Economy

Imports
$78.5 billion (2021). Refined Petroleum ($6.58B), Petroleum Gas ($6.41B), Crude Petroleum ($3.53B), Palm Oil ($3.36B), and Vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures ($3.06B), importing mostly from China ($23.5B), United Arab Emirates ($7.13B), Qatar ($4.8B), Indonesia ($4.05B), and United States ($3.51B).

In 2021, Pakistan was the world’s biggest importer of Tea ($622M), Hydraulic Turbines ($108M), Jute and Other Textile Fibers ($58.3M), and Metallic Yarn ($35.8M).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 16.3% have an account with a financial institution
• 0.2% have a credit card
• 8.5% have a mobile money account

Ease of doing business
It is moderately easy to conduct business (rated 61 out of 100) and ranked 108th out of 190 countries worldwide (2022, World Bank).

Exports
$32.7 billion (2021). House Linens ($4.63B), Rice ($2.26B), Non-Knit Men’s Suits ($2.03B), Knit Sweaters ($1.5B), and Non-Knit Women’s Suits ($1.37B), exporting mostly to United States ($5.51B), China ($3.25B), Germany ($2.53B), United Kingdom ($2.21B), and United Arab Emirates ($1.28B).

Main local online stores
Daraz.pk, Kaymu.pk, HomeShopping.pk, Symbios.pk, Shophive, Yayvo,iShopping.pk, Mega.pk.

Economic freedom
It is mostly not free (rated 49.4 out of 100). Ranked 33rd out of 39 Asia-Pacific countries. Ranked 152nd out of 184 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 6th out of 10 Central and Southern Asian countries, and 87th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Media

Media language English and Urdu.

Information channels
Pakistan is one of the world’s deadliest countries for journalists. Intelligence agents and members of banned militant organisations are behind “serious threats” to reporters, says Reporters Without Borders. The government uses legal and constitutional powers to curb press freedom and the law on blasphemy has been used against journalists. The broadcasting regulator can halt the carriage of foreign TV channels via cable, particularly Indian or Afghan ones. Television is the dominant medium and there are dozens of private channels. Most viewers watch them via cable; there are no private, terrestrially-broadcast stations. State-run Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) is the sole national terrestrial broadcaster. More than 100 private FM radio stations are licensed. They are not allowed to broadcast their own news. Scores of unlicensed FM stations are said to operate in the tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Usually operated by clerics, some of the outlets are accused of fanning sectarian tension. Nearly 18% of Pakistani citizens use the internet (ITU, 2016). The rapid growth in mobile phone use is boosting the delivery of online content. Filtering targets content deemed blasphemous, secessionist, anti-state, or anti-military, OpenNet Initiative reports. The regulator has imposed temporary blocks on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites over material it says is “sacrilegious”. Pakistani users active on Twitter include senior politicians and sports and entertainment stars.

Radio

Radio Pakistan – state-run, operates 25 stations nationwide, an external service and the entertainment-based FM 101 network, aimed at younger listeners
Azad Kashmir Radio – state-run, for Pakistani-administered Kashmir
Mast FM 103 – private, music
FM 100 – private, music-based

The press

Daily Jang – Karachi-based, Urdu-language; largest-circulation daily
Dawn – Karachi-based, largest-circulation English-language daily
The News – English-language daily, published by Jang group
The Nation – Lahore-based, English-language daily
The Frontier Post – Peshawar-based, English-language
Daily Ausaf – Islamabad-based, Urdu-language
Daily Times – English-language, publishes in Lahore and Karachi
Pakistan Observer – Islamabad-based daily
Business Recorder – financial daily
Pakistan and Gulf Economist – business weekly
The Friday Times – Lahore-based weekly, English-language
The Express Tribune – daily

Television

Pakistan Television Corporation Ltd – state TV, operates PTV Home, regional network PTV National, Baluchi-language PTV Bolan, PTV News
Geo TV – leading private satellite broadcaster, owned by Jang publishing group; based in Dubai; services include Urdu-language Geo News
ARY Digital – private, via satellite; services include ARY News and entertainment channels
Dunya News TV – private, via satellite; Lahore-based
Dawn News – private satellite broadcaster, owned by Herald group; first English-language news channel
ATV – semi-private, terrestrial network
Aaj TV – private satellite broadcaster, owned by Business Recorder group
Indus TV – private, via satellite; services include Indus Vision, Indus News and entertainment channels

News agency

Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) – state-funded

Internet Data

Internet users
36.7% penetration, 87.35 million

Share of web traffic by device
72.96% mobile phones, 26.03% computers (laptops and desktops), 0.99% tablet devices and 0.01% other devices.

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
14.93  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
10.28 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 80.5%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 62.1%

Most popular web search engines
Google (97.88%), Bing (1.4%), Yahoo! (0.43%), Yandex (0.12%), Petal Search (0.08%), other (0.09%).

Most used social media
Facebook (82.8%), Twitter (11.32%), YouTube (4.15%), Instagram (1.18%), Pinterest (0.45%), LinkedIn (0.05%), reddit (0.05%), other (0.01%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
66 yrs (2021)

Gender
Pakistan is a patriarchal society and women face various challenges and barriers that impact their participation in the labour force. However, despite all the challenges and contrary to Western perceptions, women are visible in leadership roles and do work in occupations that are seemingly male dominated. Pakistan is one of the countries with a former female prime minister and governor of the state bank. Women are reserved a special quota in the federal legislative assembly. Generally, Pakistani men are respectful towards women. However, harassment and discrimination issues still exist in the workplace.

Corruption perceptions Index
Pakistan scored 27 out of 100, ranked 140 out of 180 countries worldwide.

Current health expenditure
2.95% of GDP

Current education expenditure
75.4% of total expenditure in public institutions

CO2 emissions
0.8 metric tons per capita

World Happiness Index
Pakistan ranked 121 out of 146 countries, with a score of 2.404.

Class
Class discrimination is very visible with the concept of class more complex than the Western definition. Pakistan has a huge economic disparity with a shrinking middle class. The colonial concept of servant and master is still prevalent and alien to Western culture. Class essentially does not mean “money”. It is a complex concept associated with power and family name.

Religion
Pakistan is a Sunni majority country. The persecution of certain religious minority groups has over recent years has uncovered seething conflict and targeted killings of minorities (e.g. Christians and Shias) is becoming a growing concern. Religion is a controversial topic. It is advisable to stay away from conversations that have anything to do with religion.

Pakistanis are not overly religious; however, expressing religious opinion is a matter of cultural identity. Morality is associated with religion and drinking alcohol is illegal in the country.

Ethnicity
Pakistan is an ethnically diverse country with Punjabis being the dominant ethnicity. Ethnic clashes are a common occurrence in urban centres such as Karachi. However, it is not common to see confrontation on ethnic lines in workplaces. Nonetheless, Pakistanis are a culturally and ethnically diverse people and conversations related to ethnicity should be avoided.