ICCI for finalizing federal budget in consultation with private sector

ISLAMABAD, Mar 30 (APP):Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) Sheikh Amir Waheed has called upon the government to finalize Federal Budget 2018-19 in consultation with private sector to make it inclusive financial bill.
He said this while addressing a session organized by Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) in collaboration with ICCI to hold discussion on improving the parliamentary hearing process for formulating inclusive economic and other policies.
He claimed major chambers of commerce & industry of the country send budget proposals every year to the government, but most of them were dropped.
He said the role of national assembly’s standing committees on commerce & textile, finance revenue & economic affairs, industry and production, energy and others was vital to make inclusive
laws and policies and stressed that representative of business community should be called to the meetings of these standing committees so that they could present the voice of private sector in the lawmaking process.
Speaking on the occasion, Imtiaz Gul, Executive Director, Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) said that the foundational flaws and lacunas in the parliamentary hearing processes discouraged dialogue between the parliamentarians and the private sector representatives.
Resultantly the inclusive policy making suffered as the private sector’s feedback for the
potential economic reforms was not conveyed to policymakers which was contrary to the idea of inclusive democratic process.
He said CRSS has completed the preliminary research and received comprehensive
feedback from the several legal experts to understand the concept of public hearing, the existing
systems of public hearing in Pakistan, international best practices and the way forward.