KARACHI: Business community welcomed amended bill for FPCCI tenure. On October 11, 2022 Parliament in joint session approved Amendment in Rules by extending tenure of trade bodies’ associations, chambers and executive committee members of FPCCI vice-chairman, senior vice-chairman and chairman/president. It will be implemented in January 2022 retrospectively.  

By amending trade rules, their tenure has been increased from one year to two years. Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry long awaited demanded has been fulfilled. In 2020 Executive Committee and Managing Committee of FPCCI passed proposed resolutions and request was moved toward government authorities.   

This amendment is important requirement for implementation of policies for economic, industrial and commercial organisations. Trade and industry circles all over country welcomed newly introduced Bill by Parliament and appreciated economic-oriented policies of government. 

Initially, said amendment was approved by Senate in year 2021 after approval of Standing Committees on Commerce, Finance and Standing Committees of Senate. However, National Assembly was unable to pursue it in 90 days’ time as per rules due to political turmoil. Then it was decided to table it before joint session and it has been finally approved in joint session of Parliament on October 11, 2022.

Earlier, before 90s it was three and four years too as stated by senior members of trade and industry. However, from 2010 it was reduced to one year only. In a country like Turkiye, this term is four years while in neighbouring India it is for three years. Similarly all over world trade bodies’ tenure is fluctuated between three to four years.    

Practically this long-term helps not only within trade bodies to adopt realistic and sustainable policies but also in dealing with government departments and foreign trade bodies to establish liaisons with different economic policies. This is a fact that international trade bodies and economic forums and conferences always criticised that every year there was a new president/representative from FPCCI participating in agreements and talks on serious issues who did not know background of past details. It may be mentioned here FPCCI is a member of eight major international forums where it has to participate regularly in their meetings and conferences.   

FPCCI is also a bridge between government and private business sector for continuation and implementation of day-to-day changing policies and environment. This experience created a long-standing demand for all industrial and commercial organisations, which FPCCI continuously strived to complete.  In practice, it was up to nine months and last three months were seen as election schedules all over country. Hence, newly elected office-bearers were unable to draw their line of action in accordance with past performances of their bodies and implement their thoughts within a short period of just nine months.

Published in The Daily National Courier, October, 15 2022

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