The malnourished children of 2018 are teenagers now. Why?

In 2018, Pakistan produced the widest survey in its history on how much nutrition its people were getting. The NNS or National Nutrition Survey was the fifth such epic exercise to be undertaken since 1965, and the first ever to show us the numbers from the districts. It was the most comprehensive data-gathering effort in Pakistan’s history and is regularly cited today in policymaking. The NNS results painted such an alarming picture at the time that the government should have declared a national emergency. Instead, I find myself writing this seven years on with a question as Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb tables an estimated Rs17.1 trillion federal budget for fiscal year 2026-27: What did Pakistan’s budget-makers do with the population nutrition evidence? No prizes for guessing the answer was scant little. What we got instead is a story of policy documents without funding to see through on the ground, bodies meant to coordinate without the mandate or teeth, and a government that continues to treat nutrition as a humanitarian footnote rather than the country’s economic foundation it actually is. The FY2025–26 federal budget offered a clear indication of where nutrition stood among national priorities. Health spending was reduced by 16 per cent, while no dedicated nutrition allocation was included in the federal budget architecture. Child Nutrition Quiz * { box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0; padding: 0; } body { font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', sans-serif; background: #f5f5f5; min-height: 100vh; display: flex; justify-content: center; padding: 24px 16px; } .quiz-card { background: #fff; border-radius: 16px; box-shadow: 0 2px 16px rgba(0,0,0,0.1); max-width: 640px; width: 100%; padding: 28px 24px; } h1 { font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; color: #111; margin-bottom: 6px; line-height: 1.3; } .sub { font-size: 14px; color: #666; margin-bottom: 18px; } .photo { width: 100%; border-radius: 12px; overflow: hidden; margin-bottom: 20px; max-hei