Daily Times

Sir: As usual much debate and discussion are going on about the budget in the media. In my opinion, the budget 2015-2016 is not different from previous budgets in Pakistan as priorities of all the previous governments never changed. For example, last year, the 20 percent of the total current expenditure was spent on defence, whereas only two percent was allocated for the education sector. In a similar fashion, peanuts were allocated for important sectors like health, public welfare and safety programmes. This has been the trend for decades in Pakistan.

Pakistan is a country of 200 million people and 40 percent of its total population lives below the poverty line. One of the main reasons cited for this extreme poverty is illiteracy. The main reason behind this widespread illiteracy is lack of education-related infrastructure, which is required to educate a large population. Infrastructure requires money, which is nowhere to be found. There is an old saying, if you want your nation to survive for 100 years build a strong army, but if you want your nation to survive for 1,000 years build an educated nation.

NASIR RIAZ

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