KARACHI – Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), an autonomous organisation of established to promote exports is being run without a board and has lacked renewed ordinance despite a prolonged passage of time. Ordinance pertaining to TDAP which was re-promulgated by the president on 29th November 2009 and subsequently introduced in the form of a bill in the National Assembly is yet to be approved by the assembly and highlights the nonchalance displayed by the government on the pressing need to promote national exports.
Additionally, TDAP board of directors, which is the highest decision-making body in the authority, with the power to supervise, control, direct and regulate the affairs of the authority, was not reconstituted over the previous year after the completion of its tenure in 2009. The void left by the departure of the board members is affecting the official body’s performance and management of daily affairs severely.
TDAP, the export promotion arm of the government, was earlier supervised by a 25 member board including 15 ex-official members while 10 are drawn from the private sector. The minister for commerce was the chairman of the board and the chief executive, TDAP its vice chairman. Speaking on the present form of the authority, sources said that, the main impediment in the absence of both the board and ordinance was disinterest on the part of the ministry of commerce which is apparently unhappy with the formation of TDAP rather than the former Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
According to sources, the government body was constituted by a friend of the former dictator Pervez Musharraf who vested TDAP with extensive powers, in a bid to allow it to perform its function of planning and executing proactive strategies.
With the additional autonomy/ and powers, TDAP was only functional during the dictator’s rule and as soon as political change occurred in the country, the authority was left bereft of the required board and other rules, sources claimed.
The ministry which apparently desires to hold more powers in its own grasp, was keen to amend the ordinance of TDAP in a move to clip the wings of the authority and curtail its powers. The former chief executive of the authority resisted the move until he was removed by the prime minister.
However, sources inside the authority claimed that once the ordinance was introduced in the House, it was the property of the House and until no decision was made by the house the authority would remain functioning under the existing state.
Speaking on the board, they said that the authority had promptly brought the matter in notice of the ministry, entering correspondence last year. The same letters, they said, were repeated in 2010 but nothing was done in this regard, resulting in a detrimental effect on the board and denying it the tools necessary for the efficient functioning of the organisation. In the absence of board, ordinance and business rules, the authority’s status has become very ambiguous while posing a big question on the future of the organisation, sources stressed.
