Every few months, the same story makes the rounds, foreign companies are fleeing Pakistan, the doors are closing, and the country is being “written off.” It is an easy headline to sell because it fits a mood of anxiety. It also gives people a simple villain and a simple conclusion. But when you look at the numbers Pakistan’s corporate regulator itself is putting on the record, that narrative starts to look less like analysis and more like a rumor dressed up as fact.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has directly rejected the idea of a mass foreign business exit. Its clarification is blunt, only 19 foreign companies ceased operations from 2022 through 2025, while 79 new foreign companies were registered in the same period. If you take those figures seriously, you get a very different picture. You see churn, yes, because every market has churn, but you also see more entries than exits. That matters because registration is not a social media post, it is a legal and financial commitment.
People do not go through the paperwork, compliance, and planning just to make a point. They do it because they think there is a path to sales, scale, or strategic value
So, where did the widely quoted “125 companies exited” claim come from? SECP’s clarification points to a familiar trick, mixing timelines to create an alarm. The figure reflects cumulative cessations since 1977, not the last three years. That is a huge difference. A number that spans decades will naturally look big because it includes changes in policy regimes, global recessions, sanctions cycles, and multiple shifts in the structure of the economy. Using that cumulative total to imply a sudden recent stampede is like pointing to lifetime retirements in a country and claiming the workforce vanished last quarter. It is not just misleading, it is lazy.
There is another detail that cuts through the fog, foreign investment was recorded in 82 local companies in the past month, coming from a broad set of economies, including China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Turkey, South Korea, Spain, and others. That mix is important. It is easy to dismiss one partner as an exception or to say one corridor is driving everything. But a spread across multiple economies suggests something more normal, investors are picking specific opportunities.
They are not voting on Pakistan as a slogan. They are making case-by-case decisions about returns, risk, and timing
Critics might still argue that registrations do not equal real activity, and that some companies register and then go quiet. Fair point, and it is why we should talk about the overall stock of foreign firms as well as the flow. As of February 2026, 1,157 foreign companies remain registered with SECP. That is not a footprint you associate with a market that has been abandoned. It signals persistence, and persistence is not glamorous. It looks like firms renewing licenses, maintaining offices, hiring locally, paying advisors, and staying inside the rules even when conditions are hard. Those are not the actions of a business community that has given up.
None of this means Pakistan has no problems. It does. Investors watch currency volatility, import constraints, policy uncertainty, contract enforcement, energy costs, and political noise. Some foreign firms will leave, and some will downsize, because that is how markets work when risk rises. But the right way to describe this is not “everyone is leaving.” The better description is selective pressure. Weak business models exit first. Firms that cannot manage compliance, costs, or supply chains step back.
Others, often those with a longer horizon or a clearer niche, enter when valuations are lower, and competition thins out. That is not unique to Pakistan. It is a common pattern in emerging markets
This is why the myth is so damaging. When we repeat the exit story without checking the timeline, we end up doing two things at once. We scare local entrepreneurs who need confidence to invest in capacity. And we give policymakers a false signal, either to panic or to posture, instead of fixing the boring issues that actually shape investment decisions. If the goal is more sustained foreign participation, then the work is practical, predictable rules, faster dispute resolution, stable tax administration, easier profit repatriation, and clearer sector policies. Drama does not help. Consistency does.
The takeaway is simple, Pakistan is not a place where foreign companies are uniformly rushing for the exits. The record described by SECP points to a market with churn, but also with continued interest and continued presence. Nineteen cessations from 2022 through 2025 do not support the claim of a mass departure. Seventy-nine new registrations in the same period suggest the opposite, there are still investors willing to plant a flag. And the current base of 1,157 foreign companies registered as of February 2026 shows that the international corporate footprint has not evaporated. The real conversation should shift from viral numbers to verifiable ones, and from doom to the specific reforms that turn cautious interest into long-term commitment.
