Another year, another broken promise. Once again, the government\u2019s grand talk of tightening the belt ends up squeezing everyone but itself. This time, the federal PSDP missed its own spending goal by a wide margin: Rs 905 billion spent, falling well short of the revised Rs 1.1 trillion target. A gap like this is a clear sign that whenever money runs out, it\u2019s the people\u2019s needs that get tossed aside while official perks stay safe.
\nCitizens hear the same excuse every year: there\u2019s no room in the budget for roads, schools, hospitals or jobs. Yet bloated ministries, idle departments and overlapping agencies continue to feed off the system. Lawmakers\u2019 pet schemes keep their funding intact, even grow bigger. Last year, the so-called SDG schemes soaked up more than allocated, while essential projects in water, highways and power got hacked down. Call it austerity if you like, but it looks a lot more like self-preservation for those in charge.
\nThe damage is plain to see. Roads remain half-built. Communities wait years for bridges or irrigation canals that never come. Young people find fewer jobs as stalled development chokes growth. People lose hope and trust, and who can blame them? Why should taxpayers pick up the tab when the ruling elite won\u2019t cut their own excess?
\nEach budget cycle spins the same tale: IMF demands, tight deficits, tough choices. But the real story is painfully obvious. From the looks of it, the state is too big, too wasteful, and too addicted to borrowed money. Next year, the water sector\u2019s budget drops by nearly a third. Defence spending, meanwhile, gets a boost. Over a hundred development projects worth billions are abandoned overnight.
\nIf this government is serious about living within its means, the cuts must start at the top. Rightsizing does not mean scrapping vacant posts on paper. It means shutting down deadweight departments, merging redundant ministries and fixing or selling off state enterprises that bleed money year after year. Taxpayers shouldn\u2019t bankroll bloated structures that deliver nothing.
\nReal reform has to go further. The tax net must finally catch the powerful few who always slip through\u2013big landlords, real estate barons, large retailers. Leakages should be plugged, with every rupee tracked and ghost spending wiped out. Most importantly, stop promising shiny new projects when the old ones lie in ruins. Austerity cannot be a hammer for the public alone. If the rulers want people to believe in shared sacrifice, they should prove it by taking the first hit themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another year, another broken promise. Once again, the government\u2019s grand talk of tightening the belt ends up squeezing everyone but itself. This time, the federal PSDP missed its own spending goal by a wide margin: Rs 905 billion spent, falling well short of the revised Rs 1.1 trillion target. A gap like this is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n