Pakistan plans $7 billion sovereign wealth fund, finance minister tells Senate committee
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has told a Senate committee that Pakistan plans a $7 billion sovereign wealth fund built around major state-owned companies, as amendments to the fund's governing law come under parliamentary scrutiny.
Pakistan is planning a sovereign wealth fund worth an estimated $7 billion, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, bringing together major state-owned companies under a single structure in a fresh push to give the long-delayed fund a workable shape.
The briefing came as the committee discussed the Pakistan Sovereign Wealth Fund (Amendment) Bill 2026, the legislation that would revise the governance, fiscal safeguards and disclosure requirements of a fund first created by law in 2023 but still not fully operational.
Under the plan described to the committee, the fund would draw its value from the government's shareholdings in profitable state enterprises. Officials told senators that major state-owned enterprises had already been brought together for the fund, putting its estimated value at $7 billion.
The enterprises at the heart of the fund are familiar names from Pakistan's energy and financial landscape: Oil and Gas Development Company, Pakistan Petroleum, Mari Energies and the National Bank of Pakistan, alongside the Pakistan Development Fund, Government Holdings and the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Company.
The fund's origins go back to the Pakistan Sovereign Wealth Fund Act of 2023, under which the government transferred its entire shareholding in seven companies, then valued at about Rs2.3 trillion, to the fund. The idea was to stabilise the economy through diversification, attract investment and generate wealth for future generations, but progress since then has been slow and contested.
The amendments now before parliament are intended, officials said, to clarify the fund's scope, improve its governance and operational efficiency, and strengthen public disclosure. They would also require mandatory briefings to parliamentary standing committees on the performance of the state-owned enterprises involved.
Senators did not simply accept the briefing. The committee chairman questioned why the explanation being offered now appeared different from the one given when the fund was first set up in 2023, and, according to the Senate's own record of the meeting, pressed the finance ministry to submit a clause-by-clause rationale for each proposed amendment before further consideration, which was deferred.
Aurangzeb also used the session to set out the government's wider debt strategy, telling the committee that expensive short-term borrowing was being replaced with loans carrying maturities of five to ten years, as part of a drive towards longer-term borrowing, lower external debt pressure and greater economic stability.
The fund has also been a point of contention with the International Monetary Fund, which has previously pressed for strict safeguards before it becomes fully functional, including barring it from borrowing, giving guarantees or collateral, lending to public or private entities, or taking part in public-private partnership projects. Those conditions, reported earlier in 2026, were designed to stop public assets being put at risk through the fund.
What happens next now depends on parliament. If the amendments pass with the safeguards and reporting requirements intact, the fund could finally move from a legal shell holding state shares towards an operating investment vehicle able to court foreign investors. If scrutiny stalls the bill, or the governance questions raised in committee remain unanswered, the $7 billion figure will remain an estimate on paper rather than a functioning fund, and the debate over whether state assets are safer inside or outside it will continue.
Figures in this post, including the $7 billion estimated value, were checked at 05:29 PKT on 05 November 2026 against the Senate committee reporting of 4 November 2026.
This post is market news information only, not financial advice.
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