year, he said. There was five percent increase recorded in the exports of the country in December last and many positive initiatives were under way that would further boost the export volume.

He said the PTI government was efficiently managing the financial matters of the country and taking consolidated steps to boost the national economy through increasing its trade and export activities. There are many countries, including China, Japan, Indonesia and others, which were cooperating with Pakistan to support its exports volume by giving space to its products in their markets, he said. He said there would be more export of rice, fruits and other things with these countries in the coming few months, which would help further strengthen the country’s economy.