ISLAMABAD
\nD Chairman of the FPCCI\u2019s Businessmen Panel (BMP), Mian Anjum Nisar, has reacted strongly to the IMF\u2019s governance and corruption diagnostic report, terming it \u201can alarming charge-sheet against Pakistan\u2019s governance system\u201d after revelations of Rs5.3 trillion in irregulrities.
\nHe said the business community was shocked not only by the magnitude of leakages but also by the institutional weaknesses highlighted by the IMF.
\nAt the same time, he said the economic improvement Pakistan has witnessed in recent months\u2014especially in exports, small entrepreneurship and workplace productivity\u2014has been \u201clargely driven by women\u2019s increased participation in the economy,\u201d emphasising that Pakistan must now supplement this progress through deep, long-term structural reforms. Commenting on the report, Mian Anjum Nisar said the IMF\u2019s findings were \u201ca wake-up call\u201d for the government and policymakers.
\nInstead of treating the report as criticism from a foreign lender, he said, the government should view it as \u201cprofessional, evidence-based feedback\u201d pointing to long-standing structural weaknesses in governance, oversight, procurement and public-sector management.
\nThe scale of governance failures, he said, clearly explains why Pakistan\u2019s fiscal space collapses repeatedly and why the economy remains trapped in cycles of crisis, bailouts and emergency measures.
\nHe said the IMF report has, for the first time in years, quantified leakages and inefficiencies with unprecedented clarity, documenting weak institutional controls, slow judicial processes, outdated audit functions, delays in accountability, and the absence of transparent procurement systems.
\nAccording to him, these are issues the business community has been highlighting for a decade, urging successive governments to stop financial bleeding in public entities, reform procurement laws, digitise federal and provincial departments, and eliminate rent-seeking loopholes. \u201cIf Pakistan wants economic sovereignty, it must fix governance,\u201d he said.
\nMian Anjum Nisar urged the government to announce an integrated national economic reforms agenda aligned with the IMF\u2019s key recommendations.
\nHe said Pakistan cannot progress until there is unified political commitment to transparency, accountability and institution-building.
\nShort-term administrative steps, he emphasised, no longer hold value. \u201cThe IMF has highlighted systemic failures. Therefore, solutions must also be systemic. Cosmetic actions cannot rescue an economy of 250 million people,\u201d he said.
\nHe proposed establishing a National Economic Governance Council\u2014comprising federal and provincial representatives, economists, private-sector leaders, former finance secretaries and regulatory experts\u2014to monitor reform implementation for the next five years.
\nWith political transitions frequent and policy directions changing abruptly, he said Pakistan must create institutional mechanisms that ensure policy continuity beyond governments\u2019 tenure cycles.
\nThe BMP chairman said comprehensive digitalisation of economic governance remains the single strongest tool against corruption.
\nHe noted that globally successful economies are distinguished by transparency through automation, and Pakistan must learn from this.
\n\u201cEnd-to-end digital monitoring\u2014from procurement to payment\u2014can drastically cut leakages and raise revenues,\u201d he said, urging the government to digitalise tax administration, customs management, PSDP execution, subsidy distribution, utility billing and budgeting processes.
\nHe said BMP has long pushed for real-time fiscal dashboards, track-and-trace systems and e-governance platforms, and the IMF report now reinforces the urgency of adopting these reforms without delay.
\nDiscussing public-sector enterprises, he said loss-making PSEs have become a \u201cblack hole for taxpayers\u2019 money,\u201d consuming hundreds of billions annually. Pakistan cannot carry this burden any longer.
\nHe urged the government to either privatise chronically loss-making entities or introduce corporate governance frameworks under which merit-based professional managers from the private sector can be appointed. \u201cNo country can achieve sustainable economic growth while financing dead-weight institutions,\u201d he said. He also underscored the need for judicial, regulatory and audit reforms. The IMF\u2019s observation regarding judicial delays, particularly in commercial cases, is among the biggest barriers to foreign investment.
\n\u201cInvestors avoid environments where contracts cannot be enforced promptly,\u201d he said. Strengthening commercial courts, reducing regulatory overlaps, ensuring professional and depoliticised functioning of accountability bodies, and modernising audit systems, he added, are essential for restoring investor confidence. Pakistan\u2019s ability to attract FDI will remain limited until investors know that property rights, contract enforcement, and tax systems operate with predictability and fairness.
\nThe BMP chairman said Pakistan needs to place economic policy on \u201cinstitutional auto-pilot,\u201d meaning that long-term roadmaps and structural reforms remain consistent regardless of political transitions. Countries with strong institutions experience stability because policies are driven by systems, not individuals. He said Pakistan has suffered for decades due to policy reversals, inconsistent taxation frameworks, and abrupt changes in fiscal and energy policies. \u201cIf institutions are strong, economic governance becomes predictable. This is how economies grow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD D Chairman of the FPCCI\u2019s Businessmen Panel (BMP), Mian Anjum Nisar, has reacted strongly to the IMF\u2019s governance and corruption diagnostic report, terming it \u201can alarming charge-sheet against Pakistan\u2019s governance system\u201d after revelations of Rs5.3 trillion in irregulrities. He said the business community was shocked not only by the magnitude of leakages but also …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":89916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90024,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90019\/revisions\/90024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}