Business Recorder Editorials 17Th August 2026

Making idle assets work

EDITORIAL: Punjab’s decision to establish a dedicated authority for identifying, managing and monetising under-utilised public assets deserves support because it addresses a problem that has been allowed to persist for far too long.

Government land and property scattered across departments, autonomous bodies and provincial entities often remain idle, encroached upon or trapped in outdated administrative procedures while the province simultaneously struggles to finance infrastructure, social services and development. Creating a specialised institution to bring these assets into productive use is therefore both timely and economically sensible.

The rationale behind the Asset Management Authority of Punjab is difficult to dispute. The province lacks a centralised mechanism for identifying the full extent of its landed assets, assessing their present condition, determining their best use and ensuring that any lease, development or disposal process reflects genuine market value. The proposed digital inventory and GIS-based database should help correct that weakness by making it harder for valuable public property to remain invisible within departmental records or vulnerable to encroachment and informal occupation.

The authority’s broader mandate is equally promising. Public assets should not remain frozen simply because existing procedures are fragmented or administratively cumbersome. Properly managed, they can generate non-tax revenue, attract private investment, support new infrastructure and create employment. At a time when provincial finances remain under pressure, extracting greater economic and social value from assets already owned by the government is preferable to imposing further burdens on taxpayers or relying indefinitely on additional borrowing.

The safeguards included in the framework also appear reasonable. Valuation, disposal and grievance committees are intended to introduce structure into decisions that have historically been vulnerable to discretion. Annual audit by the auditor general provides another layer of oversight, while the requirement that 98 percent of project proceeds be deposited into the provincial consolidated fund should ensure that the overwhelming share of revenue returns to the public exchequer. These provisions can support transparency, provided they are implemented with the same seriousness with which they have been drafted.

That qualification is important because Punjab’s record of implementation gives ample reason for caution. Successive governments have launched authorities, task forces and reform initiatives with similarly impressive objectives, only for progress to slow once the initial announcement passed. Institutional overlap, bureaucratic resistance, political interference and weak follow-through have repeatedly reduced ambitious plans to little more than administrative additions. A new authority can solve a coordination problem, but it can also become another layer of bureaucracy unless its mandate is enforced, its decisions are transparent and its performance is measured against clear outcomes.

The method of disposal and monetisation will require particular scrutiny. Public property must not become an opportunity for politically connected individuals or preferred investors to acquire valuable assets below market value. Every major transaction should be conducted through open, competitive and independently verified processes. Asset valuations, reserve prices, bidding documents, successful bidders and final proceeds should all be placed in the public domain. Where assets are retained for social or strategic purposes rather than monetised, that reasoning should also be recorded and disclosed.

The most effective safeguard would be regular publication of progress. The authority should release quarterly reports listing assets identified, properties surveyed, encroachments removed, projects approved, transactions completed and revenue generated. These disclosures should also show how much of the proceeds has reached the provincial consolidated fund and what public purposes those funds are supporting. Without such reporting, citizens will have little way of knowing whether the authority is unlocking public wealth or merely adding another institutional nameplate.

Punjab has correctly identified a serious governance failure and proposed a potentially workable response. The opportunity is considerable, but so is the risk of repeating familiar mistakes. The authority will ultimately be judged by whether idle assets begin producing transparent and measurable public value. The initiative is sound on paper. Its credibility will depend entirely on what follows.

The potential of medical tourism

EDITORIAL: For years Pakistan has searched for the next big export story, looking everywhere from information technology to minerals, agriculture and value-added manufacturing. Yet one of the country’s most promising opportunities has been quietly growing in plain sight.

Industry experts are now making a compelling case that Pakistan could develop a thriving medical tourism industry by combining internationally trained doctors with treatment costs that remain a fraction of those in developed countries. Considering the size and growth of the global market, this deserves far more serious attention than it has received so far.

The timing could hardly be better. According to experts advising the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), the global medical tourism industry was worth approximately $144.5 billion in 2024 and is projected to approach $705bn by 2033. Aesthetic medicine alone accounts for the largest and fastest-growing segment of that market. Pakistan already possesses many of the ingredients required to compete: internationally qualified specialists, comparatively low treatment costs, modern healthcare facilities in major cities and close cultural and geographical links with markets in the Gulf, Central Asia and the overseas Pakistani community.

The comparison with Turkey is instructive. Turkey has transformed itself into one of the world’s leading destinations for medical tourism, attracting well over a million patients annually, many of them seeking hair transplants and cosmetic procedures. That success did not happen by accident. It resulted from sustained government support, international accreditation, aggressive marketing, streamlined visa procedures and the deliberate creation of a global healthcare brand. The expertise existed before the industry flourished. It was the policy framework that unlocked its commercial potential.

Pakistan appears to possess a similar opportunity. The country produces thousands of medical graduates every year, while many specialists hold internationally recognised qualifications or have trained in the United Kingdom, the United States and the Gulf. Pakistani doctors have earned professional respect well beyond the country’s borders. Yet their expertise has rarely been viewed as a strategic export industry capable of generating foreign exchange, creating skilled employment and attracting investment. That represents a significant policy blind spot.

The opportunity extends well beyond cosmetic medicine. Dental care, fertility treatment, bariatric surgery and specialised procedures all represent expanding international markets where treatment costs increasingly influence patient decisions. Many overseas Pakistanis already return home for medical care because of familiarity, trust and affordability. Patients from neighbouring countries and the Gulf could similarly become an important source of demand if Pakistan succeeds in building an internationally recognised reputation for quality, safety and professional standards.

But that will require far more than optimistic projections, of course. Medical tourism cannot be developed through speeches alone. International accreditation, strict quality assurance, transparent regulation, malpractice protections, specialised hospitality services, efficient visa processing and coordinated international marketing all form part of the package that successful destinations offer. Patients travelling thousands of miles for treatment purchase confidence as much as healthcare. Reputation, therefore, becomes the industry’s most valuable asset.

The government has an important role to play. The SIFC deserves credit for engaging with industry experts on the subject, but consultation should now translate into policy. Medical tourism should become part of Pakistan’s broader export strategy, with measurable targets, incentives for internationally accredited hospitals, easier entry procedures for foreign patients and coordinated promotion in carefully selected overseas markets. Partnerships with airlines, hotels and private healthcare providers could further strengthen the country’s competitiveness.

Pakistan has spent decades searching for new sources of foreign exchange while overlooking opportunities created by its own human capital. Medical tourism may not solve every economic challenge, but it offers something increasingly rare: a sector where the country already enjoys genuine comparative advantages. Those advantages should no longer remain an untapped possibility. They should become part of a national strategy to export expertise rather than watching patients, and the economic opportunities they bring, travel elsewhere.