Pak budget priorities: Case for investing in education

PAKISTAN’S Federal Budget for FY 2026-27 has reignited a debate that strikes at the heart of our national future. The allocation of Rs. 722.48 billion for the Benazir Income Support Programed against a mere Rs. 41.7 billion for education — a ratio of nearly 17 to 1 — raises a fundamental question: are we alleviating poverty, or inadvertently perpetuating it? Let us be clear. Social protection programmes like BISP serve a vital humanitarian purpose, and millions of vulnerable families depend on this lifeline for their survival. However, welfare spending and education investment are not competing priorities — they are sequential ones. Cash transfers address suffering today; education eliminates its causes tomorrow. The experience of developed nations offers a compelling lesson. The United States allocates approximately 15% of its federal budget to education and invests heavily in health and skills development — not as charity, but as a strategic bet on human capital. The philosophy is straightforward: an educated, skilled citizenry generates wealth, pays taxes, and reduces long-term dependence on state assistance. Education is not merely a social good; it is the most powerful engine of economic self-sufficiency ever devised. Pakistan’s literacy and skills challenges are well documented. Spreading Rs. 41.7 billion across scholarships, technical education, and laboratory upgrades in 137 institutions is simply insufficient to move the needle for a population exceeding 240 million. The mathematics are unforgiving. Sustained, generous investment in education yields far greater long-term dividends than even the most well-intentioned cash transfer programme. This is not a theoretical argument. Having conducted Train, the Trainer programmes across public universities in Pakistan and participated in the National Workshop on Higher Education at the National Academy of Higher Education in Islamabad, I have witnessed both the scale of the challenge and the transformative promise