Mian Zahid Hussain, President of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, Chairman National Business Group Pakistan (NBG), President of the All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and Chairman Policy Advisory Board of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), has emphasized the urgent need for a cohesive national logistics strategy to unlock Pakistan’s trade potential. Speaking to the businessmen, he said that Pakistan’s strategic location and vast coastline have made it a central regional logistics and maritime hub.

However, despite this potential, the country’s logistics sector remains underdeveloped and riddled with inefficiencies. Pakistan’s sharp decline was reflected in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI), where its ranking plummeted from 68 in 2016 to 122 in 2018. This index places Pakistan significantly behind its regional peers, such as Vietnam (39), India (44), and Bangladesh (100).

Mian Zahid Hussain highlighted critical weaknesses in customs efficiency, infrastructure quality, and the absence of a comprehensive national strategy as key barriers to progress. Mian Zahid Hussain emphasized that these inefficiencies inflate production costs by nearly 30% and are estimated to cost the economy 4–6% of GDP annually.

To reverse this trend, Mian Zahid Hussain recommends a series of comprehensive reforms, including the full and swift implementation of the Pakistan Land Port Authority Act 2025, to create a “one-window” solution for trade facilitation. Leveraging technology like the Faceless Customs Assessment system to streamline procedures and reduce delays, including the need to modernize ports, strengthen the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC), and invest in a national cold chain network to support exports.

At the same time, capacity exists, it is the enabling systems—regulatory frameworks, infrastructure, and technology—that remain weak, said Mian Zahid Hussain. By addressing these gaps strategically, Pakistan can transform its logistics sector from a bottleneck into a powerful engine for sustainable, export-driven growth and global competitiveness.

Mian Zahid Hussain concluded that a cohesive national strategy is essential to turn logistics into a central driver of Pakistan’s trade policy.