The last meeting of the Apex Committee of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), chaired by caretaker prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, has expressed confidence in the SIFC and has endorsed the projects, approved by the previous government, for attracting investments in key sectors of agriculture, livestock, mining, minerals, IT, and energy.

According to media reports, COAS Gen Asim Munir reaffirmed the Pakistan Army’s all-out support to the caretaker government for the continuity of policies in a bid to revive the country’s economy and steer Pakistan towards progress and prosperity.

Be that as it may, I as a lay person or a person who does not have specialized or professional knowledge of the subject believes that the SIFC is a vehicle or forum to fast-track inward foreign investment flows in diverse fields of economy in the country. It was setup by the outgoing Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government.

In other words, the SIFC is a brainchild of the PDM coalition government, which is no longer in charge. There must have been a viable business plan aimed at facilitating or attracting greater foreign investment.

This point leads to a question why the outgoing government decided to take this initiative — the setting up of SIFC — only at the fag end of its tenure, delegating the full responsibility of supervising and taking care of teething baby of SIFC to caretakers who may not be able to strategize and plan for the future in view of their limited powers and very short tenure, although there’s a lot of willingness on the part of the interim government to take the long-term views and build for the future.

In my view, SIFC needs to focus on the outcomes rather than processes. Only good results will provide vindication of its existence. No doubt, SIFC is a national brand mainly because of the fact that it is characterized by a strong participation of Pakistan army, which must stay vigilant to avoid reputational damage from brand abuse and other threats.

Naseem Suharwardi (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023