People losing hope as investors flee the country.
Tariq Khattak
Islamabad 23 November 2025
Prominent business leader and former Islamabad Chamber of Commerce president Shahid Rashid Butt said that the powerful, greedy and uncontrolled elite has become a serious threat to the national economy and to the country’s 250 million people. He said the public is becoming poorer and more frustrated, while the youth are leaving the country.
The business leader said influential business groups are weakening key institutions and pushing the country into uncertainty, unemployment, inflation and instability for the sake of profit.
Speaking to the business community, he said that almost every sector has turned into a mafia, but the public suffers the most from the flour mills mafia, the sugar mills mafia, the ghee mafia and the commission agents mafia. He said the tax and regulatory system has become a burden, electricity and gas prices continue to rise, and people are being squeezed to benefit independent power producers.
Shahid Rasheed Butt added that the weak oversight system becomes active only for political revenge, while the elite enjoy growing privileges and special concessions. Secret decisions are filling their coffers and halting development. He said the public believes the entire system is designed to reward the powerful and extract from the people, and that it cannot function without borrowing.
He said falling investment, the exit of multinational companies and declining output in large industries are evidence of this failed system. Industrialists, he noted, are struggling to survive due to expensive electricity, uncertain tax policies and complex regulations, while business costs keep rising. Tax revenues and exports are consistently declining, markets remain unstable, and small businesses are under severe financial strain.
He said elite plunder has become a challenge to national survival. If mafia protection, political unrest and policy discontinuity are not addressed, the economy will remain weak. Regulators have become a problem for the economy, and scams worth billions of rupees are being ignored. So-called game changer projects delivered nothing, and the economy is being run on slogans. He said Pakistan needs lasting reforms instead of cosmetic steps so that both citizens and businesses can have a reliable state system.
He warned that continued policy drift will deepen the recession and limit job creation.
SME owners say rising utility costs and shifting tax rules are making survival difficult.
Workers report stagnant wages while basic food prices keep rising. Without transparent regulation, market confidence will remain weak. Business groups call for predictable policies to restore investment and protect households.
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