Government-by-Government Assessments: Pakistan
During the review period, the government made its enacted budget and end-of-year report widely and easily accessible to the public, including online. It did not publish its executive budget proposal within a reasonable period. Only limited information on debt obligations, including major state-owned enterprise debt, was publicly available. Publicly available budget documents provided a substantially complete picture of most of the government’s planned expenditures and revenue, including natural resource revenues. The military and intelligence budgets were not subject to adequate parliamentary or civilian public oversight. The information in the budget was considered generally reliable and subject to audit by the supreme audit institution. The supreme audit institution met international standards of independence. Its audit reports were made publicly available within a reasonable period and provided substantive findings. The government specified in law or regulation and appeared to follow in practice the criteria and procedures for awarding natural resource extraction contracts and licenses. Basic information on natural resource extraction awards was publicly available.
Pakistan’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:
- Making its executive budget proposal publicly available within a reasonable period;
- Disclosing detailed information on government debt obligations, including for state-owned enterprises; and
- Subjecting the military and intelligence agencies’ budgets to parliamentary or civilian public oversight.