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The Federal Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal, while highlighting the government’s development priorities, that Balutchistan was on an accelerated development path for which 230 billion rupees were reserved in the 2025-26 federal budget.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday, said the Minister, the development of Balutchistan was treated as national responsibility, in accordance with the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The initiative aims to transform the province’s socio-economic landscape over the next two years thanks to targeted investments in critical infrastructure projects to improve connectivity.
A key higher point of the development plan is the N-25-25-Contta-Karachi highway, for which Rs 100 billion rupees have been allocated.
The project should be completed within two to three years and will serve as a strategic corridor. In addition, work also accelerates on the M8 and several other regional infrastructure systems aimed at stimulating connectivity, promoting investment and ensuring inclusive development.
Ahsan said that, with growing concerns about the use of water as a geopolitical tool, the government has attached great importance to the water sector, stressing the urgent need to carry out critical reservoir projects to protect Pakistan water safety.
He said India tried to use water as a weapon. Although India cannot legally stop Pakistan water under the Industry Water Treaty (IWT) – it will not be allowed to – it can try to disrupt flows.
To counter potential threats and guarantee long -term resilience, the government moves quickly to complete the Diamer Bhasha and Mohmand dams with a storage capacity of 6 million acres and around 1 million acres, respectively, bringing the total capacity to around 7 million acres.
The Minister recognized that the tight budgetary space, caused by structural constraints, has reduced its ability to finance development projects within the framework of the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP).
He said that the development budget increased from 2.6% of GDP in 2017-2018 to only 0.8% – a trend described as a serious structural concern for national development.
For the future, the government aims to achieve development and other expenses thanks to internal resources, however, the achievement of this objective requires increasing the tax / GDP ratio of Pakistan to at least 16% – a level already maintained by regional peers.
Speaking of the performance of the economy, he said, the country’s economic reversal is the result of daring and politically unpopular decisions taken by the coalition government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz, aimed at ensuring long-term stability.
He said that when the PDM government has come to power, many predicted that it would only last a few weeks.
“It is the courageous leadership of the Prime Minister and the difficult economic measures which avoided Pakistan of the collapse,” he said, adding that these reforms had been at the cost of political capital but were necessary for the national interest.
Iqbal underlined the challenges encountered at the start of the Coalition’s mandate, including the devastating floods of 2022 which caused more than $ 30 billion in damages.
“Despite the crisis, we continued to finance the development-unlike the previous PTI government, which has retained the funds for a whole quarter,” he said, accusing the former ruling party-Pakistan Tehreek-E-insaf (PTI)-to leave a trade montage deficit in the amount of $ 50 billion bloating and to engage in hate politics.
Iqbal noted a series of positive economic indicators: 4% inflation, the policy rate increased from 23% to 11% and a booming stock market. He added that international institutions have recognized the resumption of Pakistan, world journals calling it “miracle recovery”.
Tax reforms have led to a record increase of 29% in the revenue collection of the Federal Board of Return (FBR). Development expenses have also increased sharply, the total expenses increasing by 50% during the 201025-26 to 4.224 rumber of rupees compared to 2,832 rupees, supported by improved provincial allowances.
Energy sector reforms, including the restructuring of subsidies and problem solving with PIPs, have improved budgetary discipline. The government is now focusing on sustained growth driven by internal resources, improved exports and growing funds, which increased from 27 billion to $ 37 billion.
He said that the government’s development plan, the Uraan Pakistan brand is already bearing fruit and projects GDP growth to go from 2.7% to 4.2% in the coming fiscal year.
Iqbal stressed that improving exports and increased income was essential to place Pakistan’s economy on a sustainable growth route and free itself from recurring arrow and bottle cycles.