The federal budget for 2025-26, announced amidst a backdrop of fragile economic recovery, signals a continuation of fiscal restraint.

While the government has rightly focused on maintaining macroeconomic stability and ensuring essential current expenditures, the significant reduction in the health sector’s development allocation raises serious concerns about the country’s long-term human development and economic resilience.

According to the budget documents released by the Ministry of Finance, the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocation for health has been reduced by 16 percent, from approximately Rs 54.7 billion in the previous year to Rs 46.1 billion in the current fiscal cycle. This is not just a numerical adjustment; it has real and immediate implications.

Development allocations typically fund the expansion of healthcare infrastructure, procurement of new equipment, training programmes, and the rollout of disease prevention and surveillance systems. A cut of this magnitude effectively means that many of these critical initiatives will be scaled back or shelved.

From an economic standpoint, this trend is deeply concerning, because health is not just a social good, it is a foundational pillar of economic productivity. A healthy population is more capable, more employable, and less financially burdened.

Countries that underinvest in health eventually pay the price in terms of lost productivity, increased poverty, and heightened vulnerability to public health emergencies. In Pakistan’s case, where over 50% of health........

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