Trade bodies being ignored in key National Assembly body meeting

The meeting called by the National Assembly''s standing committee on Ports and Shipping to deliberate on the all important ''Sea Carriage Shipping Documents, Bill 2011'' and ''Carriage of Goods by Sea Bill, 2011'' is being considered as "an exercise in futility" by leading trade bodies here.
The meeting is scheduled to be held on December 8 but without proper representation of trade bodies, which are the main users of this facility.
Patron-in-chief, Pakistan Bed-wear Exporters Association (PBEA), Shabbir Ahmed told Business Recorder here on Sunday that neither leading trade bodies like All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma), Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), and Chambers of Commerce and Industry Karachi and Lahore have been invited nor the bill circulated well in time to enable trade and industry provide feedback on the subject.
In such a situation these important bills, if passed by the National Assembly, would be only "half-baked." "It is necessary that all the exporters and importers associations and apex trade body should be taken into confidence and their point of view considered before finalising the bills," he said.
Shabbir said that Pakistan is a signatory to a number of conventions, which should be considered and debated so that no conflicts are created to embarrass the Government of Pakistan.
He suggested that the meeting be postponed as due to holidays not much time could be given by the stakeholders to study the subject and that the draft bill has also not been circulated.
He thought that the committee should also take into account that all laws be made or amended in conformity with the international conventions and international laws, which are applicable to shipping industry operating internationally and with different flag carriers.
He was of the opinion that if any amendment is to be made in the existing laws of Pakistan then this kind of meeting should be held taking the apex trade body into full confidence as FPPCI represents all the chambers of commerce and industries and entire trade bodies of Pakistan. "Perhaps the standing committee is being influenced by one of the members of the committee who happens to be a member of PBEA," he said.
Shabbir strongly pleaded that since the National Assembly is responsible for framing laws, it should protect the interest of the entire trade of Pakistan and not just the interest of a small association, which is contributing a very small portion to exports from Pakistan.