LCCI organises seminar for economic warfare awarness

LAHORE: Speakers at a seminar have stressed the need of devising a strategy for facing the challenges of economic warfare, a statement said on Friday.

“Trade embargoes, economic sanctions, tariff discrimination, freezing of capital assets, suspension of aid and prohibition of investment are some of the common tools of economic warfare,” they said while speaking at a seminar on “Economic Warfare & Its Impacts on National Security” at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

Economic warfare has been used to weaken the economy of states to keep them at the mercy of strong nations. “It is aimed at stopping the states from taking independent decisions”, they said, adding that Pakistan was facing even tougher challenges of economic warfare.

“Pakistan is in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Should we take it normal or get suspicious? The government has to take some unpopular decisions like increasing energy tariffs, withdrawing subsidies, devaluing currency, making the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) autonomous and withdrawing tax exemptions for getting International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans,” they said.

“Pakistan is the only Muslim nuclear state. Our nuclear assets are the lifeline of our country. We need to remain very vigilant about our national security,” they added.

Golden Ring Economic Forum (GREF) president Hasnain Reza Mirza said that Pakistan needed a serious revisit to its economic, foreign and security policies to face the future challenges.

GREF and LCCI jointly organised the event, where GREF president Hasnain Reza Mirza, National University of Science & Technology Dean Dr Ashfaq Hassan and taxation expert Dr Ikram ul Haq addressed the event.

Pak-China Centre of Excellence representative Dr Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, LCCI senior vice president Mian Rehman Aziz Chan, vice president Haris Ateeq former president Shahid Hasan Sheikh also expressed their views.