Islamabad, June 19 (IANS) The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has severely criticised country’s federal budget 2025-2026, expressing deep concerns about its implications on the economic and social rights of the most vulnerable communities.
“Adopted under a strict austerity framework aligned with IMF conditionalities, the budget offers little protection for low-income groups already struggling with the prolonged inflationary crisis from 2022 to 2024. Although the government has marginally reduced income tax rates for salaried individuals, this relief is insufficient to restore the eroded purchasing power of working-class households,” read a statement issued by the HRCP.
“More troubling is the decision not to raise the federal minimum wage, which remains at Pakistani Rupee (PKR) 37,000 per month — a figure that fails to meet the basic cost of living for a family of six,” the statement added.
The organisation asserted that in provinces like Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the minimum wage has been raised to PKR 40,000, the increase does not compensate for inflation-induced losses in real income.
The HRCP highlighted that the enforcement remained alarmingly weak in the Sindh province of Pakistan, with 80 per cent of industries reportedly not complying with minimum wage laws, a trend that mirrored nationwide.
“The allocations for key social sectors — health (0.96 per cent of GDP), education (1.06 per cent), and social protection (1.1 per cent) — fall far below international benchmarks and regional comparators. In contrast, countries like India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh spend significantly more as a percentage of GDP on these essential services,” the human rights commission stated.
HRCP Secretary-General Harris Khalique expressed disappointment with the Pakistani Finance Minister’s failure to raise the minimum wage while having announced an “exponential and disproportionate increase” in salaries of the parliamentarians.
Additionally the HRCP Punjab Vice-Chair Raja Ashraf stated that it is the state’s responsibility to ensure health care and education, while HRCP senior manager Feroza Batool, terming the budget as “anti-poor”, remarked that women were disproportionately affected by it.
“The budget’s implications for ordinary citizens’ economic and social rights must be debated in minute detail before it is passed,” added HRCP treasurer Husain Naqi.
HRCP urged the federal and provincial governments to reconsider their fiscal priorities and ensure that economic recovery plans centre the rights and needs of Pakistan’s most marginalised.
“Without adequate investment in public health, education, and a meaningful social safety net, the promise of equal citizenship remains hollow for millions. The right to a life with dignity cannot be balanced against fiscal restraint — it must be at the heart of it,” mentioned the HRCP.
–IANS
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