Nawaz Visits LCCI, Stresses Policy Formation In Consultation With Business Community

Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif visited the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday and said all policies should be formed in consultation with the business community, who were key stakeholders of economy

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Nov, 2023) Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif visited the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday and said all policies should be formed in consultation with the business community, who were key stakeholders of economy.

According to a press release issued here, LCCI President Kashif Anwar delivered the address of welcome and shed light on the challenges faced by the economy and their solutions. Nawaz Sharif said that it was good to see manifold improvement in the chamber. If the economy, industry, political and social conditions were lively, then the Chamber and the business community would also be lively.

He said that LCCI was playing a commendable role to solve the problems of the businessmen. He said, "If we want to progress, then the voice of Lahore Chamber and the business community must be heard."

Nawaz Sharif said that in 2013, Pakistan was also removed from the grey list. He said, "If Almighty Allah gives us a chance, we will change the economic fate of the country." He said that we were not ready to come to the government in 2022 but it was necessary to save Pakistan from default in which we succeeded. He said "we decided to move forward fearlessly for the interest of Pakistan."

Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan was made peaceful, Zarb-i-Azb and Raddul-Fasaad operations were carried out and added that for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the PML-N government completed the IMF programme. "We brought the CPEC, we made plans to extract Thar coal and then generated electricity from it," he added. He thanked the existing and former LCCI office-bearers of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

LCCI President Kashif Anwar thanked Nawaz Sharif for visiting Lahore Chamber and said that Shehbaz Sharif and Ishaq Dar were also former presidents of Lahore Chamber.

Shehbaz Sharif as Prime Minister saved the country from default by finalising the agreement with the IMF which was commendable.

The LCCI president said that due to the sharp increase in the prices of electricity, gas and daily necessities of life, problems were increasing. Kashif Anwar said that tax net expansion had become inevitable and businessmen wanted to pay taxes but the problem was that our taxation system was very complicated. He said, "We have to simplify our taxation system and make people aware about the benefits of coming in the tax net so that our tax base be increased."

He said that regulatory on necessary imported raw materials and components, which were not being made in the country, should be added. He said that the SMEs must have easy access to the borrowing and it was very important to pay attention to the substitution of imports.

He said that the establishment of special investment facilitation council was a good step. He said that we should promote Islamic banking. Strict measures should be taken at the borders to stop Dollar flight. Promotion of trade through barter trade with Iran, Afghanistan and Russia was the need of the hour.

All those countries which do not have regular banking channels with Pakistan, we have to start barter trade with them, which could increase our exports immensely.

Former Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, former finance minister Ishaq Dar, Maryam Nawaz, former ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Khurram Dastgir and Maryam Aurangzeb were accompanied while former LCCI presidents and executive committee members were also present in the meeting.