KP and Sindh budgets.

BOTH Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have announced fiscally expansionary budgets for 2022-23 that allocate massive development funds, continue tax concessions for different sectors given during the pandemic, boost their expenditure on health, education and other public services, allow pay and pension hikes for civil servants, and create thousands of new jobs in the public sector. With the country entering an election year, the provinces were expected to propose such populist initiatives even if they ran counter to the austere fiscal policies being targeted by the federal government to meet the IMF's demands for the revival of its suspended bailout package. With the IMF already unhappy with tax and other relief measures given in the new federal budget, it can't be expected to react kindly to the overgenerous provincial spending targets. The populist streaks of the two budgets notwithstanding, what sets KP apart from Sindh is its focus on governance, public financial management, the health sector and green energy reforms. For instance, the PTI government has become the first province in the country to introduce a 'contributory pension scheme' to check the growing burden of pension payments on its budget, which has already jumped to 14.7pc from less than 1pc in 2004. Given the long-term challenge of militancy it faces, the province...