ISLAMABAD -  Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) has demanded the Commerce Ministry to start inquiry against Director General of Trade Organization (DGTO) Azhar Iqbal for issuing new licenses of Chambers of Commerce to the irrelevant people, who have no background of business.

Talking to media persons here on Saturday, Vice President FPCCI Riaz Khattak said the DGTO issued numerous licenses for the establishment of new chambers of commerce in different districts in last few months which is commendable, but without meeting the required criteria and approved the cases on personal whims which seems to divided the business community and ignore the real faces.

In this regard, FPCCI VP has sent the letter to the office of the DGTO and highlighted the objections but that letter had not been addressed yet. He also said that according to rules and regulations, president of the Chamber should not continue the office for next year unless a gap of a year, but there are cases that some chambers president’s has continued for third year without election and the DGTO office authorized them by ignoring the rule of trade organizations act.

He said we always acknowledge the efforts of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir towards solving the problems of business community across the country; but some rotten eggs damaged the image of the government and its transparency.

Khattak also said DGTO office, an attached department of the Ministry of Commerce, also completely failed to update its website on regular basis.

He said DG Azhar Iqbal had not issued any instruction to update the website. “If any organization comes up with new information or data, it is not uploaded”.

He said that the directorate’s top hierarchy had failed to realize that the website had not been updated for the past one year. “The information about trade cases, which earlier used to be uploaded regularly, is not be uploaded on the website now. There are around of 50 chambers of commerce and industries, 11 women’s chambers, seven joint chambers, 122 all Pakistan trade organizations and eight town associations in the country. No information is being updated about them on the website.”

FPCCI leader requested the government to intervene in this important matter and established transparent systems in the office of the DGTO and check the record of newly open new chambers of commerce one by one and their businesses of the members, so that merit and justice may prevail which is a motto of the incumbent government. It may recall here (DGTO), was established in 2007 after the promulgation of Trade Organizations Ordinance, 2007, as a regulatory body to implement provisions of the aforesaid ordinance. The Trade Organizations Ordinance, 2007 was enacted in the shape of Trade Organizations Act, 2013 on February 22, 2013. The core function of the directorate is the registration of trade bodies under the act and also oversees the matters of the chambers of commerce where required.