ISLAMABAD: Patron-in-Chief of the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA), Khurram Mukhtar, has said that the upcoming budget will expose the true priorities of the state and provide a clear indication of the country’s near-term economic direction.
“The opportunities before Pakistan are immense, but unless the mindset shifts from adhocism to strategic economic thinking, we risk becoming our own worst enemy,” he warned.
Mukhtar, who was part of a textile sector delegation that held two sessions with the government’s economic team on jointly submitted budget proposals, said that lack of awareness was no longer the issue, as chronic structural problems were already well understood.
“The real challenge is the continuation of adhocism and the prevailing bureaucratic mindset that prioritises short-term optics, control and extraction over competitiveness, productivity and wealth creation,” he said in a statement.
He observed that export-led growth had largely become rhetoric, while the existing policy framework remained punitive for productive and documented sectors. “As exporters grow, liquidity gets trapped, costs increase, and competitiveness erodes. No economy can sustainably expand exports when growth itself becomes a burden,” he added.
Mukhtar further highlighted that the salaried class continues to bear an unsustainable tax burden, while structural leakages in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), inefficiencies in the power sector, and excessive federal expenditures remain largely unaddressed.
“Productive sectors are repeatedly squeezed to compensate for governance and structural failures elsewhere in the system,” he said.
He noted that Pakistan possesses enormous untapped potential, surplus industrial capacity, and established global market linkages.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026