Catalysts for social development.

For long, it has been recognised that there is a mismatch between economic and social progress in emerging market economies including in Pakistan.

Now the international community is renewing its focus to align mutually reinforcing social and economic development with a broader vision shaped by changing realities. Adopting the resolution on 'Social Development' on December 17, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), stressed the importance of removing obstacles to realising the right to self-determination. The resolution was moved by the UN Committee on Social Development which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues.

The UNGA resolution, co-sponsored by Pakistan, affirmed that 'self-determination is a fundamental condition for the guarantee and observation of human rights.' The UNGA resolution is anchored on the unsuppressible urge of every nation's people to exercise their sovereignty and its twin, internal autonomy, to manage their country's external and domestic affairs respectively.

However, Pakistan's economic sovereignty at times is compromised by heavy reliance on foreign loans and its linked conditionality. Internally also, provincial autonomy though deep-seated in the system, is not fully in the saddle.

Robust social development, an imperative for rapid economic development, suffers due to sharp disagreements among key institutions and leaders

In a confusing move, the cash-strapped PTI government has started devising a mechanism for making the federating units accountable for the choices they make on how they spend their own funds received as their legitimate share from the National Finance Commission (NFC) divisible pool.

To resolve the country's multiple crises, the PTI government prefers to take an administrative approach, as did some past regimes, subscribing to a unitary system. For example, Punjab, the biggest and most developed province, capable of taking care of itself, is micromanaged from Islamabad. The centre also argues that the provinces have no incentive to increase their own tax revenues because they are heavily dependent on federal fiscal transfers.

Reported figures show that, on average, out of the total provincial resources, around 17 per cent comes from Punjab's own resources and 83pc from federal transfers. For Sindh, the comparative ratio is at 23:77pc and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 10:90. Balochistan own collection is less than 10pc and it gets more than 90pc from federal transfers.

The provincial...