KARACHI: Mian Nasser Hyatt Maggo, president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), has welcomed the efforts made by the Ministry of Commerce to kick-start barter trade with Iran on a mass scale, a statement said on Saturday.

However, the FPCCI chief expressed concerns and apprehensions pertaining to the conduct of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for creating obstacles and showing inaction for the same.

Maggo said that the central bank has misdirected the Ministry of Commerce by advising against the banking channels with Iran for sanctions-related concerns; and, not offering and advocating its due and required facilitative role for the barter trade.

Any State Bank should be an enabler of trade and growth; not a block and disruptor like the SBP, he added.

Maggo said that when Europe, India and China can do barter trade with Iran, why Pakistan cannot do that; while, Pakistan is at the greater advantage on the back of long border and geographical contiguity, compared with all other countries and regions.

Nasir Khan, vice president of the FPCCI from Balochistan, emphasised that it is in the national interest to have a barter trade with Iran and have marketplaces in the border areas of the two brotherly countries.

He said he considers the conduct of SBP Governor Dr Reza Baqir against the national interest and detrimental to the economic growth and prosperity of Pakistan.

Khan said that Pakistani exporters can export large quantities of rice, meat, pharmaceuticals and textiles to Iran and that can translate into $5 billion revenue annually; which, in turn, will create millions of jobs.

The current SBP governor is an imported one and is not taking the Pakistani interests into account, he said, adding: “We need a diehard Pakistani at the helm of affairs.”