ISLAMABAD  -  Senate Standing Committee on Commerce on Tuesday decided to have a detailed briefing from trade and investment officials working in different states of the United States in the next meeting.

Senator Anusha Rehman chaired the meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Commerce held Tuesday at Parliament House. The committee was briefed by trade and investment officials from Washington and New York about the export potential of Pakistani products in these regions. The Trade and Investment Officer for Washington apprised that the US is the biggest trading partner of Pakistan, as the country exports $5.4 billion worth of goods against imports of $1.8 billion. Pakistan primarily exports textile products to the US, and there is significant export potential for gem and stone products, furniture, and pharmaceuticals in the region. Moreover, the Trade and Investment Officer for New York informed that under the new policy framework of US, there is ample potential for the export of items to US including footwear and seafood items. The Committee decided to have a detailed briefing from other trade and investment officials working in other states of the US in the next meeting.

The Senate Committee deliberated on the non inclusion of Senator Faisal Rehman from the Board of TDAP and subseqent non-inclusion of parliamentarians on the Board. The Secretary for the Ministry of Commerce, Jawad Paul stated that the Law Ministry barred the inclusion of parliamentarians in any State-Owned Enterprise in 2020. However, the Commerce Ministry has decided to move the summary to the Cabinet for their approval, as the TDAP doesn’t fall under the list of SoEs. Senator Anusha Rehman questioned if a Cabinet approval would be required for the inclusion of ex-officio members? As for a statutory organization a parliamentarian is included as an ex officio member and ex officio officials do not require cabinet approval in normal course. She reiterated that if the advice of the Law Division is followed, then no minister can even be a member of the TDAP Board, however, this is not the case in TDAP board which is being chaired by a minister who is a parliamentarian. Hence manifest a blatant dichotomy of policy when record presented by Ministry of Commerce is persued. The Committee decided to call upon the Law Division to address the legal lacuna concerning the inclusion of parliamentarians in the TDAP Board. The absence of Law Division was noted with exception, and if they were not present in next meeting, then it was decided by Committee to summon them as per rules.

In attendance were Senators Faisal Saleem Rehman, Bilal Ahmed Khan, Zeeshan Khanzada, Hamid Khan, Sarmad Ali, Amir Waliuddin Chishti, Saleem Mandviwalla, Secretary for Ministry of Commerce Jawad Paul, Special Secretary for Ministry of Commerce Shakeel Ahmed Mangnejo, CEO TDAP Muhammad Zubair Motiwala and other concerned officials from the relevant departments.