Daily Times

LAHORE: The government had seemed to make a detailed plan for the social welfare projects. From Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP) to Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), significant amounts are likely to be allocated to such welfare projects.

Statistics show that around 60 million Pakistanis or approximately one-third of the total population lives below the poverty line. Even though the poverty headcount has fallen in absolute numbers, majority of them still live without basic necessities and on minimum incomes.

Add to this the tragedy that irrespective of how high the allocated amounts are for such development projects, they barely reach the intended target population and even the overall implementation of such projects is faulty. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2014-15 Rs 1,513 billion were allocated to the National Development Programme (NDP) out of which Rs 700 billion were designated for the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). The actual disbursement for PDSP however showed only 61 per cent of the total allocated amount.

The upcoming budget for FY 2016-17 is likely to allocate approximately Rs 660 billion to federal PDSP. The expected breakup is Rs 25 billion for National Health Programme (NHP), Rs 20 billion to PMYP, Rs 20 billion for Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Community Development Programme (CDP), Rs 28 billion for the Special Federal Development Programme, Rs 7 billion to Eartquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority and approximately Rs 100 billion for the Special Development Programme for Temporarily Dislocated Person’s (TDPs) programme.

Education and Employment still trapped in the whirl of faulty implementation

High unemployment coupled with insufficient education expenditure on education multiplies the menace of poverty in Pakistan. The federal and provincial share of the expenditure on education is 80:20. In 2015, the federal government contributed 0.34% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while the provinces collectively spent 1.33% of the GDP.

Last year, Pakistan saw a shift in this trend with a slight decrease in unemployment from 6% in 2014 to 5.9% in 2015. The number of out-of-school children also fell from 25 million to 24 million and retention rates also improved but still there are more than 18 million children who have never stepped foot inside of a school.

Health Care programmes are not implemented in a healthy manner

The National Health Programme had been initiated in 17 districts and arrangements are also underway to further expand it. According to the quoted statistics, around 1.4 million under-privileged families had been provided with free healthcare.

In the upcoming budget, Rs 102 billion are to be allocated to BISP which is expected to reach more than five million families. The Prime Minister’s Interest-free Loan scheme will also provide Rs 50,000 to households with poverty score of 40 or less.

Traditionally, employment and education have always been the stars in the election campaigns irrespective of the regime in the centre but never did these sectors have received the needed spending. Even if the budget allocates high amounts on paper, seldom do they translate into practical spending with actual results. This always ends up in the persistence of nuisances like unemployment and low literacy rates and their side effects of high unrest and high crime rates.