A question we ask too easily

WHAT does the government give us in return for our taxes? In Pakistan, this question has become a reflex that is repeated in drawing rooms, on talk shows, and across social media with an air of certainty. It often sounds like a final verdict. Yet it is frequently a partial question, built on selective observation rather than a full accounting of reality. Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio hovers around 10 percent. In most developed countries, citizens contribute between 35 and 45 percent of national income in taxes to sustain far more advanced public services. This comparison does not excuse inefficiency at home, but it does provide context often missing from the debate. With a narrow fiscal base, the state still delivers a wide range of essential services, uneven in quality, often overstretched, but undeniably present. Public hospitals treat millions every year, offering services free or at heavily subsidized rates. Major surgeries, emergency care, maternal health services, and vaccinations remain accessible even to those who could never afford private care. In recent years, provincial health insurance schemes have further expanded access to expensive treatment for low-income households. Education follows a similar pattern. Millions of children remain enrolled in public schools without tuition fees, while colleges and universities provide higher education at a fraction of international costs. The quality gap is real and demands urgent reform, but for many families the public system remains the only route to upward mobility. Security is another largely invisible but essential public function. Policing, counterterrorism operations, border management, disaster response, courts, and national defence require sustained public financing in a region marked by persistent instability. These are services whose absence would be immediately and severely felt. Infrastructure such as roads, highways, dams, irrigation networks, and urban transport systemsis similarly state-built and stat