Health budget priorities

Dr Aisha Irum PAKISTAN’S federal budget for 2026-27 allocates Rs53.5 billion to the Ministry of National Health Services, with around Rs16 billion earmarked for health projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). While any increase in health spending is welcome, the real question is not how much money is being spent, but whether it is being invested where it can produce the greatest health gains. Pakistan’s health budget remains poorly aligned with the country’s disease burden. According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), nearly 60 percent of Pakistan’s total disease burden is caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and cancers. The leading drivers—high blood pressure, air pollution, tobacco use, poor diets and malnutrition—are largely preventable. Yet much of health budget continues to focus on treating disease rather than preventing it. The latest budget illustrates this imbalance. Significant resources have been allocated to specialised healthcare infrastructure, including funding for cardiovascular research and the expansion of cardiac facilities. These investments are important, but they primarily strengthen treatment capacity after disease has developed. Meanwhile, preventive services such as primary healthcare, nutrition, disease surveillance and health promotion continue to receive comparatively less attention despite offering some of the highest returns on investment. This matters because poor health is not only a medical issue—it is also an economic one. A large share of Pakistan’s disease burden falls on adults aged 30–69 years, the country’s most productive population. Premature illness reduces labour productivity, increases healthcare costs and places a growing burden on households and the national economy. The disease burden is also unevenly distributed, with some districts experiencing two to three times greater health losses than ot