Govt fails to hold several meetings

Published August 21, 2014
The official hierarchy is preoccupied with the current political crisis. Besides the disruptions and road-blocks have reduced attendance in economic ministries and departments. — Photo by Reuters
The official hierarchy is preoccupied with the current political crisis. Besides the disruptions and road-blocks have reduced attendance in economic ministries and departments. — Photo by Reuters

KARACHI: A number of meetings between the business community and the government have been postponed due to prolonged protests by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek in the federal capital.

An official in a multinational drug company said the government used to hold three monthly meetings of the pricing and licencing committees and the registration board, and such meetings could not be held due to the prevailing conditions.

“The pharma industry has not received any intimation so far from the government as to when these meetings will be held,” an executive of a pharma company said.

Sources said many manufacturers of life-saving drugs faced problems in Lahore when their trucks were stopped from proceeding to Islamabad and other cities. These trucks were released after three days, but manufacturers were apprehensive of the ill-effects of the delay on quality of the drugs. They said those medicines would be supplied to the market after running quality verification tests.

A manufacturer said that one truck carrying drugs worth Rs2.5 to Rs3 million was also detained.

Director-General Pakis­tan Automotive Manufactu­rers Association (PAMA), Abdul Waheed Khan said that the 20th meeting of Auto Industry Development Committee (AIDC), which was scheduled to be held on Aug 18 at the offices of Engineering Development Board in Islamabad was postponed. It was rescheduled for Aug 21, but has again been delayed.

The agenda of the AIDC meeting related to the request received by EDB from Pak-Suzuki Motor Company Limited for allowing import of 6 HS Code, being CKD parts, by removing them from the negative list of items importable from India. The other issues to be discussed included registration of auto vendors with the EDB.

The official hierarchy is preoccupied with the current political crisis. Besides the disruptions and road-blocks have reduced attendance in economic ministries and departments.

No federal minister or the chairman of Board of Investment attended the Expo 2014 held on August 12-14 in Karachi despite their verbal confirmation. Only Secretary of Federal Housing Ministry Younus Daga visited the Expo.

The All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association Chairman Yasin Siddiq said no meetings between Aptma and the government were scheduled during the last eight to 10 days.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014

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