Planning and budgeting in Pakistan.

Twenty years ago a pioneering study of planning and budgeting in Pakistan pointed to significant weaknesses. This article reviews the changes made subsequently to the formal processes and assesses how these are currently working. The planning agency is now a permanent organization. Planning and budgeting have been combined and these processes have moved closer to the centre of political power. On the other hand there are difficulties over linking planning and budgeting to the management of economic and fiscal policy; planning is geared to securing foreign aid funds; the planning processes favour large expensive projects which emerge from the more developed areas of the country and discriminate against the smaller projects with a shorter time horizon needed in less developed province--thus accentuating economic imbalances. Finally, although the importance of evaluation is recognized, in practice reporting and evaluation are not adequately practised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]