Our Finance Minister presents the Federal Budget for FY 2026-27 in the cool and comfortable chambers of Parliament.

As is customary, the budget speech will be wrapped in polished language and a labyrinth of figures, percentages, projections, and economic terminology.

It will be watched anxiously across the length and breadth of Pakistan by business chambers, investors, and ordinary citizens alike—the latter holding their breath in the faint hope that it may bring some relief rather than descend like a fresh bombshell of inflation and economic hardship.

For years, the people have endured an unending cycle of mini-budgets in the form of abrupt increases in petroleum prices, electricity and gas tariffs, and fertiliser costs.

These mini budgets trigger a wave of inflation, causing a chain reaction that sends the prices of essential commodities soaring, while rarely, if ever, bringing them back down.

Each increase adds another burden to the shoulders of millions already struggling to survive, tightening the noose around households battling shrinking incomes and rising costs of living.

As one walks through bazaars and markets, one finds little evidence of the much-trumpeted economic recovery.

Under blistering temperatures approaching 50°C and amid frequent, prolonged power outages, people desperately haggle over prices they can scarcely afford.

The reality on the ground tells a different story from the optimistic narratives often heard in official circles.

One encounters village women in bazaars and markets in worn-out clothes carrying malnourished children in their laps, with barefoot youngsters trailing behind.

They move from stall to stall, gazing at vegetables, flour, and other necessities, only to return to their huts empty-handed. This heartbreaking scene is not confined to one locality.

It is the bitter reality visible across cities, towns, and villages throughout Pakistan.

“Does this budget have anything for us?” ask the multitudes struggling merely to survive.

Their question deserves an honest answer.

A large portion of government revenues is consumed by debt servicing, defence expenditures, administrative costs, salaries, and pensions.

What remains for education, health, development, infrastructure, and social welfare is often little more than crumbs.

Even these scarce resources frequently disappear under the insidious shadow of corruption, leaving little to improve the lives of ordinary citizens.

Can a nation claim economic stability when nearly half its population struggles below or near the poverty line? Can recovery be celebrated when millions face hunger and deprivation? Pakistan continues to grapple with one of the region’s lowest literacy rates.

More than 25 million children remain out of school. Healthcare services are deteriorating.

Parents are withdrawing children from classrooms because they can no longer afford educational expenses.

Despair is driving many young people into depression, addiction, crime, and even suicide.

Millions face acute food insecurity. Unemployment remains alarmingly high, while vast numbers of young people enter an already saturated job market every year.

Thousands seek opportunities abroad in desperation, while countless others remain trapped in hopelessness at home. Does this reflect genuine recovery, or merely statistical recovery disconnected from lived reality?

This august House must reflect upon these painful realities. Parliament is not merely a forum where budget figures are recited and financial statements approved.

It is the supreme representative institution of the sovereign people. It must safeguard the people’s right to live with dignity, to earn a livelihood, to educate their children, and to hope for a better future.

The roots of our economic difficulties are well known: a narrow tax base, elite tax evasion, low exports, excessive imports, chronic trade imbalances, dependence on foreign borrowing, and recurring IMF conditionalities.

Yet the burden of adjustment repeatedly falls upon those least able to bear it—the ordinary citizens already gasping for economic breath.

This budget, therefore, demands sacrifice from the top, the elite and the privileged class rather than further extraction from the bottom.

Real reform requires reducing the size of government, curtailing excessive perks and privileges, eliminating redundant ministries and departments, abolishing unnecessary SAPMs and advisors, discontinuing the pensionary benefits to former Presidents, PMs and Speakers forthwith, rationalising expenditures, and ensuring that public office remains a responsibility rather than a source of privilege.

The nation cannot continue asking the poor to tighten their belts while the corridors of power remain insulated from sacrifice.

Parliament, which often demonstrates remarkable unity when protecting its own privileges, must now display the same unity in protecting the interests of the people and reclaiming Pakistan’s economic sovereignty.

An indebted nation is not a free nation. Excessive dependence on external lenders gradually erodes national autonomy and limits independent policymaking.

The path forward lies in domestic resource mobilisation, expansion of the tax net, export-led growth, agricultural revival, industrial development, investment in human capital, and uncompromising accountability.

Only through such measures can Pakistan reduce its dependence on debt and move towards genuine financial self-reliance and economic autarky.

Above all, this budget must be a budget for the people.

As lawmakers deliberate beneath the high ceilings of Parliament today, they should think beyond spreadsheets and statistics.

They should think of the barefoot children wandering through bazaars, of mothers bargaining desperately for necessities, of farmers crushed by rising costs, and of young people losing hope on street corners.

Let this Parliament rise above partisan divisions and prove worthy of the trust placed in it by the sovereign people.

Let it deliver a budget that alleviates poverty, creates employment, strengthens education and healthcare, restores human dignity, and places public welfare at the centre of national priorities.

Only then will the budget be remembered not as an annual ritual of accounting, but as a genuine instrument of justice, compassion, and national renewal.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026