A panel appointed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has recommended urgent reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business and sharply increasing exports, in a bid to avert another International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme once the current arrangement ends in 2027. The committee, led by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, warned that Pakistan’s current economic trajectory could not sustain a population of 250 million without structural changes.
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Consultations with public and private stakeholders highlighted cross-cutting hurdles affecting 20 priority export products and six export drivers. The panel said Pakistan must double exports to over $60 billion within three years through tariff rationalisation, competitive energy pricing, and policy predictability.
It found that high and volatile electricity and gas tariffs continued to undermine export competitiveness. Frequent pricing changes, it said, were inflating production costs in manufacturing, agro-processing, minerals and services, pushing buyers toward competing markets.
The synopses cited fragmented taxation, inverted input tariffs, delayed refunds and working capital lockups as key constraints, particularly for small and medium enterprises. The committee said policy unpredictability across taxation, energy, tariff and regulatory regimes weakened investor and buyer confidence.
Institutional fragmentation and regulatory burdens were also highlighted as major obstacles. The panel noted overlapping mandates, discretionary enforcement, and excessive audits, which raised compliance costs and discouraged scaling.
Exporters also faced weak domestic testing and certification facilities, forcing them to rely on overseas laboratories, increasing lead times and rejection risks. Logistics bottlenecks, expensive freight, port inefficiencies and limited cold-chain capacity further constrained performance.
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Mr Iqbal said Pakistan’s “economic sovereignty and national security” now depended on how quickly the country could adopt an export-led growth model. He stressed that strengthening foreign exchange reserves through sustained export growth was the only path to avoiding future IMF dependence.
Pakistan currently exports an estimated $30–35 billion worth of goods annually, against an untapped potential exceeding $60 billion, according to Planning Commission assessments