Daily Times

Recently, I came across a
statement by the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the vernacular press about his government’s priorities. Addressing members of the provincial Assembly from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), he said that the people had not voted them into government to pave the streets, construct highways or to build flyovers but for the eradication of corruption and the improvement of health and education. Does this statement not reflect the underlying paradigm shift in the thinking of our planners and politicians? When the chief executive of a province whose forte has been construction for too long, is referring to education and health as the top priorities of his government, it indicates that change has set in. It is heartening to note that investment in human and social development rather than physical development has become an overriding concern for our policymakers, at least in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
So far, it has been a priority of both the civilian and military governments to invest in visible development schemes like highways, motorways, flyovers and overhead bridges. The key sectors of education, health and population welfare have received scant attention in our development planning. This misplaced prioritisation and dwarfed vision of development has been pursued by our leaders for years and has resulted in a poor state of literacy, school enrolment, health and population control. According to the global Human Development Index (HDI), Pakistan is placed at 146 out of 187 countries, just ahead of Angola and Myanmar. In layman parlance, the ranking of countries in the HDI is based on education (literacy), health (life expectancy at birth) and income (per capita GDP). Physical development has been the cornerstone of our development planning and policymaking instead of human development.
The ‘concrete and steel’ model of development is favoured by our politicians and planners for many reasons. Firstly, the visibility factor is always higher for grandiose and awe inspiring projects like motorways and metro buses as compared to investments in the lives of the people. Secondly, the short gestation periods of these infrastructural projects make them useful in reaping quick political dividends. Thirdly, this model of development complements the paternalistic politics of our political elite. Contrary to the assertion of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s chief minister, politicians consider paving streets and constructing roads their primary responsibility to the electorate. They need these visible projects to be advertised when it comes to electioneering. Last but not least, this model of development provides greater opportunities for the patrons of these politicians to line their pockets.
The policymaking and development planning of the PTI government signifies a departure from these deep-seated policies and practices of development. It prefers to invest in health, education, social welfare and women’s empowerment. In the current fiscal year, Rs 81 billion has been allocated to education, an increase of 21 percent from the previous fiscal year. Similarly, Rs 25 billion has been earmarked for the health sector, an 11 percent increase from the previous year. As much as Rs 1.114 billion has been allocated to social welfare and women’s empowerment. This amount is 20 percent higher than the previous year. However, despite having the right priorities and sufficient budget allocation, the government has failed to achieve tangible results in terms of health and education reforms because of their focus on dharna (sit-in) politics during the first half of this fiscal year. Yet in its latter half, health and education reforms have become the buzzwords in the power corridors of the provincial metropolis. The absenteeism in schools and basic health units has been overcome considerably and the improvement in the quality of these services is palpable throughout the province. It is pertinent to mention here that the school enrolment drive, though launched with much fanfare, seems to have run out of steam.
The health package, which was recently passed in the provincial Assembly to reform the tertiary healthcare system, can resuscitate the decrepit public health system if it is successfully implemented. The system of collegiate administration for teaching hospitals, as envisaged in the aforementioned legislation, will revolutionise the quality of healthcare. The reforms in higher education await the arrival of educational wizard Dr Ataur Rahman, yet the moribund state of higher education in the province can hardly afford any more procrastination and delay.
The vision of investing in people instead of physical infrastructure is what makes this government distinct from all others. The drive to build an educated and healthy population as a precursor to progress and development is commendable. The diversion of resources from physical to social development is a high stakes gamble. The gestation periods for projects of social development are longer and the visibility is lower, but the impact is everlasting. The people, who are used to projects of infrastructural development, may not realise the importance of this change in priorities at such an early stage. If pursued with due perseverance and diligence however, this shift may go a long way in realising the dream of a new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The party in power depends largely on the youth for support but so far no concrete scheme has been devised to deal with the youth bulge and unemployment levels. The skills and education that these young people require to enter the labour and job markets are lacking. An urgent agenda to equip the youth with these requisite skills and education will greatly assist in harnessing their true potential for economic growth and prosperity. The other issue of vital importance — the population explosion — has also been put on the backburner. More efforts and resources are needed to achieve the replacement level of fertility and subsequent reaping of demographic dividends. A change in priorities is the first step in the right direction. The PTI’s future in politics, the building of a new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and, for that matter, a new Pakistan will greatly depend on the success of these policies and projects. In case of failure, the idea of a third force in Pakistan’s politics will receive a severe blow. This vision for human development, if successfully implemented, will serve the party better than the politics of agitation.

The writer is an assistant accountant general, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa