LAHORE: Advisor to Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad said that all the time political stability is inevitable to attain economic targets.
He added that after the recent Pak-India war, Pakistan gained a very positive response from the entire world as Pakistan gave a calculated response to Indian attacks on its soil, besides showing an excellent diplomacy and building a global narrative that Pakistan is peaceful country.
He expressed these views in the CFO Conference 2025 titled ‘Riding economic wave: Are we gaining momentum’ organized by Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) at a local hotel.
Khurram Schehzad said that after the war, Pakistan is capitalizing on this global shift that created immense opportunities for it, citing that in this connection, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif along with his team members is visiting Turkiye, Iran and Central Asia. He said that now a number of countries are keen to establish or enhance their trade and economic relations with Pakistan.
Finance Minister’s Advisor said that the neighbouring China is our time-tested fast friend and trade partner, and both the countries are improving their bilateral economic ties.
He mentioned that he was part of the Finance Minister’s team that had then been visiting the UK for a road-show on mutual funds, and it had become very unprecedented situation for them to continue with their agenda because of the eruption of Pak-India war, however, the Finance Minister had decided to participate in the road-show session of investors next day so as to clear Pakistan’s viewpoint to the world. Interestingly, the session that had to a gathering of 70 investors, was attended by 120 investors from various countries.
During that session, he said, ‘we apprised the investors about Pakistan’s viewpoint of peace and its measured response to the Indian aggression. We have very successfully convinced the participants that Pakistan is a peace loving country, they not only appreciated Pakistan but also offered to play a role in the ceasefire. They talked a lot on the investment and showed their keen interest to make investment deals with Pakistan.’
Khurram Schehzad said that Pakistan has great economic potentials in the sectors of mines and minerals, defense, Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence. He added that government is taking effective and viable measures to exploit these potentials to enhance its revenues and improve economy and governance. “When our investment and revenues will increase, we will be able to allocate more budgets on development side thus transforming Pakistan into a developed and prosperous country.”
He said that government is also focusing privatization to improve financial governance and management, asserting that privatization encompasses the energy sector, fiscal reforms, tax reforms, policy reforms, pension reforms and loss-making State owned Enterprises (SoEs). At the end, the ICAP President Saif Ullah presented a souvenir to the Advisor as memento to the event.
Earlier, ICAP Vice President Muhammad Awais, Secretary Omair Jamal, Member Climate Change and Food Security, Planning Commission of Pakistan (PCP) Nadia Rehman, renowned Economist Shahid H. Kardar and other prominent speakers shared their views and experiences at the conference.
