Ch Sarwar lauds European Parliament over GSP plus status extension
He said extension in the GSP-plus status will increase exports by 9.5 percent
LAHORE (APP) – Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar has appreciated the European Parliament for granting another two-year extension in the GSP Plus status to Pakistan and hoped the facility would strengthen the country’s economy.
Talking to senior journalists at the Governor’s House here, he said: “I have contacted European Parliament Vice President Fabio Massimo Castaldo and 10 other members of the European Parliament to thank them for successfully lobbying and winning extension in the GSP plus status to Pakistan despite Indian propaganda.”
Governor Ch Sarwar said he had held meetings with more than 30 European Parliament members during his Europe visit in December last year, adding that Vice President Fabio Massimo Castaldo also paid his first visit to Pakistan on his invitation.
“Extension in the GSP-plus status will increase exports by 9.5 percent with monetary benefit of Rs15-20 billion and create job opportunities in the textile industry,” Ch Sarwar said, adding that extension in the GSP-plus status was reflective of world’s confidence in successful economic policies, peace and stability in Pakistan under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He said that Pakistan’s efforts for environmental change, tree plantation, controlling narcotics smuggling, merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Ehsaas programme, Kartarpur Corridor project and legislation and measures to protect rights of women, children and transgender had widely been appreciated in the European Parliament.
To a question, Ch Sarwar said: “Many of members of European Parliament told me that India lobbied against Pakistan over extension of GSP-Plus status, but it failed in its mission.”
To a query, he said the European Parliament and other countries of the world hailed Pakistan for restoration of peace, adding that the country’s role in the Taliban-US peace deal had also been acknowledged by the world powers.
Ch Sarwar, responding to another question, said he was working to get two resolutions against the controversial Indian Citizenship Act and Indian atrocities against Kashmiri Muslim passed by the European Parliament, adding that the Pakistani government was committed to exposing Indian aggression in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) before the world.
