Mandviwalla urges businessmen to highlight NAB harassment

KARACHI: Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla on Wednesday asked the business community to bring forward cases of harassment by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in order to get the issues resolved.

He was speaking at a webinar organised by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) to develop national consensus on core economic agenda and come up with a Charter of Economy.

He said he had received hundreds of applications from all over the country from businessmen, who have been victimised by NAB. “These businessmen were victimised as they carried out businesses with people currently being investigated by NAB,” he said, adding that businessmen should not be scared of the government authorities and come forward to highlight NAB’s harassment.

MNA Ahsan Iqbal underscored that it was the private sector that held the key to progress, as days when national investment led the way were long gone. “Economies are increasingly dependent on foreign direct investment and private investment.”

He urged for a need to explore new ways for wealth creation, and said time had come that all key stakeholders, including “politicians, judges, military, bureaucracy, media and the private sector sat down together to develop a 10-year long national charter or a code of conduct on economy, democratic governance, justice, social issues, foreign policy and national security”.

There was need to develop consensus. “Key to national economic development lies not in setting out policies, it lies in creating an enabling environment and it lies in developing confidence amongst the drivers of the economy who (are) the investors.”

Iqbal said Vietnam maintained $9 billion FDI, and Myanmar attracted $4 to $5 billion FDI per annum, while Pakistan with a population of 210 million people was barely attracting $1 billion.

“Given our population and market size, we should be attracting $20 to $25 billion FDI per annum, which will only come if our private sector is investing. If our private sector is not investing, FDI will also not come,” he added.

“Economic stability can only be achieved through political stability hence we must learn from our mistakes and start speaking the truth also. We must understand that without stable politics there cannot be a robust economy,” the MNA said.

BMG Vice Chairman Anjum Nisar said it was a matter of grave concern that even after more than 70 years of existence, Pakistan’s exports were hovering around $24 billion, whereas the FDI was around $1.5 billion.

“Hence, it was very essential to come up with Charter of Economy which must address the basic issues, and we must also look at other models around the world to see what strategies were pursued by many countries to improve their exports, FDIs and other economic indicators.”

He said the political parties had a right to protest, but dealing with political uncertainty was must to get out of the economic crisis, he added.

Earlier, while welcoming the webinar participants, KCCI President Shariq Vohra said Karachi Chamber has initiated a series of webinars to develop national consensus to establish long-term goals under a Charter of Economy for a period of 20 years.