Daily Times

In a country facing economic turmoil and social unrest, annual budgets hold tremendous significance. The exercise is supposed to be a roadmap for the government’s spending and revenue collection for the upcoming fiscal year. However, the recent developments in the Pakistani legislature, where missing executive, sidelined ministers and a series of clandestine huddles have marked deliberations regarding the upcoming budget make one wonder whether the ruling PML(N) would be able to put the money where its mouth once was. Although no one in their right mind could have bought the entirety of its election pledges, the mainstream parties left little other than the seventh heaven as golden reforms of their respective financial plans.

Despite the pressing need for a comprehensive and pro-people budget, the ongoing uncertainty and lack of direction seem to add a good squeeze of lemon directly into the open wounds of millions awaiting respite. With no clear consensus due to the working paper not making it to the floor of the parliament yet, there’s utter confusion as to the developmental budgets. That governments of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have already been shown the door on the question of breathing space should serve as a much-needed jolt of reality check to other provinces: national kitty does not have a lot to offer.

Year after year, we highlight the importance of greater transparency and public participation in the budget-making process. It has, to our misfortune, become an open secret that lack of oversight and accountability leads to inefficiencies and wastage of resources, ultimately affecting the common man. Still, the stakes were never as high as this summer. Even if Jati Umra is abuzz with discussions about bringing a pro-people budget, any such progress should have been ascertained with the support of the entire treasury bench. Furthermore, concrete reforms can only succeed if the opposition is also taken into confidence to ensure the needs of ordinary Pakistanis get prioritised; and their concerns addressed. The current state of affairs, however, suggests that these expectations are bound to be shattered once again.

One of the pressing issues that the upcoming budget needs to address is Pakistan’s public debt quagmire. The pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Prior Actions has only added to the urgency but can Islamabad carve out a satisfying response before the deadline in the wake of this worrisome indecisiveness? Only time will tell. *