Abstract
This paper presents a critical analysis of Pakistan’s Federal Budget for FY 2026–27, which carries a total outlay of Rs 18.771 trillion ($67 billion). The analysis examines key budget allocations, including debt servicing (42.9% of expenditure), defence spending (Rs 3 trillion), and comparatively inadequate allocations for education (Rs 46 billion) and health (Rs 25.1 billion). The paper investigates hidden military expenses, the freeze on new development projects, and the regressive taxation policies that burden ordinary citizens while exempting six industries. Through comprehensive data analysis and examination of public budget documents, this study demonstrates that Pakistan’s budget perpetuates institutional self-perpetuation, prioritizing military spending and debt servicing while constraining investments in human capital development and essential public services.
Introduction: The Third Budget, Same Broken Priorities
The FY 2026–27 federal budget carries a total outlay of Rs 18.771 trillion ($67 billion), up from Rs 17.57 trillion the previous year. On the surface, this looks like an expansion. Dig one centimeter beneath the surface, and you find the same suffocating structure; nearly half the budget eaten by debt interest, the military handed the single largest institutional allocation, development spending frozen at a paltry Rs 1 trillion, and health and education receiving crumbs while generals receive upgrades. The NEC, the National Economic Council, actually slashed the overall development budget by 25 percent just days before the budget was presented, with no new development projects approved except for the interior and defence ministries. (Dawn, June 2026)
This paper dissects Pakistan’s FY 2026–27 budget with zero diplomatic courtesy. Every claim is backed by a reference. Every number is sourced. And the conclusion is one that no government minister will state openly but that every citizen living through Pakistan’s collapsing public services already knows: this country is governed for its military, its creditors, and its elite, not for the 240 million people paying the price.
1- The Budget at a Glance – The Numbers That Indict
- Total Outlay: Rs 18.771 trillion ($67 billion)
- Debt Servicing (Interest Payments): Rs 8.054 trillion, which is 42.9% of total expenditure
- Defence Budget (official): Rs 3 trillion, which is 15.98% of total expenditure
- Military Pensions (separate from defence): Rs 822 billion. Civil Pensions: Rs 272 billion, thus total Pensions: Rs 1.169 trillion
- Federal PSDP (Development): Rs 1.05 trillion
- Health (ADP allocation): Rs 25.1 billion
- Higher Education and Research (ADP): Rs 46 billion
- BISP (Social Protection): Rs 838 billion (+17%)
- Subsidies: Rs 1.091 trillion
- FBR Tax Target: Rs 15.264 trillion
- GDP Growth Target: 4% | Inflation Target: 8.2%
(Sources: Dunya News Budget Documents; Bloom Pakistan, June 2026; Business Recorder, June 2026)
Take a moment with those numbers. Pakistan is spending Rs 8.054 trillion servicing debt and Rs 25.1 billion on federal health development. That is a ratio of 321 to 1. For every single rupee the federal government invests in building new hospitals or health infrastructure, it pays Rs 321 to its creditors. The military budget alone is 120 times larger than the federal health development allocation. These are not misfortunes. These are choices deliberate, defended, and repeated year after year. (ProPakistani Budget Live, June 2026)
2- Defence – Rs 3 Trillion and Climbing, With More Hidden Beneath
The budget allocated to the defence sector in FY 2026-27 is Rs 3.01 trillion, marking an increase of 17.7 percent over last year’s allocation of Rs 2.55 trillion. This is for the third consecutive year that the defence budget has seen double-digit increases: Rs 2.12 trillion in FY 2024-25, Rs 2.55 trillion in FY 2025-26, and now Rs 3 trillion in FY 2026-27. Within two years, Pakistan’s official defence budget has risen by Rs 880 billion, an increase of 41.5 percent. The federal budget for health development has, meanwhile, been slashed. (Business Recorder Defence Budget, June 2026)
The Official Numbers Are Just the Beginning
The Rs 3 trillion defence budget figure does not tell us the whole story. There are, in fact, several other military expenses within the official documents that are accounted for separately as follows:
Military pensions: Rs 822 billion, rising from Rs 742 billion last year, showing an increase of 10.8 percent. These are lumped together in the category of ‘total pensions’ (Rs 1.169 trillion), thereby staying out of the official defence budget figures. (ARY News Defence Budget, June 2026)
Expenses of employee defence: Rs 967 billion; the increase is from the revised figure of Rs 851 billion for the cost of salaries that are kept undisclosed in the defence budget. Salary disbursements to military personnel have been lumped under ‘General Public Services – Staff Salaries,’ thereby making an independent audit of the full salary expenditure incurred on military personnel impossible for citizens and independent scholars alike. (ARY News Defence Budget, June 2026)
Operating expenses: Rs 743 billion; Administrative costs: Rs 10.9 billion; Tangible assets (procurement of military hardware): have been lumped into the Rs 3 trillion without any breakup being made public. Apart from this, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) was granted Rs 40.66 billion in the PSDP, almost double last year’s Rs 22.42 billion, while SUPARCO was allocated Rs 11.57 billion in the PSDP. (Business Recorder Defence Budget, June 2026)
Total these up: defence budget (Rs 3 trillion) + military pensions (Rs 822 billion) + concealed military salary payments under general services + PAEC (Rs 40.66 billion) + SUPARCO (Rs 11.57 billion) + Armed Forces educational institutions in cantonments (Rs 22.96 billion). What we come up with is that the real military budget in Pakistan’s fiscal year 2026–27 is likely to be between Rs 4.5 and 5 trillion, representing a proportion of around 24 to 27 percent of the total budget of the Pakistani government. This is clearly the budget of a state whose main raison d’etre is its army.
What Does Rs 3 Trillion Actually Buy?
What does this Rs 3 trillion defence budget buy, really? It is actually Rs 3,000 billion. Federal ADP for health is Rs 25.1 billion, and federal ADP for higher education is Rs 46 billion, adding up to Rs 71.1 billion. This means that the defence budget is over 42 times as large as the total budget allocation of the Pakistani government for health and higher education. As acknowledged by the Prime Minister himself at the NEC meeting, “the biggest challenge is strengthening defence.” (Dawn NEC/PSDP, June 2026) A revealing confession. Not poverty. Not illiteracy. Not malnutrition. The biggest challenge is defence.
Aurangzeb, Finance Minister, also mentioned defence pacts between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, where military expenses were justified on the grounds of earning foreign currency through arms sales. This is the new layer added to the old ‘regional threats’ excuse; the military is now also an export industry. The unspoken reality is that defence exports by Pakistan are just a small portion of its defence imports, and there has never been an arms deal that built a school in Baluchistan. (24NewsHD Budget Speech, June 2026)
3- Education – Still Drowning, Now With Less Funding
Pakistan’s education disaster did not happen overnight, but each new budget has made the situation more serious. The allocation towards Higher Education and Research under the ADP for FY 26-27 is Rs. 46 billion, marginally better than last year when it was Rs. 34.9 billion. HEC’s recurrent funding for salaries and operations will be frozen again despite the increased number of universities and students over the past years. (Business Recorder, June 2026; ProPakistani: HEC Development Spending)
The Context: Structural Crisis Getting Worse
To see how inadequate anything less than an enormous hike would have been in terms of education, consider the situation in which Pakistan finds itself. Education expenditure has gone down from 2% of GDP in 2018 to 0.8% of GDP in FY 25. There are around 25.37 million to 26 million children out of school in the country. Pakistan’s literacy rate is at 60.6%, while female literacy is only 52.8%. In Balochistan, three-quarters of girls are out of school. UNESCO and the UN’s Incheon Declaration recommend 4-6% of GDP on education, whereas Pakistan has just one-fifth of that amount. (Save the Children, June 2025; Minute Mirror Education Budget, 2026)
The education experts pointed out that at least a goal of Rs 3 to 3.5 trillion could be expected to be achieved for the education sector, although the figure was a massive jump and fell far short of international norms. The education budget allocated for the next fiscal year stood at Rs 46 billion in terms of federal budget allocation towards ADP for higher education and research. Regardless of how lenient one is in considering education expenditures by assuming provincial education budgets, Pakistan’s educational budget is extremely low compared to internationally acceptable figures. (Daily Destination Education Budget)
No New Schemes – A Development Freeze
Among the worst aspects of the FY 2026-27 budget lies one particular line mentioned in the NEC decision that no development projects are to commence other than for the Interior and Defence departments in this budget. Provincial Development budgets are slashed by 29.3 percent, effectively frozen at around their actual utilization in the current budget period. In an extraordinary turn of events, the NEC reduced the development expenditure for the federation and provinces by 25 percent to Rs 3.218 trillion from Rs 4.264 trillion approved by the Annual Plan Coordination Committee recently. (Dawn NEC PSDP Cut, June 2026)
That means no new schools. No new universities. No new hospitals except whatever the defence and interior ministries deem necessary for their own infrastructure. At the same NEC meeting, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, in a moment of rare candor that his own government promptly ignored, acknowledged that “Pakistan has lagged behind the region due to weak investment in education and skills.” He said this. And then the government presented a budget where the defence ministry gets unlimited new projects while education gets a frozen recurring grant and a Rs 46 billion ADP. Words are cheap. Budget lines are not. (Dawn NEC PSDP Cut, June 2026)
The amount that Pakistan spends per student on their education is still among the lowest in the world, at about $25 per child per year in nominal value, which in PPP comes to about $397, 66 percent below the South Asian average per child per year according to UNICEF reports. The military expenditure in FY 2026–27, based on the official figure of Rs 3 trillion, amounts to around Rs 7,000 per Pakistani per year. Pakistan cannot be a forward-looking nation if it spends 500 times as much on its military per citizen as it invests in federal education development. (UNICEF Pakistan Annual Report 2025)
4- Health – Rs 25.1 Billion for 240 Million People
The annual development budget allocated to the health sector of the federal government for the period FY 2026–27 amounts to Rs 25.1 billion for tertiary healthcare and critical care purposes. This figure is equal to about Rs 104 per Pakistani per year, which is less than $0.38. When we consider a country with 240 million citizens, this does not qualify as a health budget; rather, it appears as an accounting mistake for the military operations cost. (Business Recorder, June 2026)
Of course, the burden of financing healthcare falls to the provinces under the system of devolution in Pakistan. However, what needs to be understood is that the federal government provides leadership in this regard, setting the priorities, and even determining how money should be transferred to fund health projects. It cannot go unnoticed when in the very budget document, the federal government commits itself to spending Rs 3 trillion towards the military and Rs 25.1 billion for health development purposes. There were no new health schemes announced in the PSDP, which was true for the FY 2025–26 budget as well. No new hospitals, clinics, or research facilities will be developed under the ongoing plan. (Dawn NEC PSDP Cut, June 2026)
The Health Baseline Is Already a Catastrophe
As per the data compiled by UNICEF, Pakistan’s federal health spending was only 0.2% of the total budget for FY 2025-26. The situation did not change for FY 2026-27. This is an extremely alarming scenario considering there are 11 million children in forced labor, six out of ten children under five who remain unregistered and hence unable to access any social services, a large number of people suffering from malnutrition and diseases which can easily be prevented, as well as poor healthcare leading to millions being pushed below the poverty line due to health costs every year. (UNICEF Pakistan Annual Report 2025)
World Health Organization suggests that developing nations should invest at least 5 percent of their GDP in the health sector. The combined figure for health spending by Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments is estimated at around 0.9 percent of the GDP. FY 2026-27 budget continues with the same trend. Instead, what the government proposes is BISP cash transfers as the primary source of social protection with an allocation of Rs 838 billion, a significant rise by 17 percent, which is equivalent to giving Rs 8000 per month to impoverished families. (Business Recorder, June 2026)
At the same time, the government earmarked Rs 103.1 billion towards 43 hydroelectricity projects and Rs 116.2 billion for power under the PSDP. Energy is definitely a key component. Yet, when it comes to this budget, there is simply no match: the government plans to spend Rs 219 billion from the development budget on power and energy, as opposed to Rs 25.1 billion on health. Money on pipes and turbines rather than hospitals and physicians. In a country suffering from widespread malnutrition and childhood mortality, that is outrageous. (Business Recorder, June 2026)
5- Debt Servicing – 42.9% of the Budget Eaten Before Anyone Gets Paid
The amount allocated to interest payments on public debt, built up over years of borrowing to pay off such expenses, comes to Rs 8.054 trillion under the FY 2026-27 budget of Pakistan. In relative terms, that accounts for 42.9 percent of the country’s total spending. Slightly less than 46.9 percent of the previous year’s expenditure on debt interest repayments, but certainly not something to be proud of. (Bloom Pakistan Budget Analysis, June 2026)
The debt of the Pakistani government has kept on increasing in terms of sheer volume. The pre-budget assessment by Geo News indicated that there was a failure to meet the tax collection target of the FBR in the year FY 2025–26, a decline in exports, an increase in imports, and a rise in the volume of the absolute public debt. The government has indeed been able to bring down the deficit from 7.8 percent of GDP in June 2023 to 4 percent of GDP towards the close of FY 2025–26; however, this consolidation has been done at the cost of development spending and social services rather than by generating economic growth. (Geo News, June 2026)
The conditions of the IMF Extended Fund Facility of $7 billion have made every fiscal decision. The targeted primary surplus has been fixed at 2 percent of GDP for the FY 2026–27, which equals Rs 2.828 trillion. It means that the government will have to earn a profit of Rs 2.828 trillion over its operating cost before spending a single rupee on development. This is why the NEC slashed provincial development budgets by 29 percent, not because development is unimportant, but because the IMF program’s fiscal targets take absolute precedence over Pakistan’s children, Pakistan’s hospitals, and Pakistan’s future. (CSS Prep Salary and Budget Analysis, June 2026)
Similarly, another amount of Rs 1.727 trillion has been allocated by the government through the petroleum levy, a regressive tax system under which people who earn less income suffer much more than the rich, as this is a bigger percentage of their total income. Although the tax rates of the wealthy businessmen are being lowered and even waived in some sectors, the petroleum levy for those who use oil for transport and goods that require transportation continues to be at record-high rates. Trickle down with the rich benefiting and trickle up with the poor paying the bill. (Geo News, June 2026)
6- Tax ‘Reforms’ – Who Actually Gets Relief and Who Pays the Bill
This budget is marketed as giving the ‘salaried class’ relief. According to Finance Minister Aurangzeb, the income tax rate has been reduced for many categories of income. Those earning between Rs 1.2 million and Rs 2.2 million will pay lower income taxes, and the government has even reduced the income tax for the higher categories. The minimum wage has been increased by 10 percent. The government employees were given an increment of 7 percent in their salaries and pensions. (ProPakistani Budget Live, June 2026)
It does sound quite logical. But who else benefited from the decision made by the government? The government completely exempted six industries from the super tax, while the super tax has been reduced from 10% to 8% for the high-earning brackets (excluding banks, oil & gas, and fertilizer companies, which still need to pay the super tax). The super tax policy had been adopted because of the need for the rich to pay their dues, but now they have been let off with it. Furthermore, the Capital Value Tax on financial assets has been scrapped, and the property transaction tax has been cut by 50%. Who gets the benefit of scrapping capital value tax on financial assets as well as the reduction of property taxes by 50% – the salaried class earning Rs.60,000 per month or the corporate tycoons and real estate investors having these assets? (24NewsHD Budget Speech, June 2026)
While the FBR has set itself the target of collecting Rs 15.264 trillion – an all-time high target. In order to achieve this while lowering the rates for companies and rich individuals, the government plans to increase collection efforts against the visible economy, including salary earners, registered companies, and documented individuals. It will require banks to report the transaction details of customers to the FBR to detect evasion. Late-filing penalties have also been hiked to Rs 50,000 for associations of persons and Rs 100,000 for corporate taxpayers. A flat tax system will also be implemented for shopkeepers and retailers. (ProPakistani Budget Live, June 2026)
Yet the basic issue persists! Pakistan’s tax-GDP ratio stood at 8.5 percent three years ago, which has now risen to 10.3 percent. This is a good sign, although it has been admitted by the FBR in its budget statement. The agricultural industry, which has strong lobbying power in terms of direct representation in Parliament, and the retail industry continue to be heavily under-taxed. Every year, the budget pledges to do something about it but fails to keep that pledge. (Daily Destination Budget Analysis)
7- PSDP and Development – A Rs 1 Trillion Fig Leaf
The Federal Public Sector Development Program for the fiscal year 2026-27 has been pegged at Rs. 1.05 trillion, which remains unchanged from last year’s amount of Rs. 1 trillion. It is the major development indicator by the government. In terms of a budget of Rs. 18.77 trillion, this represents a commitment of 5.6 percent of total expenditures towards developing the nation’s future. Military spending, on the other hand, is 2.86 times more than the combined total of all development expenditures. (24NewsHD Budget Speech, June 2026)
The total development expenditure by the country, including the provincial ADPs as well as the spending by SOEs, is Rs. 3.675 trillion. However, this is another figure that deserves a considerable amount of skepticism on account of a trend in Pakistan to announce a development budget and then underspend. For example, federal PSDP spending amounted to only Rs. 820 billion last year in comparison to Rs. 1 trillion budgeted. Similarly, provincial ADP spending stood at Rs. 2.938 trillion against higher figures approved initially. NEC’s decision to cap provincial ADPs’ spending in FY 2026-27 at the actual levels spent last year is an admission of underspending on planned amounts. (The Nation/NEC Report, June 2026)
Of the Rs 1 trillion PSDP provided by the federal budget, transport takes the lead! Rs 365 billion towards roads, railways and communications, including Rs 100 billion for N-25, the superhighway from Karachi to Quetta, as well as allocation for the M-6 motorway and the beginning of the ML-1 railway corridor. Yes, infrastructure is vital, but one can ask: do the motorways benefit more the farmers and workers who cannot even afford medical treatment, or do they benefit more the logistics firms, construction contractors, and the army? (Daily Times Budget Report, June 2026)
The decision of the NEC should not go unnoticed, as no development projects have been sanctioned in any sector other than those of the interior and defense ministries, which have been exempted from the reduction. It would be a joke to call it ‘fiscal consolidation,’ for the government not only will not spend a single penny on building schools or health facilities, but will continue expanding the security infrastructure. (Dawn NEC PSDP Cut, June 2026)
8- The Economy Under Aurangzeb – Stabilized for Whom?
The speech made by Finance Minister Aurangzeb in terms of macroeconomic achievements was filled with various impressive facts. Pakistan’s GDP increased from previous levels to reach $452 billion. The per capita income rose from $1,751 to $1,901. Foreign currency reserves have gone up from $4 billion to over $17 billion. Large-scale manufacturing has achieved a growth rate of 6.1 percent. Remittances would be expected to hit $41 billion in this fiscal year. (Bloom Pakistan Budget Analysis, June 2026)
These are some very impressive statistics on paper. In reality, however, these indicators provide no accurate measure of Pakistani prosperity. Growth in GDP to 3.7 percent against a target of 4.2 percent in fiscal year 2025–26 in an economy suffering from high inflation due to the Middle East energy crisis falls far short of expectations. The per capita income of $1,901 refers only to the nominal dollars and does not account for extreme inequality within the country. The high Gini coefficient and poverty ratio in Pakistan (44.7 percent) imply that income data tell nothing about the actual lives of most Pakistanis. (Geo News Budget Context, June 2026)
Inflation again rose into double figures in FY 2025–26 due to the Iran-US clash and its implications for fuel prices. The FBR failed to meet its tax collection objectives in FY 2025–26. There has been a huge rise in public debt in terms of rupees. What was the response of the government? Reduction of development expenditure by 25% through the NEC, increase of salary of the military by 17.7%, and preparation of a budget aiming for a 4% growth rate and 8.2% inflation rate, which seem sensible yet have been consistently missed in past years. The Human Development Index value of 0.544 places Pakistan at rank number 168 among nations. Any number of GDP growth announcements will not change the reality faced by hundreds of millions of Pakistanis who lack basic access to education, healthcare facilities, and other opportunities. (Wikipedia Economy of Pakistan)
9- The Opposition’s Protest – Noisy But Toothless
During the budget presentation ceremony, members of the PTI lawmakers performed their usual show by displaying banners, shouting slogans, tearing agendas, and criticizing the budget as “an anti-people budget.” Members of the treasury benches banged on tables in favor of the PM Shehbaz Sharif. There were some arguments. Finance Minister Aurangzeb went ahead with his statement. (Khyber News, June 2026)
Pakistan’s budget politics are encapsulated in this episode. PTI’s protests are justified because they reflect the people’s feelings, yet historically, PTI has always lacked an alternative economic program. The opposition rightly argues that this is a budget against the people, but the truth of the matter is that whenever PTI was in government, it never succeeded in increasing the budget allocations in the education and health sectors, nor did it succeed in placing the military budget under the parliament’s supervision, or taxing the feudal elite’s income from agriculture. The issue in Pakistan is neither the particular government nor the particular coalition. It is a system where the military establishment, the business elite, and creditor organizations make sure no government challenges their share in the national cake.
This is why Finance Minister Aurangzeb can open a budget speech with a tribute to military glory, announce Rs 3 trillion for defence, cut health spending, freeze education development, and then face only theatrical opposition because the institutions that would challenge this allocation have either been co-opted, suppressed, or simply lack the political power to change it.
10- What Must Change – A People’s Budget for Pakistan
Criticism without alternatives is commentary. Here is what a genuinely reformist budget for FY 2026–27 would have required. Not idealism, just basic prioritization of a population over an establishment:
Education
A sharp increase in education budget as a percentage of GDP to a minimum of 2.5 percent immediately, and with a mandatory pathway to 4 percent by 2029. The HEC grant must be unfrozen and indexed to actual enrollment growth. It cannot remain stagnant at the level of 2018 despite the explosion in enrollments. Provincial ADPs for education should not be subjected to any NEC reductions in their budgets despite cuts in overall development budgets. Formula-based transfer payments from the federation for education must prioritize students enrolled in Balochistan and rural Sindh. (Minute Mirror Education Analysis, 2026)
Health
The paltry federal health development budget allocation of Rs 25.1 billion is an insult. An increase of ten times, up to Rs 250 billion in the immediate term. New PSDP health projects in underdeveloped districts must be exactly the opposite of the “no new projects” policy of this government. The WHO standard of 5 percent of GDP for the health budget must become a constitutional obligation. Catastrophic health expenditures are impoverishing millions each year; there is no way one can talk about achieving economic growth targets in such a scenario. (UNICEF Pakistan Annual Report 2025)
Defence Transparency
It should all be consolidated and brought together in one consolidated defence spending report to be put before parliament for review. It is essential in a democracy that people know how much is being spent on the armed forces of the country. The sum of Rs 3 trillion is itself scary, but it is intentionally made small on purpose. (Business Recorder Defence, June 2026; ARY News Defence Budget, June 2026)
Taxation
Removing super tax from six industries but increasing taxes on petroleum to Rs 1.727 trillion shows that we are following the policy of reverse Robin Hood, taking from many and giving to a select few. We cannot develop the country into a developed state based on a tax-to-GDP ratio of 10.3 percent. There should be a law for the taxation of income from agriculture, real estate, and the retail industry. (CSS Prep Budget Analysis, June 2026)
Conclusion
Pakistan’s FY 2026–27 federal budget is, at its core, a document of institutional self-perpetuation. It perpetuates the military’s financial primacy with Rs 3 trillion and counting. It perpetuates the debt trap by paying Rs 8 trillion in interest while borrowing more. It perpetuates elite tax privilege by abolishing the super tax while keeping the petroleum levy. And it perpetuates the human development catastrophe by allocating Rs 25.1 billion for the health of 240 million people and freezing university funding while carving out defence and interior from the ‘no new projects’ rule.
Finance Minister Aurangzeb opened his third budget speech with Operation Bunyan Marsus. He credited Pakistan’s growing international standing to its military might. He did not open with the 26 million children outside of school. He did not mention the Rs 321 that the government pays in debt interest for every Rs 1 it spends building hospitals. He did not name the Balochistan girl who is 75 percent likely never to have attended school. Because this budget is not written for her. It is written for the creditors who need their Rs 8 trillion, the generals who needed their Rs 3 trillion raise, and the business interests who needed their super tax relief.
PM Shehbaz Sharif told the NEC that ‘strengthening defence is the country’s biggest challenge. Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan has lagged behind the region due to weak investment in education and skills. Both statements were made in the same week. Only one of them is reflected in the budget. You know which one. Until Pakistan’s political economy is restructured to the point where a finance minister can open a budget speech with the education crisis rather than a military victory, these budgets will continue to be exercises in managed national decline dressed up in the language of fiscal consolidation, macroeconomic stability, and sustainable growth.
The 26 million children outside school will keep waiting. The 11 million child laborers will keep working. The mothers in districts without functioning hospitals will keep dying from preventable causes. And the defence budget will keep growing, year after year, unopposed, unaudited, and largely undisclosed because in Pakistan, guns do not just come before books. Guns come before everything.
References
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Hassan Raza is a student and independent writer with interests in public policy, human rights, law, and socio-economic issues in Pakistan. His work focuses on critical analysis of governance, social justice, and public policy.
