ISLAMABAD Dec 12: Qaisar Sheikh, chief organizer of the Pakistan Muslim League overseas, has said that the reason for Pakistan losing foreign markets was the undemocratic rule in the country.

Endorsing Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat’s statement which said that Pakistan cannot recapture the international markets, Sheikh said, it was the undemocratic setup that had landed the country in this situation.

In a statement, Sheikh said that President Pervez Musharraf’s government had failed to achieve economic targets in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, even though there was no Afghan crisis during the first 73 days of the quarter.

He said that the trade sector alone had suffered colossal losses as the exports dropped from 14.6 per cent to 1.8 per cent during this period.

Sheikh further said that all this was due to unsatisfactory business climate in the country and the ‘joint venture’ of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Central Board of Revenue (CBR).

He said that the recovery campaign by these institutions led to the closure of thousands of industrial units and flight of capital worth billions of rupees abroad.

He said that the government’s claim about foreign exchange reserves was a deception.