Safe city project allocating to Huawei will do it at a risk of projects being left

ISLAMABAD ( PRESS RELEASE )

Chairman Consumer Rights Protection Bureau Dr Jamal Mirza has said that American government is expanding investigation into Huawei breaking trade control Laws on Iran, Sudan, Cuba and Syria. An administrative subpoena was issued to Huawei in the same regard, by the United States Treasury Department’s office of Foreign Assets Control.

 The same department oversees compliance with a number of American sanctions programs. The previously unreported subpoena was issued in December 2016, by the Office of Foreign Assets Control under the United States Treasury Department, which oversees compliance with a number of American sanctions programs. In April 2017, 10 members of Congress sent a letter to the Commerce Department demanding that Huawei be publicly identified and fully investigated.

In a statement, he said that Huawei a telecom giant was facing blacklisting and sanctions in United State

America, however, the same company in Pakistan was lobbying to get critical safe cities projects in Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab. A company that is being investigated at the highest levels for breaking US trade laws and suffering from internal instability is at a most likely risk of being blacklisted.

“Government of Pakistan if considers allocating the project to Huawei will do it at a risk of projects being left incomplete as the company is most likely to suffer major turmoil internally and externally” Dr Jamal Mirza stated adding that the company had said to have already starting to lay-off its employees in Pakistan and globally.  After the commerce department investigation, now the scope is being escalated and expansion in enquiry is being done by The Treasury Department.

“The most likely thing happening here is that Commerce figured out there was more to this than dual-use commodities, and they decided to notify Treasury” said Mathew Brazil, a former United States commercial officer in Beijing and founder of Silicon security firm Madeira Consulting. The widening inquiry, which can have serious consequences for Huawei puts the company in an awkward position at a moment when sanctions have taken on new import” he maintained.

He said that the subpoena indicated Huawei might be suspected of violating American embargoes that broadly restrict the export of American goods to countries like Iran and Syria. Once the investigation is proved, the US government is likely to impose export restrictions on Huawei, preventing from conducting business in the United States and working with US suppliers like Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom and Qualcomm which will seriously affect the stability of supply chain to Huawei and the huge amount of penalty may impact their normal operation also.

“Given the global sanctions seriously being deliberated by the US Government, a big question mark arises on the ability of the company to do strategic projects that are of value to Pakistan’s security structure” Dr. Jamal Mirza added, saying, clearly once the sanctions are imposed, Huawei, will have to do a lot of internal restructuring, lay-offs etc as economic sanctions for any global company are the first step to a free fall.
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