(August 26, 2019)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said fake news regarding blacklisting of Pakistan by FATF was part of Indian information warfare.
The fake news was issued by Indian state-run news agency which claimed that FATF’s Asia Pacific Group has blacklisted Pakistan which created panic in the market as the response of our concerned departments was very slow, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that Indian conspiracy changed the sentiments in the stock market resulting in a loss of  534.43 points to 31350.02 points which translated into the damage of Rs71 billion to the investors.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader there is a gulf between government departments and media outlets which provided an opportunity to Indian media to inflict losses on our economy.
The former minister noted blacklisting any country is beyond the mandate of Asia Pacific Group while FATF cannot announce any decision regarding Pakistan before October.
He said that Pakistan has done a lot and it is expected that the country will come out of the FATF’s grey list. He said that Modi has made life difficult for nine million Kashmiris but he has been awarded by Arab countries which have not gone down well with people in Pakistan.
He said that we always seek aid and loans from friendly Arab countries while their trade with India is around 100 billion dollars making them good partners.
Friendly countries are fed up of bailing us out therefore we should reduce dependence on friends and try to boost our economy for which exports are necessary.
