Over a decade after it was unveiled, the Vision 2025 today lies in tatters. It had promised an industrial revolution, driven by manufacturing, innovation and a transition to knowledge economy. With the exit of nearly two dozen foreign companies since 2022, Pakistan today faces literal de-industrialisation. The Vision 2025 was led by the chief of the Planning Commission – Ahsan Iqbal. Both watch haplessly as companies wind up businesses and industrial output decelerates because of bureaucratic incompetence, extractive policy framework and chronic macroeconomic instability.

Large-Scale Manufacturing (LSM), for example, contributed about 13.5% to GDP in FY14. The figure reads almost the same for FY25 i.e. 13.2 %, marking in fact a contraction compared to FY24.

Between FY14 and FY25, output in major industries didn't just stagnate - it collapsed. Production of TV sets, for example, plummeted by nearly 70%. Production of refrigerators fell by 39% and that of electric bulbs by 97%. Bicycles and sewing machines registered a 40% and 88% decline respectively. Pig iron and coke production vanished completely.

The backbone sectors - chemicals, iron, steel and electrical equipment - are collapsing. Cement, once a symbol of national growth, is operating at just 53% capacity, its lowest level in more than a decade. These aren't mere statistics - they are epitaphs of once-thriving industries that provided........

© The Express Tribune