Balochistan budget

The last of the provincial budgets, that of Balochistan, has now been announced; and the electoral and government forming process that began with the election on May 11 is largely over. There are portfolios to be allocated here and there, but the peaceful transition of one government to the next is mostly complete.

All the provincial budgets presented so far have distinctive characteristics beyond the common theme of the federal divisible pool as a primary income. In a province that has the lowest aggregated literacy rate and one of the lowest female literacy rates in the world, education has been prioritised with a 42 percent increase in the education budget and commitment to setting up residential schools for young women in the hope of encouraging more of them to stay longer at their school desks.

A higher education commission is to be established, the curriculum is to be purged of ‘hate material’, the Bolan Medical College is to be upgraded to university status and three more medical colleges will be set up. There is now a Rs5 billion endowment fund set up to grant scholarships to the most talented in this the poorest of provinces. For the first time there is to be a public accounts committee able to investigate allegations of corruption in the hope of achieving greater transparency and accountability.

The other big winner was development, with an increase of 29 percent over last year but with the focus firmly on completing work in progress rather than grand new schemes. Most of the Rs44 billion development budget will be spent on health and education – a positive and very visible investment in the human capital of the province that will quickly start to pay dividends. As elsewhere, provincial revenues are small at a mere Rs6.4 billion, almost matched by the Rs4 billion in foreign aid the province will receive.

Of particular interest is the proposed establishment of the Balochistan Energy Company and Rs500 million to set up coal-fired power plants. For the first time there is to be investment in substantial alternative energy sources. Balochistan has an abundance of desert and clear skies – solar panels are to be installed to power up to 20,000 agricultural tube wells, with a long-term goal of running the entire provincial irrigation network on solar power.

There is to be no more purchasing of luxury vehicles in the government sector and no more VIP trips abroad for medical treatment. Although these are largely cosmetic in that they only represented a fraction of the overall budget, the budget speech had a firm focus on austerity and a commitment to using local resources to their best advantage. Balochistan has more hills to climb than all the other provinces.

The new budget is several steps along the road, but unless the appalling security situation in the province shows signs of mitigation then even the most carefully-crafted of budgets will be no more than sticking plaster.

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