In a world where innovation defines the speed of progress and nations' fate, particularly their banking, media and telecommunications industries, Pakistan's business sector remains stubbornly resistant to transformation.
While global markets have evolved through digital reinvention and technological disruption, many of Pakistan’s most visible private sector giants have not moved meaningfully beyond cosmetic modernisations. The stagnation isn't due to a lack of resources or talent. The problem lies in leadership, more precisely, its entrenched nature.
Across several high-impact industries, CEOs and top executives have occupied their positions for over 15 years, often across multiple companies in the same sector. While continuity can be a virtue, in Pakistan's case, it has translated into a kind of strategic paralysis. A generation of corporate leaders, comfortable in their command and rarely challenged, has failed to foster the kind of dynamic, risk-tolerant environment that innovation demands.
Nowhere is this more visible than in the banking sector. Pakistan’s banks are among the most profitable entities in the country, with double-digit returns on equity year after year. But profitability should not be confused with progress. Most banks still rely on traditional revenue models, interest income from government lending, rather than services that support entrepreneurship or technological advancement. Branchless banking and fintech integration have been slow, fragmented and primarily driven by regulatory push rather than internal initiative. Microfinance banks like Easypaisa and JazzCash may have introduced digital wallets, but the big banks have failed to develop meaningful APIs or ecosystems that enable startups and SMEs to thrive. The average commercial bank is still a bureaucratic fortress rather than a platform for financial innovation.
In contrast, in countries like Nigeria or Indonesia, economies once on par with Pakistan, banking leaders have actively invested in digital transformation. The rise of Paystack, Flutterwave, and GoTo shows how banking, venture funding, and tech incubation can work in sync to build a vibrant digital economy. Pakistan, meanwhile, remains stuck in a cycle where institutional conservatism trumps risk appetite.
The media industry tells a similar story. In the early 2000s, Pakistan experienced a media boom. Dozens of news channels, entertainment platforms and FM radio stations launched, creating the perception of a vibrant fourth estate. But two decades later, that boom has turned into an echo chamber. The same media executives and editors who led the industry's rise are still at the helm, often moving in circles among media groups, alternating roles rather than reinventing them.
There has been little to no investment in content innovation, data journalism, or platform-based monetisation. Most outlets have failed to embrace OTT strategies, audience analytics, or interactive formats. In India, platforms like The Ken, TVF or Scroll are redefining long-form, paywalled, data-driven storytelling. In Pakistan, major outlets still chase ratings
with sensationalism, while younger journalists are discouraged from experimentation or meaningful autonomy. Without a leadership refresh, the future of media has reduced to survival, not reinvention.
The telecom sector, once the poster child of Pakistan’s digital promise, is now another cautionary tale. The likes of Jazz, Telenor and Zong continue to dominate the market, but their focus has shifted from service innovation to cost efficiency. The same group of executives has remained in charge, often shuffling between regulatory boards and corporate roles, leading to a cozy familiarity with the system, but not disruption of it.
Pakistan’s telecom penetration is relatively high, but value-added services remain uninspired. Pakistan still lacks a homegrown super app like Indonesia’s Gojek or Singapore’s Grab. While countries in Africa and Southeast Asia are pioneering telecom-led health, education, and payment platforms, Pakistani operators struggle to think beyond data bundles
and spectrum auctions. Innovation has been outsourced to vendors or startups rather than being cultivated within.
The fundamental issue here is generational gridlock. Leadership in Pakistan’s corporate sector has become static. There are few structured mechanisms for internal succession,
fewer still for talent scouting from outside the sector. Boards rarely challenge their executives on innovation
metrics; instead, the KPI of choice is short-term profit or political risk mitigation. In many organisations, decision-making is centralised to the point that mid-level managers with ideas are actively discouraged from thinking beyond their immediate deliverables.
The cultural element cannot be ignored. Pakistani corporate culture tends to value loyalty over disruption, age over agility, and control over creativity. The result is a professional
caste system, where a select few move between boardrooms while younger professionals watch their ambitions atrophy. Unlike Silicon Valley, where failure is a stepping stone, in Pakistan failure is a career death sentence. In such an environment, who would dare to innovate?
There are, of course, exceptions, but they are too few and far between to shift the ecosystem. Startups like Bykea, Airlift (before its closure) and Bazaar Technologies have demonstrated that Pakistani talent can build scalable, digital-first businesses. However, these ventures often operate in isolation from legacy industries. Rather than being acquired, accelerated, or invested in by telecoms, banks, or media groups, they’re left to fend for external funding, often from foreign Venture Capitals (VCs).
What Pakistan needs is not just startup-friendly regulation, but corporate renewal. Executive tenures must be time-bound. Independent boards should be mandated to rotate leadership every 5–7 years to allow for new thinking. Corporate innovation labs should not just be buzzwords but pipelines for actual product launches. Media schools and business schools must be integrated with industry through fellowships and idea labs. Pakistan’s youth bulge is often cited in speeches, but rarely reflected in boardrooms.
There’s also a policy role here. The State Bank of Pakistan, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, SECP and Pemra must adopt a developmental lens. They should reward innovation through incentives, sandboxes, and procurement preferences. They must also use their regulatory authority to ensure that incumbents do not strangle innovation by default.
Ultimately, innovation is not a product of chance. It is the result of systems that reward fresh thinking, challenge complacency, and invite risk. In Pakistan, the ideas exist, the energy exists, the ambition exists. What’s missing is mobility at the top, and the courage to let new voices lead.
Until that changes, we will continue to recycle leadership and wonder why nothing ever feels new.
The writer is a public policy expert and leads the Country Partner Institute of the World Economic Forum in Pakistan. He tweets/post @amirjahangir and can be reached at: [email protected]
