While Pakistan’s business elite readily secure alternative residencies, acquire foreign properties and park wealth abroad for their families, their business ambitions remain strikingly inward-looking, unlike peers elsewhere. Few, if any, of the country’s top 25 business groups own or operate sizeable ventures overseas.
Globally successful businessmen often aspire to expand abroad, test their entrepreneurial mettle and tap new opportunities.
Why, then, does Pakistan’s business elite lack this instinct, with virtually none building a notable global presence?
Many business leaders, including some with overseas operations, concede that Pakistan’s business elite generally lacks the ambition to build businesses abroad. They cite capital controls and a domestic ecosystem that, despite its flaws, often promises higher returns. Some economists blame restrictions on moving capital overseas; others argue that decades of perks, protection and patronage have blunted the drive in Pakistan to innovate and compete in rule-based global markets.
Owing to capital controls and the domestic ecosystem, local business elites generally lack ambition to build overseas
According to various estimates, Pakistanis own several thousand companies in the UAE alone, ranging from shell entities and small retailers to medium-sized multi-sector corporate enterprises. Pakistani entrepreneurs also use offshore companies and overseas offices, particularly in Dubai, London and the US, for global trade, investment, banking and technology services. Major groups such as Nishat, Yunus Brothers and Habib have ventures abroad, though none has attracted attention for exceptional scale or growth.
Research also identified several successful businesses in the West owned by non-resident Pakistanis, particularly in retail, automobiles, hospitality, healthcare, transport and technology. Unlike Pakistan’s established tycoons, however, many of these entrepreneurs build their businesses from scratch abroad, with little or no prior exposure to Pakistan’s corporate culture.
Prominent examples include Bestway Wholesale in the UK and Flex-N-Gate and Ciena Healthcare in North America. Some have grown into multi-billion-dollar enterprises, reinforcing the contrast between the global success of self-made expatriate Pakistanis and a limited footprint of Pakistan-based business groups.
Zaid Bashir, CEO, Ideas, and a leading business voice, argued that being inward-looking is less about ambition and more about rational preference. “For decades, the stock market and property have delivered excellent returns with little effort. You don’t have to run factories, manage people, fight competition or build brands. The money grows on its own. When passive assets pay so well at home, there is little incentive to struggle in foreign markets”, he said.
He added that overseas expansion makes little commercial sense for several major sectors. “Cement is constrained by freight costs, fertiliser derives its advantage from subsidised gas, while auto assemblers do not own the brands they produce. There is little to take abroad.
The question really applies to textiles and pharma, and there Pakistan has reason to be proud,” Mr Bashir said.
Textile companies export billions of dollars to Western markets while competing with China, Vietnam and Bangladesh, while pharma companies sell in dozens of countries and meet international regulatory standards.“These businesses compete on quality and cost in open markets. They demonstrate that Pakistani industry can compete globally”, he concluded.
Pakistani businesses generally prefer low risk and high margins and have limited appetite for risk-taking
Muhammad Ali Tabba, another prominent business leader, offered a more candid view. “Why talk about building business abroad? Look at how many of Pakistan’s top companies even export. You will find the answer,” he said.
“Most are content earning high returns in the protected local market. Exports are fiercely competitive and typically offer lower margins; investing abroad carries even greater risk for moderate returns. Pakistani businesses generally prefer low risk and high margins and have limited appetite for risk-taking,” he asserted.
Dr Ishrat Hussain, former governor of the State Bank, attributed the limited overseas presence of Pakistani businesses largely to the country’s weak external position and resulting stringent regulatory capital controls.
“When I was at the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Pakistan had accumulated foreign exchange reserves equivalent to six months of imports. The trade deficit was low, and the current account was either surplus or marginally in deficit. The foreign direct investment was at its peak, and the external debt ratio had fallen by half.
“This allowed the SBP to introduce a scheme permitting listed, tax-paying companies to invest up to $5 million abroad and repatriate dividends and profits back to Pakistan. Investment above that threshold required Economic Coordination Committee approval. I recall several Pakistani companies acquiring enterprises abroad,” he said.
Dr Hussain said the situation changed after 2008 as persistent pressure on the exchange rate and dwindling reserves prompted authorities to discourage overseas acquisitions.
“With a trade deficit of $30 billion and fragile reserves partly supported by volatile deposits from friendly countries, Pakistan can hardly afford significant foreign exchange outflows for overseas investment,” he said, noting that restrictions at one stage even capped individuals’ transfers from their own foreign currency account to $100,000. Dr Hussain, however, didn’t mention any Pakistani brand that availed the scheme to make it big globally.
Musadaq Zulqarnain, Chairman Interloop Group, a leading exporter, attributed the limited overseas presence of Pakistan’s business elite to several factors. Historically, stringent capital controls have made legitimate cross-border investment difficult, while businesses have shown limited appetite for the additional risks involved in building sustainable enterprises in highly competitive international markets.
“At home, meanwhile, opportunities for relatively high returns in sectors marked by widespread informality and tax avoidance have weakened, and informality is widespread; the incentive to venture abroad. The limited international mobility afforded by a Pakistani passport has also posed a practical impediment to establishing and managing businesses across borders,” he said. “These factors may not fully explain the phenomenon, but collectively they have certainly contributed to keeping much of Pakistan’s business community inward-looking,” he added.
Osama Khan, an accountant practising in Ireland and the UK, said the Pakistani business elite relies on cheap labour and domestic advantages. In contrast, many Pakistani-trained professionals have built successful businesses abroad from scratch.
Khurram Mukhtar, Patron-in-Chief, Pakistan Textile Exporters Association, contested the perception, citing investments in manufacturing across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America. He named Interloop, Artistic Milliners, Soorty, Masood Textile Mills, Lucky Cement, Descon and Akhtar Textiles among groups with overseas ventures.
The writer is a former Dawn staffer
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, August 31st, 2026
