Businessmen in a meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry strongly condemned the suicide attack in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park of Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore which killed at least 70 people and injured over 250 people. They termed it an act of frustration and sheer brutality against the innocent citizens and added that perpetrators of such attacks have no faith in Islam as our religion never allowed such inhuman acts. They prayed for the departed souls and expressed deep condolences with the bereaved families who lost their near and dear ones in this tragedy. They also fully sympathized with those injured in the suicide attack and prayed for their early recovery. 

 

Addressing the meeting, Atif Ikram Sheikh President, Sheikh Pervez Ahmed Senior Vice President and Sheikh Abdul Waheed Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that keeping in view the prevailing situation, extraordinary security measures should be ensured at all public places, markets, schools and other important locations. They said the economy of Pakistan has suffered huge loss of over $ 107 billion during the last more than 14 years and sacrificed thousands of precious lives due to war against terrorism, but it was unfortunate that this menace was still continuing to kill innocent people apart from taking a heavy toll on business & investment activities. 

 

They said that Lahore was the second largest business hub of Pakistan and it seemed that enemies of Pakistan were now bent on targeting it after Karachi to further weaken the economic roots of Pakistan. However, they said such nefarious designs would never succeed as the armed forces and government of Pakistan were fully determined to rid the country of terrorists and extremists. 

 

They said that our country was passing through a challenging phase and stressed that every citizen of Pakistan should fully support the government in its efforts to eliminate terrorists as besides the loss of precious and innocent lives, such acts of terrorism tended to frustrate the government efforts to promote the soft image of Pakistan and attract more investment in the country.

 

They assured that business community of the entire country would fully support the government in its endeavors aimed at establishing peace in the country which was essential requirement for promoting business and investment activities.