Budget allocations

Nations invest vast sums of money on health and education. No returns are expected in terms of education fee charged or hospitalisation charges. This is an investment to secure the future destiny of the country, which solely depends on its human resources.
Unlike investment in industrial projects, there is no immediate revenue generation. Unfortunately when a State is run as a business venture, by people specialising in business management, human resource development assumes a secondary priority, as can be authenticated by allocations in the federal budget for education and health.
The last three years have witnessed the creation of monopoly cartels in private sector education, which is a booming business. The State has accelerated the pace of transferring government-owned schools to the private sector at throwaway prices.
Pakistan Railways, which owned scores of schools on its network, has transferred them to a private education business cartel. So thriving and profitable is this business, that many gold diggers have ventured to make a fast buck, by filling the void created by the government, which has in principle decided that it is not the business of the State to impart education.
Schools are being regulated by the politicised CDG (city district government), which in case of the Punjab capital city amounts to making the wolf incharge of herd of sheeps.
In the developed world, the allocation of funds to schools and universities is more than the total subsidies given to all industries put together. All major Research and Development is carried out by these universities, which is the basis of their technological advancement in all fields ranging from aviation, space, armament, biology and all other sciences.
The major contributor of these funds is the state, followed by private sector. In all these developed countries, private schools and universities exist, but they comprise no more than 7% of all institutions.
The role of the State in establishing government-owned hospitals is pathetic. We hear everyday the transfer of these hospitals to the private sector, which is beyond the reach of 90% of the population.
It is an unfortunate reality that the State has all the resources to provide subsidy for development of golf courses, clubs, civil and khaki residential housing colonies.
It provides tax holidays to the rich and billions of rupees in unpaid loans are written off every year. The future destiny of Pakistan has been jeopardised by this new breed of business managers.
We need to see our neighbourhood and see how much is invested in education and health by the state in India, Iran, Sri Lanka and China. It is shameful to see the percentage of GDP spent by the Government of Pakistan on education and health. Our print and electronic media have also failed to play their role in forcing the State to fulfil their obligation for the sake of posterity.
We spend more this year, on the import of limousines paid for by the state and the provision of complimentary housing, for use by our top 150 VIPs and VVIPS, than we spend on health and education of over 120 million unfortunate citizens of this country.
In India, inspite of its booming economy, state ministers, generals and senior bureaucrats still use local made Hindustan cars, while ours prefer the latest 500cc or 1000cc Mercedes Benz, Lexus, BMW and all types of fuel guzzling SUVs.