The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has urged the ministry of commerce to amend the Trade Organisation Ordinance (TOO) to remove discrimination in membership rules for SMEs and large companies. 

President Unisame Zulfikar Thaver said in a statement that the ordinance had fixed different parameters for the big and small enterprises and this is against the Constitution of Pakistan. 

It is reported that the Director
Trade Organisation (DTO) has advised trade bodies to have two types of memberships -- the associate and the corporate, but most of the associations are charging the same fee from both the category of members. 

However, the associate members have no voting rights to elect members of the entire managing committee and they can elect only one member to represent them in the managing committee. 

In most of the chambers of commerce and industry and associations the SMEs are in the majority and play important role and contribute a lot in the economic growth of the country and deserve appropriate representation in the managing committees. 

Mr Thaver said the government gave priority to the development of the SMEs sector but the biased attitude of the DTO is negating these efforts.