The Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives through its Citizen Network for Budget Accountability shared key findings from the State of Budget Transparency Report 2025 at a media briefing in Shikarpur organized by Holding Hands Organization, using fiscal year 2024\u201325 as the basis since full 2025\u201326 data are not yet available. The report stresses that budget transparency across Pakistan remains limited and uneven and that current practices do not provide sufficient room for citizens to shape fiscal priorities.<\/p>\n
Report findings point to weak public participation and significant accountability gaps, noting that essential budget documents are not consistently published and citizens have minimal opportunities to influence spending decisions. The lack of timely disclosure undermines informed public debate and hampers effective oversight at the provincial and federal levels.<\/p>\n
Naveed Ahmed<\/strong> project manager at Holding Hands Organization said budgets in Pakistan are still not truly people centric, with citizens typically informed after decisions are finalized rather than being included in the process. He emphasized that meaningful public participation is central to improving both fairness and outcomes in public spending.<\/p>\n While budgets are generally presented on time, the report finds that parliamentary scrutiny remains weak because debate days are limited and review processes are inadequate. Budget transparency often falls further during implementation as governments delay publishing expenditure details and audit reports, making it difficult for civil society, media and citizens to monitor actual spending and hold authorities accountable.<\/p>\n Provincial performance varies with Punjab faring relatively better, followed by the federal government, while Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan lag behind. Despite pockets of stronger disclosure, overall transparency levels remain below acceptable standards nationwide and require urgent reform.<\/p>\n Through the CNBA platform, CPDI has urged authorities to ensure timely disclosure of budget information, strengthen public participation and reinforce accountability mechanisms to restore public trust and improve governance. The CNBA network of civil society organizations across 101 districts continues to publish budget research and promote consultations to align fiscal planning with citizens needs and international standards, pressing for concrete steps to enhance budget transparency and civic engagement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CPDI and CNBA urge stronger budget transparency to boost public participation and accountability based on the 2024\u201325 budget assessment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":18238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}