Unisame urges for setting up free legal aid committee for SMEs

KARACHI: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has urged for setting up a free legal aid committee in the absence of a delayed Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SME) ombudsman, a statement said on Saturday.

To enable the SMEs to get free legal assistance for protection of their legal rights, the Unisame urged the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) Chief Executive Officer Hashim Raza to set up the committee in the absence of a delayed SME’s ombudsman.

Unisame President Zulfikar Thaver said that the SMEs are not comfortable as their rights are being denied and they are receiving high-handedness and neglectful treatment from some of the government agencies officers.

There are some officers who are extremely kind and good but few officers behave rudely for no reason, he said, due to which the sector is demanding an SME ombudsman and the SME policy 2021 as promised, he added.

Since the policy implementation would take a long time it is best to set up the legal committee, Thaver said, while proposing a free legal aid committee to help the sector get legal assistance and get remedy against injustice, corruption and high-handedness of officials with the help of a free legal aid committee managed by the Unisame and having officers from the Smeda legal department as well.

The Unisame Council members are fortunate to have leading senior advocates as their members who have offered to voluntarily help in the setting up and functioning of the SME free legal aid committee, he said.

The Unisame chief said that a lot of complaints have been received from the entrepreneurs and the members have suggested setting up of a SME Police Liaison Committee (SME-LC) on the pattern of CPLC.

In this regard, he said, the Unisame has an old permission in-hand given during President Musharaff’s time to set up and run a Rahnuma committee on the pattern of Khidmat committee.

The Unisame Council has also urged the government to implement the SME policy and set up and establish all the institutions envisaged therein.