LAHORE: The country’s system is in need of a reset, as some departments and institutions have become hurdles to ‘performance’, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Friday.

The security czar, who had whipped up a political storm when he called for the formation of new administrative units in the country a few months ago, urged the business community to support the government’s efforts in this regard.

Mr Naqvi made the remarks while speaking to businessmen in Lahore – reminiscent of his original tirade at the Pakistan Economic Summit in July.

“As far as federal institutions are concerned, we do receive your complaints from time to time. It seems that some departments and institutions have become hurdles in the way of our performance. So whenever possible, we try our best to correct the things,” the minister said.

Revives earlier call for ‘system reset’, seeks support from business community

“I will not speak more on this and I don’t want to go into detail, as there are many things and we achieved many of them. But at this time, this country’s system needs to be reset, and we cannot do that until we have your support,” he reiterated.

He hoped that whenever the system is reset, things will much improve.

The interior minister, who has recently made several whirlwind trips to Iran as part of the country’s efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the ongoing hostilities between Iran and the US, also spoke at length about the neighbouring country’s progress despite decades of sanctions.

In his words, those who hadn’t been to Iran thought of it as a war-torn country, with destruction everywhere. “The people who visited Iran with me returned astonished after seeing the scale of development in a country that has been suffering under sanctions for many years,” he said.

“You name anything – their auto industry is manufacturing everything locally. I agree that export-led growth is necessary for this the country’s [economic uplift], but at the same time, we need to reduce our imports through local manufacturing,” he said, requesting the business community to come up with proposals related to both exports and imports.

He stressed the need to learn from Iran’s economic development. “If they can do this despite sanctions for 30-40 years, we can do much more than them. And it is easy for us,” he maintained.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2026