PAKISTAN has a total of over 7.2 million economic units, with Punjab holding the largest share across all sectors.
However, Sindh leads the way in the services sector. This was revealed in the first-ever Economic Census 2023, officially launched by Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal in Islamabad on Thursday. Of the 7.2 million economic units, 2.7 million are retail businesses, 188,000 are wholesale enterprises, 825,000 are service outlets, 23,000 are factories and 643,000 are production units.
This was the third detailed report launched by the Planning Ministry after the population census and the agriculture census, which provides authentic data on the economic activities in different parts of the country, giving an insight to planners of the ground situation and how to proceed further. There is an understandable concentration of economic establishments and the labour force in the largest province of Punjab and the economic hub Karachi. The data will, hopefully, strengthen the hands of the authorities concerned in implementing plans to formalize the informal sector. It is shocking that out of 7.2 million economic units including 643,000 production units and 23,000 factories, only 250,000 companies are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), prompting the Minister to say this highlights vast opportunities for business formalization, tax net expansion and investment. The census also shows animal farming constitutes over fifty percent of the household-based economic activities indicating vast potential for growth and development of livestock and dairy sectors provided federal and provincial governments extend them necessary assistance. Existence of six hundred thousand mosques and thirty-six thousand religious seminaries is a reminder that these institutions play an important role in the provision of informal education and knowledge of the religion, strengthening ideological foundations of the country. There are, of course, some exceptional cases where seminaries are allegedly involved in spreading hate and the State is taking care of the issue in close coordination with religious parties and Ulema.
