The Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS), in collaboration with EU Funded Mustehkam Parlimaan Project, successfully organized a Technical Session on State of Economy & Annual Budget 2025-26 for the Honourable Members of Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday, 16 June, 2025 at Peshawar.
The event was attended by 85 participants, including 30 Honorable Members of Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and officers from different sections/wings of the Assembly Secretariat. The seminar aimed at equipping the participants about the concept of budget, constitutional and other legal provisions regarding the budget, mechanisms for revenue collection and resource distribution among the federation and the federating units, key highlights and statistics from the Federal budget and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Budget 2025-26.
The seminar formally commenced with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran by Mr. Tanzil Ur Rahman. Following that, Ms. Tehseen Khalid, Director Research PIPS, moderated the event. Muhammad Rashid Mafzool Zaka, Director General Research PIPS, presented welcome remarks in which he thanked Honorable Members for their participation in the event amid their occupied schedules. He highlighted the important role that well-informed parliamentary debates on budget play in promoting fiscal transparency, economic accountability and making policies focused on the welfare of the people. He also outlined the key topics covered in the sessions, along with the introduction of the facilitators and their areas of expertise.
In the first session, Mr. Haider Abbas, DG Budget, NVTTC apprised the participants on reading and analyzing the budget documents. His presentation included explaining the concept of budget, constitutional and other legal provisions for the federal and provincial budgets. While explaining the mechanisms for revenue collection and resource distribution among the federation and the federating units, he discussed about key highlights from the federal budget of Pakistan 2025-26. Further, he explained key statistics of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Budget 2025-26 and also briefed the Honourable Members about the budget documents and their purpose.
The second panelist, Dr. Wasim Shahid Malik, Former SBP Chair/PFM Consultant, MuP conducted the session on Key Challenges to Pakistan’s Economy and its Impact on the Budget & Economy of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In his session Dr. Wasim explained the country’s economic performance with facts and figures of financial year 2024-25 and the previous ones. He facilitated the Honourable Members with a closer look at sectoral growth of Pakistan economy comparing yearly performance of the sectors during FY 2022-23 to FY 2024-25. He gave historical context of the GDP growth rate of Pakistan over two and a half decades. He also acquainted the participants about Agriculture Growth Rate and Industrial growth rate and highlighted the poor performance of Large-Scale Manufacturing and its implications for the economic growth in Pakistan. Furthermore, he apprised the participants on the core objectives of the fiscal policy, emphasizing its pivotal role in shaping the economy. He elaborated on how a sound fiscal policy framework contributes to economic stability, efficient resource allocation, income redistribution, employment generation and sustainable economic growth.
Mr. Muhammad Rashid Mafzool Zaka, moderated the participants’ questions at the end of the sessions, where Honorable MPs contributed through questions and opinions on the matters discussed by the facilitators. The discussions also touched upon the resource distribution between the Federation and the provinces, resource allocation for the merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the need for revisiting the NFC award and the importance of financial independence of provinces. Mr. Kiramat Ullah Khan, former Speaker of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, highlighted the urgent need of realigning resources and policies toward empowering the youth, particularly girls by equipping them with skills in emerging technologies. He emphasized that such intentional investment is essential for preparing the potential of the younger generation to contribute meaningfully to the development of the nation.
In her concluding remarks, Honourable Deputy Speaker, Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ms. Suriya Bibi expressed sincere appreciation for the dedicated efforts of the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services and Mustahkam Parlimaan in organizing such a significant and intellectually enriching session. She commended the organizers for facilitating a valuable platform for enhancing participants’ understanding of key topics about the economy, the provincial budget and related matters.
At the end, Mr. Muhammad Rashid Mafzool Zaka presented vote of thanks to the Honorable Members for their dedication and enthusiastic participation throughout the event. The event concluded with a group photo of the participants. PIPS Research team comprising of Mr. Tanzil Ur Rehman, Mr. Wajid Aslam, Mr. Abdul Majid and Mr. Danish in support of MuP team organized the said event.