Not the right questions

BUDGET season is behind us — and with it the opportunity for productive conversations and comparisons centring on inter-governmental development priorities and structural reforms. In recent memory, the only time such conversations flooded the airwaves was after the KP chief minister’s visits to Lahore and Karachi some months ago. For a brief moment, comparisons between the progress achieved under the PTI’s 12-year rule in KP and the track record of parties in other provinces dominated the political discourse — from street discussions among residents to heated arguments between party leaders on national programmes. Given the divisive political slurs that normally eclipse serious political discussions, the debate on actual governance and performance was indeed a welcome change. How­ever, that is where the positivity ended. While greater insight may elude the man on the street regarding service delivery and development, the questions and responses of policymakers, elected officials and senior anchorpersons leave much to be desired. This is particularly apparent during the budget season — in the days leading up to its announcement and immediately after the document is released. It was no different this year. For example, discussions on the education sector’s performance tended to focus on the number of new university buildings inaugurated. Elementary and secondary education were too ‘unimportant’ to even mention. This is ironic, considering that the government is constitutionally mandated to provide education to every citizen from ages five to 16. One would have hoped to see greater commentary on important aspects such as the progress made on increasing literacy rates and reducing the number of out-of-school children, improving test scores, fund allocation at the primary and secondary levels, and university admissions. Rather than listen to long-winded discussions on expensive infrastructure development at the higher education level, one would have preferred detailed analyses on the total number of graduates and how many of them were absorbed into the labour force, academic research and publications, university affordability, the financial status of public universities and their national and international rankings. These are crucial factors; unfortunately, the performance of many public universities has worsened on these fronts. Discussions on the topic could have exposed the government’s lethargy and challenged policymakers to do better. To assess various parties’ records on healthcare, the debate took a similar track, with party spokespersons essentially focused on naming large or tertiary-level hospitals inaugurated during their tenure. Emphasising expensive, specialised care is a misguided and wasteful approach in a country where the overwhelming majority of preventable deaths are due to causes that are treatable at the basic healthcare facility level or through improvement in public health efforts. The latter include better sanitation and vaccination outreach as well as behavioural changes. In Pakistan’s context, focusing the discussion on plans to increase the number of hospital beds, doctors and paramedic staff, improve access to basic healthcare, and keep healthcare affordable would be a better yardstick for comparing provincial performances. What is also left out is key health data, such as trends in mortality, disease and infection rates, and immunisation coverage. In a country where over 40 per cent of children under the age of five are affected by stunting (a consequence of poor hygiene and malnourishment), it was disappointing not to have comparisons focus on improvements in WASH and nutrition. Similarly, there was little discussion on countering inflation and poverty. A recent report on poverty rates presents a damning picture: poverty rates have been increasing in all the provinces over the last few years. The other key economic concern for citizens is unemployment. Again, conversations about government interventions to lessen unemployment or about provincial enterprises and industrial policies, or even about boosting growth in general, never really got off the ground. This exposes the disconnect between broadcasters and policymakers and the issues that most affect people’s lives. It would have been very instructive for the public to hear informed conversations about these issues as well. In at least two of the provinces, KP and Balochistan, security has become one of the biggest concerns for the public. Yet the debate arou­­nd the issue has focused more on jurisdictional disputes rather than actual efforts to ensure security. It is true that both the federal and provincial governments have a role to play in maintaining security, but constitutionally policing is strictly a provincial subject. Yet, rather than discuss interventions that have improved or aim to improve policing through better training, prosecutorial success, community engagement, equipment upgradation and other programmes, the parties were only keen to deflect responsibility — with not enough pushback from the anchorpersons. A more honest political discourse focused on crucial issues is needed. Worst of all, there has been little conversation about key legislation passed. Often, there is criticism that parliamentarians are more interested in development work than legislation; yet the legislative output of their respective parties, and how it determines their performance, is hardly discussed. Perhaps the only exception is the citing of the 18th Amendment by the PPP and ANP. While this may be seen as a joint accomplishment by the provinces, surely political representatives can be asked to explain the performance of their respective provincial government and how it measures up to the policies made or the laws passed. Indeed, the policies and laws themselves are a point of discussion to see how far they go in promoting (or restricting) democratic norms. Pakistan’s political discourse will benefit from more evidence-based third-party evaluation of provincial governments’ performances across all sectors over the past couple of decades. This will not only help foster healthy competition between the parties and their governments, but, more importantly, it will create an atmosphere of cross-province learning and best practices. A more honest political discourse focused on the right issues among party spokespeople and policymakers would contribute greatly to the designing and implementation of programmes to make Pakistan more prosperous. The first step to inculcate such a constructive atmosphere begins by asking the right questions. The writer is a development practitioner and a former parliamentarian. X: @GhaziGJ Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2026

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