KARACHI: Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) president Muhammad Idrees, after listening to the grievances being faced by the members of the All City Tajir Ittehad (ACTI), assured that the chamber would take up all their issues with relevant departments and ensure that they do not have to go through any kind of harassment or injustice by the officers of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
“Any specific case pertaining to harassment by the FIA or FBR officials must be referred to the KCCI so that we could take it up with the higher authorities at these departments so that the hardships being faced by small traders and shopkeepers could be minimised,” he said, while speaking at a meeting with a delegation from ACTI, which was led by its president Hammad Poonawala.
KCCI senior vice president Abdul Rehman Naqi, vice president Qazi Zahid Hussain, chairman of the KCCI’s Special Committee for Small Traders Majeed Memon, KCCI former president Shariq Vohra, Managing Committee members along with a large number of ACTI members attended the meeting.
Referring to the concerns expressed by ACTI members over dilapidated road infrastructure of Karachi and the rising street crimes, the KCCI president said that the Karachi Chamber was well cognizant of all these issues; hence, these matters had already been discussed at a recent meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Administrator Karachi Murtaza Wahab who have been invited at the KCCI so that the infrastructure problems could be discussed in detail and the Sindh government along with the local administration could be convinced for devising a comprehensive plan of action for improvement and reconstruction of roads across the city, particularly in industrial areas where commuting has become impossible nowadays due to miserable roads condition.
He also said that Karachi Police chief Yaqoob Minhas, who recently visited the KCCI, will again be invited at the chamber for another meeting in which representatives of all associations will also be invited so that they could get an opportunity to effectively highlight their problems caused by the rising street crimes.
The small traders and shopkeepers were no less and equally important to the KCCI under the BMG’s policy of “Public service”, which was introduced by late Siraj Teli.
“We will continue to dedicatedly serve and support small traders with same zeal and enthusiasm and without any discrimination,” Idrees said and paid glowing tributes to the chairman of the Special Committee for Small Traders Majeed Memon who, despite being so aged, continues to work really hard for the wellbeing of the small traders and shopkeepers.
Memon advised the ACTI president to give nominations of ACTI members so that they could be included in the KCCI’s subcommittee for participation in numerous meetings where they will get a perfect opportunity to bring issues into the limelight and also give suggestions on how to get them amicably resolved.
“[The] KCCI, being the actual representative of the entire business community, is always there to extend full support and cooperation to [the] small traders and shopkeepers who can approach this chamber anytime for assistance,” he added.
ACTI president Poonawala attributed the excellent coordination between the KCCI and ACTI to the dedicated efforts and hard work being done by Memon who promptly responded to any issue being faced by the small traders.
He expressed the hope that the cooperation and coordination between the two institutions would strengthen further in future, which would certainly result in creating an enabling business environment for the small traders who were an integral part of the economy.