Published: 11:11 PM, 10 September 2025 Last Update: 11:33 PM, 10 September 2025
Beyond Aid: Why Pakistan’s Institutions Are Failing Its People
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Pakistan’s development trajectory has become a cautionary tale in the global discourse on sustainable progress. Despite its strategic location, demographic potential, and abundant natural resources, the country remains mired in chronic underdevelopment, institutional decay, and policy paralysis. The latest Human Development Index (HDI) rankings by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) place Pakistan at 168th out of 193 countries, firmly in the “low human development” category. This stark position reflects more than just numbers; it signals a systemic failure to deliver the most basic promises of prosperity, dignity, and opportunity to its citizens.
The HDI report highlights persistent challenges in education, healthcare, and income growth, sectors that form the bedrock of human development. These deficits are compounded by economic instability, political volatility, and a governance model that prioritizes short-term optics over long-term transformation. Pakistan’s performance on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) further underscores this crisis. With a 2024 SDG Index score of just 57.02 and a ranking of 137 out of 166 countries, the country is falling behind its regional peers and drifting further from the global targets set for 2030.
The SDGs, adopted in 2015 by UN member states, represent a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. They encompass 17 goals ranging from quality education and clean water to peace, justice, and strong institutions. Pakistan’s failure to meet the earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), achieving only 3 out of 41 indicators, was a missed opportunity. Now, with modest progress in just five SDGs, regression in three, and stagnation in the rest, the country’s current trajectory suggests that history may repeat itself.
At the heart of this stagnation lies a deeper malaise: institutional weakness. Strong institutions are the scaffolding upon which sustainable development is built. They ensure rule of law, transparency, and participatory governance. In Pakistan, however, institutions have been hollowed out by decades of politicization, corruption, and neglect. Development efforts have repeatedly failed not because of flawed intentions, but because the machinery meant to implement them lacks the capacity, credibility, and continuity to deliver results.
The consequences of this institutional fragility are visible across every sector. In education, 79 percent of ten-year-old children cannot read, and public spending remains woefully inadequate, barely half of what is needed to close the gap. In health, nearly seven percent of children do not survive past their fifth birthday, and 40 percent of children under five suffer from stunted growth, with rates exceeding 55 percent in the poorest districts. These figures are not just statistics; they are a damning indictment of a system that has failed to prioritize its people.
Water and sanitation services remain inaccessible to large segments of the population, exacerbating health risks and undermining productivity. Climate change adds another layer of vulnerability, with Pakistan heavily exposed to natural disasters and environmental degradation. Yet, reforms to expand access to clean water, improve social protection, and adapt to climate realities remain piecemeal and underfunded. The fiscal architecture of the country further compounds the crisis. Debt servicing costs and domestic revenue mobilization are at unsustainable levels, leaving little room for investment in human development or infrastructure. A 2024 Human Rights Watch report revealed that Pakistan spent seven times more per person on servicing external public debt than on healthcare.
Meanwhile, powerful entities like the Fauji Foundation, Army Welfare Trust, and Shaheen Foundation operate vast commercial empires, from fertilizer plants to insurance companies, largely outside the purview of civilian audits. In 2023, the military formalized its economic influence through the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), chaired by Army Chief General Asim Munir. Intended to attract foreign investment, the SIFC managed to bring in just $1.9 billion in FY24, a figure dwarfed by India’s $70.9 billion in the same period. This disparity reflects not just economic inefficiency but a deeper governance challenge: the concentration of power in non-civilian hands and the erosion of institutional checks and balances.
Pakistan’s development challenges are not isolated, they are interconnected. Low tax mobilization, energy shortages, law and order breakdowns, rampant corruption, losses in public sector enterprises, poor delivery of education and health services, and stagnating trade all trace back to weak institutions. These failures are not the result of a lack of resources or ambition, but of a system that has been structurally compromised. The country’s exposure to climate shocks and natural disasters further amplifies the urgency for reform. There is broad consensus among experts that Pakistan’s development crisis cannot be resolved through technocratic quick fixes. The problems are deeply embedded in the institutional fabric of the state, and any meaningful solution must involve a gradual, deliberate re-engineering of these systems.
Pakistan’s development crisis stems from deep-rooted structural challenges within its governance system, where outdated practices and institutional fragility continue to obstruct meaningful progress. Despite decades of international aid, donor support, and development partnerships, the country has failed to translate assistance into sustainable outcomes. Alarmingly, alongside Afghanistan, Pakistan remains one of the only South Asian nations languishing near the bottom of the UNDP Human Development Index, an indictment not of resource scarcity, but of systemic mismanagement and lack of accountability. While regional neighbors have made strides in education, healthcare, and poverty reduction, Pakistan’s trajectory reflects a persistent inability to reform institutions, prioritize human development, and ensure transparency in the use of funds.
The squandered potential and unfulfilled promises have left millions trapped in cycles of deprivation, while the state continues to deflect responsibility. With 2030 fast approaching, the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals, the window for meaningful course correction is rapidly closing. Without urgent, structural reform and a commitment to inclusive governance, Pakistan risks becoming a permanent outlier in the global development landscape. (By, Sajib Biswas and views expressed in the write up are personal and solely those of the author.)
The HDI report highlights persistent challenges in education, healthcare, and income growth, sectors that form the bedrock of human development. These deficits are compounded by economic instability, political volatility, and a governance model that prioritizes short-term optics over long-term transformation. Pakistan’s performance on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) further underscores this crisis. With a 2024 SDG Index score of just 57.02 and a ranking of 137 out of 166 countries, the country is falling behind its regional peers and drifting further from the global targets set for 2030.
The SDGs, adopted in 2015 by UN member states, represent a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. They encompass 17 goals ranging from quality education and clean water to peace, justice, and strong institutions. Pakistan’s failure to meet the earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), achieving only 3 out of 41 indicators, was a missed opportunity. Now, with modest progress in just five SDGs, regression in three, and stagnation in the rest, the country’s current trajectory suggests that history may repeat itself.
At the heart of this stagnation lies a deeper malaise: institutional weakness. Strong institutions are the scaffolding upon which sustainable development is built. They ensure rule of law, transparency, and participatory governance. In Pakistan, however, institutions have been hollowed out by decades of politicization, corruption, and neglect. Development efforts have repeatedly failed not because of flawed intentions, but because the machinery meant to implement them lacks the capacity, credibility, and continuity to deliver results.
The consequences of this institutional fragility are visible across every sector. In education, 79 percent of ten-year-old children cannot read, and public spending remains woefully inadequate, barely half of what is needed to close the gap. In health, nearly seven percent of children do not survive past their fifth birthday, and 40 percent of children under five suffer from stunted growth, with rates exceeding 55 percent in the poorest districts. These figures are not just statistics; they are a damning indictment of a system that has failed to prioritize its people.
Water and sanitation services remain inaccessible to large segments of the population, exacerbating health risks and undermining productivity. Climate change adds another layer of vulnerability, with Pakistan heavily exposed to natural disasters and environmental degradation. Yet, reforms to expand access to clean water, improve social protection, and adapt to climate realities remain piecemeal and underfunded. The fiscal architecture of the country further compounds the crisis. Debt servicing costs and domestic revenue mobilization are at unsustainable levels, leaving little room for investment in human development or infrastructure. A 2024 Human Rights Watch report revealed that Pakistan spent seven times more per person on servicing external public debt than on healthcare.
Meanwhile, powerful entities like the Fauji Foundation, Army Welfare Trust, and Shaheen Foundation operate vast commercial empires, from fertilizer plants to insurance companies, largely outside the purview of civilian audits. In 2023, the military formalized its economic influence through the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), chaired by Army Chief General Asim Munir. Intended to attract foreign investment, the SIFC managed to bring in just $1.9 billion in FY24, a figure dwarfed by India’s $70.9 billion in the same period. This disparity reflects not just economic inefficiency but a deeper governance challenge: the concentration of power in non-civilian hands and the erosion of institutional checks and balances.
Pakistan’s development challenges are not isolated, they are interconnected. Low tax mobilization, energy shortages, law and order breakdowns, rampant corruption, losses in public sector enterprises, poor delivery of education and health services, and stagnating trade all trace back to weak institutions. These failures are not the result of a lack of resources or ambition, but of a system that has been structurally compromised. The country’s exposure to climate shocks and natural disasters further amplifies the urgency for reform. There is broad consensus among experts that Pakistan’s development crisis cannot be resolved through technocratic quick fixes. The problems are deeply embedded in the institutional fabric of the state, and any meaningful solution must involve a gradual, deliberate re-engineering of these systems.
Pakistan’s development crisis stems from deep-rooted structural challenges within its governance system, where outdated practices and institutional fragility continue to obstruct meaningful progress. Despite decades of international aid, donor support, and development partnerships, the country has failed to translate assistance into sustainable outcomes. Alarmingly, alongside Afghanistan, Pakistan remains one of the only South Asian nations languishing near the bottom of the UNDP Human Development Index, an indictment not of resource scarcity, but of systemic mismanagement and lack of accountability. While regional neighbors have made strides in education, healthcare, and poverty reduction, Pakistan’s trajectory reflects a persistent inability to reform institutions, prioritize human development, and ensure transparency in the use of funds.
The squandered potential and unfulfilled promises have left millions trapped in cycles of deprivation, while the state continues to deflect responsibility. With 2030 fast approaching, the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals, the window for meaningful course correction is rapidly closing. Without urgent, structural reform and a commitment to inclusive governance, Pakistan risks becoming a permanent outlier in the global development landscape. (By, Sajib Biswas and views expressed in the write up are personal and solely those of the author.)
