Pakistan, June 12 -- I will only say this once, "we continue to remain in the free-fall, the budget 2025-26 deepens the crisis and misses critical reform opportunity"

As Pakistan unveils its federal budget for fiscal year 2025-26 today, the numbers paint a stark picture: an economy in free fall, clinging to austerity and foreign diktats instead of reform and recovery. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb will present a budget worth Rs17.68 trillion, nearly Rs900 billion less than the previous fiscal year. While officials frame this reduction as "fiscal discipline," analysts see it as a symptom of a shrinking state capacity, overwhelmed by debt and lacking the political will for structural reform.

At the heart of this budget lies a stagge...