The bulk of the ambitious Uraan Pakistan objectives run counter to its policies:
The recently unveiled five-year economic plan Uraan Pakistan, introduced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, aims to capitalize on the country’s nascent economic recovery to foster growth. Centred around the PML-N’s five-point development agenda — the 5Es Plan — the initiative emphasizes exports, information technology, environment and climate, energy and infrastructure, and justice for all. The goal is to guide Pakistan towards becoming a trillion-dollar economy by 2035, effectively tripling its current size. The roadmap envisions addressing key economic challenges through the National Economic Transformation Plan, offering short-term solutions for stabilization and growth.
Despite its lofty targets, the plan’s goals appear ambitious and potentially unrealistic. It seeks to achieve a sustainable growth rate of 6% by 2028 and attract $10 billion in private investment annually to double exports to $60 billion over the next five years. However, the state minister for finance has downplayed the importance of these targets, suggesting that the plan’s main aim is to provide direction for the economy, avoiding overheating when growth accelerates.
While the plan outlines what the government hopes to achieve over the five years, it lacks specific policy reforms or solutions to address the underlying issues afflicting the economy. At best, it proposes the establishment of a delivery unit at the Prime Minister’s Office to coordinate the implementation of sectoral plans and roadmaps. This unit aims to execute the initiative while ensuring transparency and accountability. However, over the past nine months, the government’s track record on delivering promised structural reforms has been underwhelming, with examples such as backpedalling on retail tax and State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) reforms raising concerns.
Moreover, many of the government’s current policies appear contradictory to Iranian Pakistan’s objectives. For instance, while the plan advocates for boosting IT exports and supporting startups, it has simultaneously slowed down internet speed a move that risks IT export losses.
The plan acknowledges decades of political instability, policy inconsistency, and military interventions in the political process as contributing factors to the current state of the economy. Yet, there has been little effort to address these deep-rooted issues. The absence of clear policy reforms and a comprehensive strategy to implement these targets leaves considerable room for the bureaucracy to avoid responsibility. While monitoring and evaluation are essential to track the plan’s progress, they cannot replace the need for real reforms and policy changes. Addressing the underlying economic challenges is crucial if Pakistan is to achieve sustainable growth and meet the ambitious goals laid out in Uraan Pakistan.
