The release of the achievements of government ministries/boards during the first year of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) government, as directed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, showed no performance of the Board of Investment (BoI) with all nine proposed Special Economic Zones (SEZs) remaining non-operational. The reasons for this are logistical as well as administrative. Logistical reasons include the (i) issues relating to land acquisition, (ii) failure to provide the necessary infrastructure to the industrial units, (iii) purchase of SEZ land as a real estate venture rather than as a place to set up industrial units, and (iv) differential between the actual price of the land and that claimed by the relevant authority - a situation that has erupted with respect to questionable decisions taken by the National Industrial Parks Development & Management Company (NIP) in Karachi.
The major administrative reason could well be that the first BoI Chairman, who had reportedly held out for the status of minister of state before accepting the position, resigned on May 23, eight months after his appointment. Talking to a section of the media, Haroon Sharif claimed that, "After months of hard work, time has come when negotiations for foreign investment in Pakistan have entered the final stage before conclusion, but the appointment of the new economic team and negotiations with the IMF have put my work on the back burner. Investors do not wait; if not Pakistan, they will move to another place." It is not clear how and indeed why the IMF would put the work of the BoI on the back burner as any foreign investment inflow would facilitate the achievement of targets set by the Fund under the 6 billion dollar Extended Fund Facility; however, the new economic team led by Hafeez Sheikh did make several staff changes, as was expected, including that of Secretary Finance yet Haroon Sharif was the only casualty at that level.
Pledges for billions of dollars of foreign investment inflows were made during the first year of the PTI government by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates as well China (for social sectors and agriculture under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor as requested by the Khan administration) however these pledges were the outcome of personal diplomatic efforts by the Prime Minister and a high level team including the then Minister of Finance Asad Umer and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi as well as the Army Chief General Bajwa. Thus BoI cannot claim success with respect to these pledges; additionally as previous Pakistani administrations learned to their cost pledges rarely if ever translate into investment (or assistance) and to this date none of the pledges has been realized.
The new BoI Chairman, Zubair Gilani, was appointed on 3 July 2019; however, he was made the focal person to ensure effective collaboration between federal and provincial governments on early operationalization of SEZs on 8 August, less than two weeks before the PTI's one year was up hence one cannot lay the blame for poor performance in this regard on the incumbent.
Be that as it may, it is vital to acknowledge that the performance of the BoI during the ongoing tenure of the PTI as well as in the past has not been exemplary probably because all relevant decisions, including granting special fiscal and monetary incentives, are made by the Ministry of Finance. And given the state of the economy today with severe resource constraints it is perhaps time to abolish or downgrade BoI as its contribution remains questionable.