The SIFC is horizontal; it brings everyone to the table. The SIFC should be vertical – directing, overriding, setting deadlines and enforcing compliance. The SIFC is a coordination forum. The SIFC should be a command authority. The SIFC is a fast-track approvals committee. The SIFC should be the sword, not the scabbard.
The SIFC must be granted legal single-window authority. The SIFC must approve the Pakistan Investment Code within 60 days – who can invest, where, on what terms. The SIFC must have clear sectoral offers – tax holidays, land terms, repatriation rules.
Investors need to know four things: One, whom to talk to. Two, what the process is. Three, what the state is offering. Four, where the red lines are (security, strategic sectors).
The SIFC must publish a quarterly SIFC Scorecard. It must stop one-off deals and opaque concessions.
Right now, the SIFC’s legal hierarchy is fuzzy: is it above ministries? Equal? Advisory? The SIFC should have legal primacy over all investment-related ministries and regulators. Yes, the SIFC must publicly disclose approved projects, stages, and incentives.
Horizontal bodies are temporary, political, and easily diluted. The SIFC must become an institution with its own professional cadre, with a command doctrine and with the authority to cut through bureaucracy. Right now, SIFC is a table - it must become a system.
The SIFC must be redesigned for execution, not meetings. It must be built for delivery, not discussion. It must be structured for outcomes, not optics. It must be geared for performance, not process.
Right now, the SIFC behaves like an investment promotion agency. It must become a single front door for all investors – local and foreign. The logical next step is consolidation: one platform that combines the investment agency, the company registrar, the tourism board and the SEZ regulator. A unified entry point. A unified command. Only then will speed replace paperwork and execution replace fragmentation.
Pakistan would have to compress the state into one high-performance node that investors deal with. An investor should not be running from ministry to ministry – the SIFC should be able to solve 80-90 per cent of issues inside its own structure, with legal authority to coordinate the remaining 10-20 per cent.
Right now, there are multiple windows – BOI, line ministries, provincial departments and regulators. The SIFC Secretariat must become a legal ‘single window’ with binding regulatory timelines (X number of days for NOC, beyond that deemed approved). Every file must have a 72-hour escalation ladder. The SIFC must also have a dedicated fast-track judicial window.
The SIFC must publish and continuously update a single, public Transparent Investment Pipeline – one live webpage showing every approved project with only three columns: Project name and sector; current stage (MoU, Feasibility, Final Investment Decision, Construction and Operational). No jargon, no passwords, no excuses. When an investor anywhere in the world opens the page, they must see in ten seconds exactly what is moving, what is stuck and exactly whom to call.
The SIFC will succeed only when it becomes a doctrine. Pakistan does not need another high-level council. What Pakistan needs is a command centre. The SIFC must stop coordinating and start deciding. When one window speaks for the state, capital flows. Give the SIFC primacy, authority and deadlines – and Pakistan’s investment map will change. Direction, not discussion, will determine Pakistan’s investment future. Execution, not meetings, will determine Pakistan’s investment future.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. He tweets/posts @saleemfarrukh and can be reached at: [email protected]
