Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Coordination Chairman Malik Sohail on Saturday said that the army is the guardian of the geographical frontiers and the nation acknowledges its services and sacrifices.
In a statement, he said that the army cannot remain unconcerned to the ‘deteriorating’ situation while tirade against this institution would not only result in more instability but would also damage the country’s image. He said that the safe recovery of the foreign nationals was a great achievement of the army and the intelligence agencies.
Sohail who is also chief coordinator of the United Business Group (UBG) of the apex chamber, said that the dialogue of the army chief with the business community has infused confidence in the investors while the statement of the ISPR director general was based on facts. He said that dozens of national and international institutions continue to comment on the state of Pakistan’s economy.
Therefore, the institution responsible for the national security can also comment on the economy which should be taken positively, he said. He also said that CPEC was being completed in time despite opposition by various countries for which credit goes to the armed forces. He said that the government and the army should be on the same page on the economy.
Sohail who was also the focal person of the seminar in which the speech of the army chief has attracted criticism said that Pakistan was a country with limited resources and countless enemies which necessitates sound defence for which sound economy was imperative. Therefore, the concern of the army was not unsubstantiated, he said.
He said that top economists and business leaders were present there who agreed to the point of the army chief. FPCCI Vice President Sajjad Sarwar, former president Zubair Malik, Hameed Akhtar Chadda, Qurban Ali Khan and Mian Zafar also said that the weak economy can never guarantee sovereignty.
Therefore, they said that the government should not waste time on petty issues and focus on correcting the direction of the economy so that grave threats to the economy are subsided and masses could get some relief.Opposition Leader in National Assembly Khursheed Shah on Saturday said that everyone has a right to comment on country’s economy and that includes the army chief too, referring to the interior minister’s statement that the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director general should refrain from commenting on the country’s economy.
Speaking to media in Rohri, Shah said that there is nothing wrong with the army chief commenting on the state of the economy since he was the “commander-in-chief” of the army. A weakened economy means a weakened army, he said.
On Friday, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal had said that Pakistan’s economy is stable and is doing a lot better than it was in 2013 and added that country’s economy is not army’s business.
Interior minister’s response came a day after Maj Gen Ghafoor’s interview on a private TV channel in which he had said: “If the economy is not bad, it is not doing so well either.”
Besides that, Chief of Army Staff Qamar Jawed Bajwa, while addressing economists and businessmen during a seminar in Karachi, said the country’s economy was showing mixed indicators and that the tax base needed to be expanded and economic policies continued to be able to break the “begging bowl”.
