Imagine opening a small restaurant in Pakistan. Before you serve a single meal, you will deal with the food authority, the cantonment or municipal authority, the labour department, the environmental agency, the revenue office, the health inspectorate, and, depending on your district, several more. Each has its own form, its own fee, its own inspector, and its own timeline. None of them talks to the others. You have not yet cooked anything, and you are already exhausted.

This is not an exaggeration for effect. During a review of domestic commerce regulation in Sindh, I found that approximately thirty-five distinct laws and regulations govern the ordinary conduct of business in a single province. Not thirty-five for the whole economy — thirty-five for one enterprise to navigate before it can trade with confidence. The problem Pakistani business faces is not any single bad law. It is the sheer density and fragmentation of the regulatory architecture that every reform, and every entrepreneur, must fight through.

The consequences are now visible in the national accounts. Pakistan’s exports have fallen from around 16 percent of GDP in the 1990s to roughly 10 percent today, leaving the economy dependent on debt and remittances rather than production. Growth for the current fiscal year is projected at about 3 percent — a fragile recovery, not a takeoff. The World Bank, in its most recent assessment, names the causes plainly: high tariffs, cumbersome regulations, and costly energy and logistics. In other words, the machinery of the state is standing on the throat of its own economy.

Imagine opening a small restaurant in Pakistan. Before you serve a single meal, you will deal with food authority, the cantonment or municipal authority, the labour department, the environmental agency, the revenue office, the health inspectorate, and, depending on your district, several........

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