Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to formulate a comprehensive strategy for the early establishment of a Private Equity Fund, describing private sector investment as a key pillar of Pakistan’s long term economic growth. Chairing a meeting in Islamabad focused on promoting private equity investment, the prime minister instructed officials to prepare a detailed roadmap covering both the country’s public equity market and the proposed Private Equity Fund, signalling that the two are being treated as connected pieces of a broader capital markets strategy rather than separate initiatives.
The initiative is intended to improve access to investment capital, support small and medium sized enterprises, and attract greater foreign investment into the country. Shehbaz Sharif said private equity funds can play a significant role in mobilizing capital, expanding businesses, and generating employment opportunities across Pakistan, according to Radio Pakistan. The framing places private equity alongside more traditional financing channels as a tool the government wants to actively develop rather than leave to market forces alone, reflecting a broader push to widen the range of capital available to businesses outside the banking sector.
The prime minister highlighted Pakistan’s investment potential across a range of sectors including minerals, agriculture, livestock, energy and information technology, describing these as areas where private capital could unlock growth that has so far been constrained by limited financing options. He noted that a stronger public equity market could serve as an important source of financing to support expansion in these sectors, positioning capital market development as a parallel track alongside the creation of the Private Equity Fund itself.
Shehbaz Sharif also observed that the banking sector alone cannot meet the country’s growing financing needs, underscoring the importance of developing alternative investment channels to broaden access to capital for businesses of different sizes and sectors. This acknowledgment points to a recognition within government that bank lending, which has traditionally been the dominant source of business financing in Pakistan, is not sufficient on its own to support the scale of industrial and sectoral growth the government is targeting.
Reaffirming the government’s broader economic priorities, the prime minister said current efforts are focused on achieving sustainable economic growth by encouraging private sector investment, accelerating industrial expansion and boosting exports. The directive to formulate a roadmap for both the Private Equity Fund and the public equity market suggests the government intends to move these initiatives from policy discussion toward a more defined implementation timeline, with further details expected as the roadmap is developed by the relevant authorities.
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