LAHORE: Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has urged the Pakistan government to address the Monitoring Mission’s concerns over implementing gaps involving 27 international conventions signed to protect its GSP+ facility. “The GSP+ scheme will remain in peril without tangible progress,” he stated.

In a letter shared by his counsel Rana Mudassar Umer to media here on Sunday, Qureshi stressed that Pakistan, being the largest beneficiary, must immediately set its house in order to save the European Union’s GSP+ facility.

Qureshi, currently confined at Kot Lakhpat jail, says the European Union was one of Pakistan’s largest trading partners. In 2025, Pakistan exported goods worth 8.7 billion euros to the EU countries. He said Pakistan was one of the largest beneficiaries of the GSP+ facility as out of 8.7 billion euros earned through exports to Europe, some seven billion euros worth of exports were facilitated through the GSP+ scheme.

The former foreign minister stated that the Monitoring Mission, which visited Pakistan in November 2025, raised concerns over implementation gaps involving 27 international conventions signed by Pakistan. “EU High representative Kaja Kallas in her meeting with Pakistan’s foreign minister on June 1, 2026, highlighted and reiterated the concerns pointed out by the mission”, he stated and added that she pressed Pakistan to demonstrate measurable progress on human and labour rights and governance reforms. The current GSP+ facility would end in 2027.

In order to avail the next cycle, he said, Pakistan would have to meet stricter requirements under the new EU-GSP regulations.

“The Pakistan government must pay immediate attention to Ms Kallas’ concerns because I, as former foreign minister of Pakistan, know how difficult it was to get this facility,” Mr Qureshi said.

Mr Qureshi said Pakistan’s ambassador at Brussels Jalil Abbas Jilani and some leading textile exporters had accompanied him to Brussels, where he had to engage then US secretary of state Hillary Clinton to help Pakistan lobby with the Europeans.

He said former Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar at a later stage played his role with the European parliamentarians and finally Pakistan managed to get the GSP+ facility. “With our exports stagnating, a withdrawal of this facility will be devastating for export earnings,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2026