THIS refers to the article “Removing the auto sector’s training wheels” (B&F, Sept 8), which portrayed Pakistan’s auto industry as a ‘white elephant’ that has failed despite decades of protection.

While consumer frustrations with affordability are understandable, the said write-up has overlooked some important facts and risks undermining the sector. Pakistan’s auto-parts ecosystem supports 1.83 million jobs, sustains 1,200 local suppliers, and substitutes $1.25 billion worth of imports annually.

Vendors have invested over Rs100 billion in tooling and plants, producing globally certified components supplied to Japanese, South Korean and Middle Eastern markets.

High car prices are a symptom of macro-economic realities, not industrial in-efficiency. With per capita income below $2,000, double-digit interest rates, heavy taxation, and a weak rupee, affordability is bound to remain low. Countries see mass motorisation once incomes cross $2,500 per capita. Until then, volumes will remain subscale, limiting economies of scale.

Exports, too, are not constrained by capability. The real barrier is Brand Pakistan. Security incidents like the recent Quetta blast, policy unpredictability, and lack of free trade agreements (FTAs) deter foreign buyers from sourcing here; not the quality of the vendors.

Liberalising used-car imports would only worsen the matters: starving vendors of demand, destroying jobs, and creating a permanent import burden. Successful peers, like India and Thailand, only opened their markets after achieving scale.

What Pakistan really needs is not shock therapy, but stability: a cascading tariff structure, regulated used-car inflows, stronger financing, and export facilitation. The local auto industry is not a white elephant; it is one of the few engines that can drive Pakistan’s industrial future.

M. Shuja ul Haq Siddiqui Vice-Chairman Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2025