PBF supports SM Tanveer’s candidature for FPCCI presidency
KARACHI: The Pakistan Business Forum (PBF), an independent representative body of the business community, has announced its support for industrialist SM Tanveer as a candidate for the presidency of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) for the term 2027–2028.
The endorsement was announced by PBF President Khawaja Mehboobur Rehman, Chief Organiser Ahmad Jawad, Senior Vice President Amna Awan and Provincial Chairmen Daroo Khan Achakzai, Malik TalatSuhail, Malik Khuda Baksh and Ashfaq Paracha.
The forum underscored that Pakistan’s business and industrial sectors were passing through an exceptionally challenging period, marked by the high cost of doing business, rising energy prices, mounting operational expenses and an increasingly difficult environment for entrepreneurs and investors.
The forum also expressed concern over incidents involving the arrest of businesspeople, stating that such developments further weakened business confidence and added to the difficulties faced by the private sector.
In this challenging environment, PBF maintained that the business community needed serious, credible and independent leadership capable of taking up its concerns with the federal government in a candid, forceful and constructive manner.
It emphasised that the next FPCCI president would have a particularly important responsibility to articulate the ground realities confronting industry, commerce and trade.
The forum stressed that the FPCCI, as the apex representative body of Pakistan’s chambers of commerce and industry, must play a proactive and assertive role during the 2027–2028 term.
The PBF further emphasised that the FPCCI must present an accurate picture of the difficulties confronting businesses, including the impact of high energy tariffs, excessive operating costs, regulatory hurdles and measures that undermine commercial confidence.
The forum observed that the coming term would demand a leadership approach based on independence, professional competence, consistency and the courage to raise difficult questions in the larger national economic interest.
It stressed that the business community needed a representative who could engage with the government on an equal footing, advocate reforms without hesitation and work towards practical solutions rather than allowing critical business issues to remain unresolved.
Reaffirming its support for SM Tanveer, the Pakistan Business Forum expressed the hope that his candidature would contribute to strengthening the voice of the private sector and advancing the collective interests of traders, industrialists, exporters and entrepreneurs throughout Pakistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026