Mian Zahid Hussain, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum & All Karachi Industrial Alliance, Chairman National Business Group Pakistan, Chairman Policy Advisory Board FPCCI, and Former Provincial Minister Information Technology, called for a national consensus on economic policy in the wake of dual challenges facing Pakistan: the devastating 2025 monsoon floods and the imperative of maintaining fiscal discipline under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.
“The catastrophic floods have inflicted an estimated $1.4 billion in direct damage, with the agricultural sector bearing the brunt of a devastating supply-side shock,” stated Hussain. “This disaster is not merely a humanitarian crisis; it is a profound economic setback that threatens to derail the hard-earned progress achieved in our macroeconomic stability.”
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the agricultural sector has suffered over Rs302 billion ($1.0 billion) in losses, including the destruction of a significant portion of rice, sugarcane, and cotton crops in Punjab. The disruption of supply chains is already causing a sharp rise in food inflation, with initial forecasts projecting an increase of 4.3% in September alone.
“While the recent foreign investment agreements, including the landmark $8.5 billion deal with China and a $500 million MoU with a U.S. firm, demonstrate Pakistan’s strategic importance and resilience, we cannot allow short-term optimism to obscure the long-term challenges,” Hussain continued. He emphasized that the fiscal burden of reconstruction, estimated to be in the billions, presents a direct conflict with the austerity measures required by the IMF program.
Hussain urged the government to leverage the newly approved IMF Resilience and Sustainability Facility and convert strategic foreign investments into long-term, tangible projects that build productive capacity and climate resilience. He also stated that, “Our economic future is a race between our capacity for reform and the growing frequency of climate disasters. We must prioritize climate-resilient infrastructure and diversified agriculture to break the cycle of crisis and external dependence.”