Winds of change under PTI government

Battle with coronavirus

Pakistan is one of the few countries that has succeeded in effectively restricting the coronavirus owing to its successful planning and strategy. Despite Pakistan being a developing country with limited health facilities, the government was successful in facing the virus by introducing the policy of smart lockdowns and targeted testing, which was initially criticized but yielded positive results.

The first case of corona virus in the country was registered on February 26. On March 21, the government announced a nationwide lockdown, which was later lifted in favor of smart lockdowns and targeted testing.

Emergency measures were taken to fortify the country’s health sector with the federal and provincial governments acting responsibly and significantly increasing the capacity of the health sector.

A total of 289,817 coronavirus cases were reported in the country out of which 270,009 patients have recovered while 6,190 passed away. Thus, almost 92% of patients have recovered, which sets a shining example for the rest of the world.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates also praised Pakistan’s efforts to tackle the coronavirus, saying that the way in which the epidemic was controlled in Pakistan was unmatched in the world.

FATF

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Pakistan on the gray list in June 2018 and gave it a 27-point action plan to avoid being blacklisted. Pakistan still remains in FATF’s gray list which means it does not have the complete trust of IMF, World Bank, ADB, EU and Pakistan’s global ranking through Moody’s, S&P and Fitch may also decline. As a result, Pakistan’s financial problems may increase in the not-so-distant future.

However, out of the 27-points of action given by FATF, Pakistan has fully implemented 14 points, which was acknowledged by the organization itself in its meeting on February 16.

Pakistan was given a June 2020 deadline to comply with the remaining 13 points. In this regard, the PTI government passed five new bills in Parliament to combat terrorism financing and money laundering. As a result, government officials believe that prospects are bright for Pakistan to be removed from the gray list altogether.

Release of funds for development of FATA

After the integration of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018, the PTI government paid special attention to its development and restructuring. As soon as PTI came into power, it announced a 10-year plan for FATA in the financial year 2019 for which it allocated Rs 10 billion.

The government also set aside Rs 300 million for the procurement of wheat in FATA. Besides, the government decided to use about Rs 12 billion in addition to PSDP funds for development work in FATA.

In financial years 2020 and 2021, it announced to set aside Rs 37 billion and Rs 48 billion respectively for development work in the region.

Education

Before PTI government came into power, the budget for education in the financial year 2017-18 was Rs 90.50 billion, while in year 2018-19, the budget of Rs 97.42 billion was allocated for the sector. PTI reduced the budget to Rs 77 billion in the financial year 2019-20 and raised it to Rs 83.3 billion the following year after receiving criticism from the public.

The total budget of the Higher Education Commission in financial year 2018-19 was Rs 109 billion, out of which Rs 35 billion was allocated for development work. One year later, the PTI government reduced this to Rs 103 billion, of which Rs 29 billion was allocated for development projects. Almost the same budget was allocated for the current financial year 2020-2021 and no significant increase was given. The government had also promised Rs 70 billion to HEC, but only Rs 64.1 billion has been received so far.

In its manifesto, PTI had announced to give special attention to the education sector, introduce a uniform education system and increase human capital development in the country. Pakistan’s human capital development is the lowest in Asia, which is the main reason for rising unemployment.

In July this year, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that from April 2021, the same syllabus would be taught in public and private schools as well as religious madrassahs across the country. In this regard, the Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood has announced the first phase of implementation of uniform national curriculum across the country from next academic year. The first phase will be for students in first to fifth grade, the second phase from sixth grade to eighth grade will be implemented in 2022 while the third and final phase from ninth to twelfth grade will be implemented in the following year, 2023.

Promotion of tourism industry

Promoting the tourism sector in the country was one of the priorities of Prime Minister Imran Khan. In this regard, the PTI government had promised to not only improve the state of existing tourist destinations but also build new ones. The government also announced the introduction of four new tourist destinations each year.

In this regard, it was announced in November 2018 that that 20 tourist destinations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province would be reconstructed. In addition to introducing new tourist destinations, the government has taken a number of decisions that contradict its policy.

Last year, the government decided to close down six PTDC hotels. This year, the government announced closures of more PTDC hotels and dismissals of their employees. The decision has affected about 25 hotels and 300 employees.

Ending the energy crisis

The PTI had often touted its commitment to build new dams to address the energy crisis in the country after coming to power. It also announced to take measures to provide cheap electricity to the people and control power theft. It was also claimed that attention would be paid to the causes behind circular debt and regulatory reforms would be introduced to get rid of the rent-seeking model and introduce an efficient power system.

In this regard, action against power thieves was approved and implemented indiscriminately. Before PTI came to power, Pakistan’s circular debt was Rs 1.1 trillion, which has crossed Rs 1.9 trillion two years later.

In May 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan formally started construction of the Mohmand Dam and in July 2020, the government has started the construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam, which will both be useful in solving Pakistan’s energy problems.

In addition, the government is considering construction of small dam projects in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on which work is in progress.

Health

Before PTI came to power, the federal budget for the health sector for the financial year 2018-19 was Rs 13.9 billion. One year later, the health budget was reduced to Rs 11 billion in FY 2019-20. However, in FY2020-21, the health budget was increased by 130% to Rs 25.4 billion in order to effectively take on the coronavirus challenge.

Agricultural development and water conservation

Before PTI came to power, Rs 21 billion was allocated for agriculture in the financial year 2018-19, which PTI increased to Rs 30 billion. In the next financial year 2019-20, a sharp reduction was observed and only Rs 4.9 billion was allocated.

However, in the same year, the government spent Rs 12 billion on food security and promotion of agriculture, which is also the case in FY 2020-21. At the same time, the agriculture budget has been increased to Rs 13.6 billion and Rs 10 billion was set aside to protect crops from locust swarms.

After coming to power, PTI increased the water resources budget for FY2018-19 from Rs 36.7 billion to Rs 79 billion, which was revised to Rs 37.8 billion. One year later, Rs 85 billion was earmarked for water resources which was later reduced to Rs 81 billion.