EDITORIAL: Pakistan’s development agenda is once again being undermined by the government’s failure to translate budgetary commitments into actual expenditure. According to the latest figures released by the planning ministry on November 10, in the first four months of FY2026-27, the government spent just Rs103.87 billion, or 10.4 percent of the Rs1 trillion Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocation despite a first-quarter budget surplus of 0.8 percent of GDP.
The Planning Commission had authorised Rs412.3 billion for the period, and the actual expenditure was barely a quarter of that amount. The gap between approvals and delivery exposes the state’s inability to turn resources into public benefit.
This is no isolated lapse, with Pakistan having long settled into a familiar cycle in which ambitious allocations are announced, releases are delayed, projects remain incomplete and the government scrambles to utilise funds towards the end of the fiscal year. Development budgets have also repeatedly been revised downwards, with even the reduced allocations often left underutilised. It goes without saying that stop-start financing disrupts implementation, raises costs, compromises quality, and postpones the benefits that projects are meant to deliver. There is an obvious need to recognise that this is a systemic problem demanding accountability.
The numbers reveal a sustained retreat from development investment. The Planning Commission has previously acknowledged that the PSDP shrunk from 2.6 percent of GDP in 2018 to a paltry 0.8 percent in 2025. At the same time, the latest UNDP Human Development Report places Pakistan 168th among 193 countries in the low human development category. In fact, Pakistan is grouped among the 26 lowest-ranked countries globally for human development, whereas other South Asian nations like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal rank higher. The steady decline in development spending, mirrored by Pakistan’s plummeting human development ranking, reflects the priorities guiding budgetary choices. When investment in schools, healthcare, water, transport and resilient infrastructure is repeatedly deferred, the consequences surface in poor learning outcomes, preventable illness, lost productivity, entrenched poverty and widening regional disparities.
The latest spending figures offer glaring examples of neglect. The Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan and States and Frontier Regions divisions were among those reporting zero development expenditure in the four-month period. In areas already grappling with serious human development deficits and where public frustration has been very visible in recent months, such inaction is an egregious dereliction of duty. In a similar vein, the climate change division spent only Rs259 million or 10.4 percent of its Rs2.5 billion allocation despite Pakistan’s acute exposure to floods, heatwaves, and water stress. National Food Security did even worse, utilising just Rs65 million or less than 1.5 percent of its Rs4.2 billion allocation. Given that climate resilience and food security are central to economic stability and household welfare, these are not minor underspends. Delayed adaptation, water management and agricultural projects can magnify future losses, deepen rural hardship and leave food systems more vulnerable.
Fiscal discipline matters; governments cannot spend indiscriminately simply because funds have been budgeted. But a surplus achieved partly by holding back development expenditure is hardly an unqualified success. The answer is not reckless spending, but credible prioritisation, timely releases and the capacity to execute projects. Above all, there must be accountability. Ministries should explain why authorised funds remain unspent; planning and finance authorities must identify and remove bottlenecks; political leaders must answer for shrinking development space while low-priority schemes compete with essential social investment. We cannot continue to accept this recurring pattern without consequences for the officials, departments, or governments responsible. Pakistan must build the schools, clinics, roads, water systems, and climate safeguards its people urgently need. Failure to do so will condemn citizens to poorer living standards and a future of diminished possibilities.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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