Haroon Sethi advises on public-sector reform and economic governance in Pakistan. He has built and led ventures in manufacturing, automation and software technology.
Dec 16, 2025
The imaginations of Pakistan's top brass appear to be unable to conceive of anything beyond foreign direct investment as the only hope for the country and tax incentives as the only means to attract it.Taxes, though, are not the sole, or even the primary factor in attracting investment.
Dec 11, 2025
The Government of Punjab is in full swing to announce the plethora of smog-control measures that have been launched. But to anyone who understands the challenges of large-scale reform, the sheer breadth of initiatives signals a lack of clarity.
Nov 28, 2025
Solving Pakistan’s myriad complex and interrelated problems, such as smog and air pollution, requires new thinking. But there is a difference between novelty and innovation. Punjab’s response to the smog crisis offers many lessons for where out-of-the-box thinking should (and should not) be applied.
Nov 17, 2025
Can Pakistan find a way out of its persistent growth trap? Haroon Sethi, chair of the Roundtable ‘What Is Pakistan’s Way Out Of Its Growth Trap?’ held at the Indus Conclave 2025, reflects on the discussion.
Oct 23, 2025
While the government's ambitions for the IT sector have grown dramatically over the years, it is not clear that its understanding of IT sector incubation has evolved.
Aug 25, 2025
The people of Pakistan may have won freedom from the yoke of British rule, but did they ever really gain independence from colonialism?
Jul 21, 2025
Government officials in Pakistan put great faith in IT oriented solutions for every problem, from seeking justice to simply obtaining character certificates. But, is this faith justified? Can embracing IT work as a panacea for governance failures?
Jul 18, 2025
Despite decades of reform efforts and investment in the FBR’s systems, resources and processes, the government is nowhere close to achieving its desired levels of tax collection. It is not the implementation that is wrong, but the strategy.
Jun 20, 2025
For too long Pakistan’s economic policymakers have blamed taxpayers for not shouldering the country’s fiscal burdens. But this deflects from the state’s culture of profligacy, which is at the root of the country's debt crisis.
Jun 05, 2025
Pakistan's myopic focus on raising tax-to-GDP ratios rests on flawed assumptions and distracts from real fiscal reforms.
May 24, 2025
The country benefits far more from decent facilities everywhere, than world-class facilities in small pockets. Infrastructure development should take into consideration the needs of everyone, not just a segment of the population.