KARACHI: Sindh will have long-term implications if it doesn’t increase its development expenditure and improve the social safety net, said Mohammad Sabir, the principal economist of the Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), on Wednesday.

Addressing a post-budget seminar titled “Dialogue on Sindh Post Budget 2015”, he said: “The money will come in and go out. It needs to be utilised properly.”

In the provincial budget 2015-16, Sindh has allocated Rs144.67 billion for education, an increase of 7.6 per cent compared to Rs134.73bn in the outgoing year. “Despite the fact that allocation for education has been increased over the years, Sindh’s net enrolment rate and quality of education has gone down,” he said.

He said 90pc of the education budget in Sindh is spent on salaries, the highest among provinces.

The dialogue was organised by the Workers Education and Research Organisation (WERO), National Organisation for Working (NOW) Communities and Action Aid Pakistan, and was chaired by Karamat Ali of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler).

SZABIST’s Dr Riaz Shaikh said the dangerous trend of “exhibitionist expenditure” is being observed in Sindh. “The number of Shaheed ZAB and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto colleges and universities is increasing. Sindh is the only province where school and ill-equipped colleges are being turned into universities with no proper provisions,” he said, stressing that was an ego trip.

On the subject of social safety nets, he said that Benazir Youth Development Programme is supposedly training 100,000 youngsters in Sindh annually. “In the past seven years, 700,000 youth would have been given skills and would ideally have been self-employed, but where are these youngsters? Has anyone done an analysis? Is this a politically motivated move?” he questioned.

Agreeing that Sindh’s education is in a shambles, he added: “Various figures have been given in the media on ghost schools in the province, which range from 7,000 to 9,000. What is astounding is that new schools are being built rather than these ghost schools being made functional. This needs to be looked into.”

Tasneem A. Siddiqui of Saiban-Action Research for Shelter said, “Planning is always from down to up, but here it’s the other way round. Rather than going for projects which are small but more beneficial in the long term, our governments are always going for mega-projects.”

“Many cities in Sindh lack underground drainage system. A visit to Ghotki is an eye-opener. You don’t know where the planning begins or ends,” he said, and stressed that there is ample allocation for many development projects but not utilisation.

Commenting on the state of health care, Pakistan Medical Association’s Dr Qaiser Sajjad said Sindh’s priority should be making basic health units functional. “You cannot have people with flu and fever coming to a tertiary care facility like Jinnah hospital. They should be able to get treatment for these illnesses in their areas,” he said.

Sindh does not have an ambulance service and relies on ambulances of private charity organisations to transport patients and injured, he said.

On the lack of understanding of budget, journalist Imran Shervanee said, “Every time there is budget, all TV channels go out on the street for vox pop, asking people how they find the budget.

“Not even a single one of them has looked at the budget but will say ‘It’s not a pro-poor budget’. There is a need to understand and increase awareness,” he stressed.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play