Ahsan Iqbal urges prioritisation of ongoing projects amid fiscal constraints

WEB DESK: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Monday stressed the urgent need to prioritize and complete ongoing development projects, warning that the country’s current development budget remains heavily constrained.

Addressing the Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) meeting for the fiscal year 2026-27 budget, the minister termed the insufficiency of the development budget a major challenge for the national planning process, noting that the scarcity of funds has hindered the timely execution of key initiatives, according to Radio Pakistan.

Severe funding constraints and ‘throw-forward’ challenges

Iqbal highlighted the massive financial bottleneck currently gripping the federal development portfolio, revealing that it carries an accumulated “throw-forward” the estimated cost required to complete already approved projects of approximately Rs10tri.

Against this backlog, various federal ministries have demanded nearly Rs4tri just to sustain ongoing projects in the upcoming fiscal year.

The minister underscored that the existing fiscal space makes it impossible to finance all projects promptly.

To counter this, he stated that the government must focus on completing priority projects efficiently so they can be successfully rolled out and removed from the active development portfolio, thereby freeing up resources for future initiatives.

Economic recovery and relief Measures

While acknowledging the scale of the fiscal challenge, the planning minister expressed optimism regarding the country’s macroeconomic indicators. He stated that Pakistan’s economy has successfully transitioned onto a path of recovery.

Iqbal assured that the government remains committed to leveraging effective development planning to translate these macroeconomic gains into tangible relief for the common man.

He added that while the immediate focus rests on optimized resource allocation, the government will need to substantially increase overall development spending in the long run to sustain growth and modernise infrastructure.