1. Introduction / Executive Summary

Businesses in Pakistan operate within a regulatory system replete with licenses, approvals and permissions, where the government of Pakistan acts as an administrator rather than a facilitator, and compliant firms face costs and barriers that noncompliant firms escape. The government has acknowledged this problem and commenced multiple reform initiatives to address it. This brief compares the methodologies available to reformers for diagnosing regulatory burden and designing reforms; it does not offer any analysis on the economic implications or efficacy of these reforms. It reviews four methodologies: the World Bank's Business Ready (B-Ready) Index, the PIDE Sludge Series, the Regulatory Guillotine, and the Standard Cost Model. The review indicates that each answers a different question and suits a different stage of the reform cycle, but none captures discretionary enforcement on its own, and that the tools are best used together, in sequence, rather than as competing choices.