The government has indicated, albeit reluctantly, its approach to the upcoming 2019-20 budget. According to media reports, the next budget would be a depiction of the federal and depiction of the federal and provincial governments' joint strategies for development. Bakhtiyar has also reportedly said that uplift of the less developed regions would be ensured through a Pakistan's regional equalization development plan.

Although it is not known what actually constitutes government's 'regional equalization plan,' it is quite clear that the less developed areas or regions of the country will have a bigger share in the budgetary allocations for development. It is, however, quite unfortunate that budgetary allocations in the annual budgets have been unjustly slashed by successive governments particularly after the 2008 general elections in the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019