Business community of Pakistan is shocked over the terrorist attack in Indian commercial city Mumbai and strongly condemns this cowardly act, stated Mian Shaukat Masud, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry expressing his reaction over this tragic incident. He said Pakistan and India were moving ahead smoothly towards the normalization of their bilateral relations and business community was feeling happy over the fact that good relations between the two neighbors will create more scope for business community of both the countries to explore opportunities of further enhancing their bilateral business relations, but the sudden terrorist attack in Mumbai might put a dent in these relations, which is a cause of great concerns for businessmen and investors. He urged upon the leadership of both the countries to take positive steps to defuse the current tension between India and Pakistan. He also demanded of Indian leaders to tackle this situation with maturity and a sense of responsibility and not to lose patience otherwise hike in tension will serve the cause of terrorists and not of India and Pakistan. 

Mian Shaukat Masud said that attacking innocent people, tourists and patients in hospitals is a very despicable and cowardly act and added that ICCI on behalf of traders and industrialists strongly condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. He said Pakistan is itself a victim of terrorism and has already sacrificed a lot in fighting this menace.  He, on behalf of the Pakistani business community, conveyed solidarity and sympathy to the Indian authorities, to Indian people and especially families of the victims. He said business community in Pakistan was not happy over the irresponsible and baseless allegations of the Indian leadership and a section of Indian media on linking the Mumbai attacks to Pakistan, which might create obstacles in the way of flourishing trade between the two neighboring countries. He said without providing solid proof, simply leveling baseless allegations and issuing threatening statement will not help in any way in finding a sustainable solution of this problem.

Muhammad Ishtiaq Qureshi, ICCI Vice President also condemned this terrorist attack and said that both the countries are grappling with rising poverty, unemployment, inflation and many other economic challenges and to cope with these problems, both countries need investment and growth of business & economic activities. However, he said creating hype and giving rise to tension between India and Pakistan will discourage the investors and put negative impact on the business activities as well. Therefore, he called upon the leadership of both the countries to put their heads together and cooperate with each other for exploring best possible means of tackling the problem of terrorism to avoid the eruption of such heinous events in future. He said the business leaders of both the countries should also come forward and play their due role by persuading both governments to take steps to defuse the current tense situation so that the process of development of business relations between the two countries may not get derailed which will prove harmful for the people as well as for the economies of both the neighboring countries.