This budget should make your blood boil. Let me show you why.
Pakistan's interest payments this year: Rs. 8,054 billion.
Pakistan's entire development budget, roads, dams, hospitals, schools, everything: Rs. 1,000 billion.
Eight rupees go to debt service for every one rupee invested in this country. This is not a budget. This is a confession.
Understand what this debt is. It was not borrowed to build Pakistan. Over the years, it was borrowed by corrupt politicians who were simultaneously busy building their own empires, inside and outside of Pakistan.
Now you and I are paying interest on their corruption.
Government will borrow another Rs. 7,000 billion on top of everything that already exists.
Borrow to pay interest on previous borrowing.
This is a debt trap and we are in it.
And they took out full page newspaper adverts at your expense to celebrate it.
Now let's look at Bangladesh. Same region. Same starting point. Very different choices.
Bangladesh total budget: $76 billion. Pakistan: $60 billion.
Bangladesh development spending: $24 billion. Pakistan: $3.6 billion.
Bangladesh interest payments: $10.4 billion. Pakistan: $29 billion.
Bangladesh education budget: $6.9 billion. Pakistan, federal and all four provinces combined: $3.5 billion.
They have 83 million fewer people than us and still spend twice as much educating them.
Bangladesh defence: $3.5 billion. Pakistan defence: $10.8 billion.
We spend 3 times more on defence than Bangladesh and our interest bill is 8 times their entire defence budget.
They are spending 6.5 times more on building their country than we are. And they are paying a third of what we pay in interest.
Now look at what this has done to our people.
Pakistan's GDP and Bangladesh's GDP are almost identical, around $450 billion each.
But Pakistan has 83 million more people.
Bangladesh's income/person: $2,621.
Pakistan: $1,901.
There taka is 122/dollar
Our Rs is 278/dollar
Poverty in Pakistan: 44.7%.
Poverty in Bangladesh: 5.9%.
Literacy in Pakistan: 60% (doubtful)
Literacy in Bangladesh: 77%
Once again our interest payments:
Rs. 8,054 billion.
Our defence budget: Rs. 3,000 billion. Interest payments are 2.7 times the defence budget.
This is far more damning than anything else!
I want to say something clearly. If this trajectory is not broken in the next two to three years, the security of this country will become unaffordable.
This is not a political statement.
This is basic maths.
These numbers are not accidental.
This is what elite capture looks like.
Wake up.
#Budget2026
#Corruption