Lahore

The immense participation of foreign diplomats and exhibitors at 13th My Karachi-Oasis of Harmony Exhibition clearly indicates that this exhibition has once again succeeded in attaining the prime objective of promoting the positive image of Pakistan.
Addressing a press conference to mark the closing of 13th My Karachi-Oasis of Harmony Exhibition on Sunday, Vice Chairman Businessmen Group (BMG) Zubair Motiwala and President KCCI Younus Muhammad Bashir said that they announced that next year’s 14th My Karachi-Oasis of Harmony Exhibition will also be held with same zeal and enthusiasm on April 7th, 8th and 9th, 2017 at Karachi Expo Center.
Zubair Motiwala, while terming Gwadar Port and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as most significant projects, informed that Karachi Chamber will now be focusing on how the business and industrial community of Karachi can benefit from these mega projects. In this regard, KCCI, in its 14th My Karachi Exhibition next year, will be setting up a special pavilion to highlight the potential and raise awareness about opportunities to be available on completion of Gwadar Port and CPEC projects.
To a query, he informed that the federal government was invited to participate in 13th My Karachi – Oasis of Harmony Exhibition but nobody from federal government showed up to take ownership of My Karachi Exhibition. He was of the opinion that the Federal Government must come forward to participate in this exhibition and they were welcome to take the ownership of My Karachi Exhibition as done by the Sindh government which would surely encourage the business and industrial community of Karachi to strive even more for promoting the positive image of Karachi, besides making this exhibition an international event.
He said that My Karachi was constantly being staged for the past 13 years with a view to promote the positive image of Karachi and the overwhelming participation of foreign diplomats in this exhibition has paved way for attaining this objective. Speaking on the occasion, Consul General of Switzerland highly appreciated KCCI’s efforts to promote the positive image of Karachi through My Karachi Exhibition and the same was also being done by the Swiss Consulate by spreading the message to the world through its social media pages.
Earlier, President KCCI Younus Muhammad Bashir, in his remarks, paid glowing tribute to all BMGIANs, media and exhibitors for proactively supporting My Karachi Exhibition to make it yet another resounding success. He said that the initiative was taken 13 years ago by BMG Chairman and Former President KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli to counter the negative propaganda about Karachi city by western media who portrayed the entire Karachi as an unsafe place to visit which was not factual at all. With the passage of time, the exhibition has prospered very well and the dense participation of foreign diplomats was a testimony of improved security situation of Karachi. This year’s exhibition has also succeeded in spreading the message of love, affection and peace in Karachi, he added.
He said that the exhibition was being organized without any commercial objective however, a political party attempted to defame KCCI just a day before the commencement of My Karachi Exhibition which was highly unfair. Referring to KCCI’s banner displayed at Teen Talwar, he said that the reason for displaying these banners was to ensure maximum participation of Karachiites only who enter the exhibition free-of-charge. “Our intention is to provide Karachiites a pleasant and secure environment where they could buy goods at subsidized rates and we work only for the welfare of business and industrial community. We are not a politically affiliated entity. We strongly condemn the political party’s move to remove KCCI’s banners from Teen Talwar and defame KCCI through social media”, he added.
He said that Karachi has been giving stalls at subsidized rates to encourage women entrepreneurs and it has also been giving many stalls to other deserving people so that they could be able to earn something from this exhibition. Younus Bashir was of the opinion that the success of My Karachi Exhibition can be gauged from the fact that the bookings for next exhibition commences immediately upon completion of the exhibition and many exhibitors pre-book their stalls for next year.
Appreciating the efforts made by Sindh government, Rangers and police under Karachi Operation, he said that the business and industrial community of Karachi has finally taken a sigh of relief due to improved security situation but still lot more needs to be done to ensure long-lasting peace across the city.
He stressed that the Karachi Operation must continue until the city is completely cleansed from criminals whereas the business and industrial community of Karachi will not accept any halt or reshaping of Karachi Operation which will once again plunge this city into the darkness of terrorism and lawlessness.
Younus Bashir also underscored the need to depoliticize police department and make it capable enough to maintain peace of the city on completion of Karachi Operation as it was the police department which will ultimately have to take charge of security situation. “In this regard, the police officers should be stringently trained and well-equipped with necessary gadget, bullet proof jackets and vehicles etc. so that they could rapidly respond in case of any untoward incident”, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman Special Committee for My Karachi Exhibition, Muhammad Idrees said that My Karachi Exhibition was constantly being staged since past 13 years but they have never witnessed such a dense participation of foreign diplomats and exhibitors.
He also paid glowing tribute to BMG leadership, KCCI Office Bearers, Managing Committee members, Former Presidents, exhibitors and media for extending unconditional support to My Karachi Exhibition which has become the largest exhibition of Pakistan.