IK needs to convince the vested interests that he has a solid well thought out economic plan (with real metrics and solid people to execute) that will benefit them, and not endanger the opportunities for many of the vested interests; business, retirement abroad, etc.
If his team can come up with a sensible and step by step business plan for the next 5 years, it’s more likely the country will go to elections with less people feeling it’s a danger to their personal fortunes and loss of privileges they have grown accustomed to.
One key concern is not antagonizing the US, and therefore being more tactful in how the government deals with them. Another is long term stability; decades long, so investors can know their investments will not be at risk of political shifts.
A large consumer market Pakistan can potentially increase exports to. Another is attracting investors beyond the Overseas Pakistanis, whom many fear will just invest in real estate. Real estate, at least of the single family homes need to be disincentives and at most more apartment building need to be preferred, if real estate is to be given any break in future economic planning.
PTI needs to be serious in taking the time to meet investors and entrepreneurs (domestic, international; Overseas Pakistanis and non-Pakistanis) as well as managers/directors of existing large companies to figure out how each industry can be restructure in such a way to maximize growth/productivity while also giving a health steady return to investors, at least a few years into a new term.
Considering our large demographics investors in the gulf have including Pakistan into the MENA region; calling it now MENAP, with the hopes of investing in consumer based tech. Pakistan for its part needs a plan to maximize the potential of education (for children and adults) to maximize worker productivity, so new technologies help them produce more and not just consume more.
PTI also needs a foreign policy that brings in non-Chinese investors to leverage IK’s goodwill with the Afghans to speed up a route to Afghanistan/Central Asia (with its mineral resources) and the economic benefits that would give, for example the Saudi could buy the central Asian and Russian oil and gas (at a discount) via pipelines to Gwadar and Karachi, sell it to world markets. The lithium in Afghanistan will be in high demand as the west looks to shift to more EVs and batteries to shore and use solar power electricity in the evenings.
Even China wants Pakistan to have more non-Chinese investors to make CPEC more sustainable, so this is more of a balancing act; politically and economically. So Pakistani policy makers need to reorient key industries to accommodate investor like the Saudis and Emiratis looking to go into these industries, such as giving them SEZs in Pakistan and along the border with Afghanistan for the mining industry, and using the revenue to modernize the rail industry, into an efficient freight industry. Also leveraging the need to modernize the freight industry to give the business of modernization to an American firm so as to gain influence through congressmen in the districts where these freight rail companies operate and are headquartered .
On a positive note, which I hope the vested interests realize is that Pakistan needs a generation of stability to set in place the economic and political institutions. IK won’t be around forever, and let him manage the country while it is at its worst economic state will leverage his populist appeal to bear the hard reforms.
IK is honest with the people, so it’s known he isn’t in it for personal financial gain. He may not be a Lee Kuan Yew, but he’s the best we have at the moment. It must be remember the personal offers made to Lee, which he turned down for the good of his nation.