ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce (NASCC) has asked the government to establish the newly-proposed Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) through an act of parliament.

NASCC Chairman MNA Iqbal Mahmood Ali said the commerce ministry had already given an assurance to the committee in the last meeting that the new institution would not be established through a presidential order.

Talking to Dawn on Friday, Mr Ali said the committee had already communicated to the ministry that the new chief executive officer (CEO) of the TDAP should be selected through a prescribed mechanism of test and interviews to be properly advertised in the newspapers.

In case they violate the commitment, and the committee would strongly lodge its protest and would oppose it tooth and nail, the chairman asserted. He said that he would soon convene a meeting of the NASCC to take notice of any such development, which he believed would be against the national interest.

The chairman’s reaction came following the reports that the government in principal appointed current Export Promotion Bureau Chairman Tariq Ikram as new CEO of the authority.

Mr Ali said the ministry in a written reply to the committee had agreed that the draft act is being prepared for submission to the National Assembly. The CEO and personnel for other posts of the TDAP would be recruited on open merit, he said, adding that even the committee could produce the minutes of the meeting.