City Desk
islamabad: Business heads and policymakers called for coordinated regulatory reforms, harmonized standards and stronger accountability of regulators to ease the compliance burden on firms operating across federal and provincial jurisdictions. They spoke at a session titled “One Firm, Many Regulators: The Case for Regulatory Harmonization” at the 29th Sustainable Development Conference, organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in Islamabad on November 12.
Competition Commission of Pakistan Chairman Farid Ahmad Tarar said the Asan Karobar initiative is only one part of the wider reform agenda, recalling that firms once filed up to 16 tax returns a month. Dr Ishrat Husain stressed balancing regulation, deregulation and over-regulation. Economist Usman Khan cited an estimate of 1,003 federal and provincial regulators and urged a centralized digital registry and risk-based regulation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Iqbal Sarwar said 37 processes have been integrated into the Asan Karobar portal, but some regulators bypass it, and tourism businesses may deal with 25 to 50 regulators. Dr Muhammad Kamran Khan noted that a request to convene the KP Regulatory Reform Committee, made in February 2026, had not been acted on.
Sindh’s Asif Kareem highlighted an automated e-licensing portal covering 150 services. Speakers also called for common application formats, mutual recognition of provincial licences, and legislation to institutionalize reforms.
