Personal priorities

IT has been a pattern. Ever since it returned to power in 2022, the ruling PML-N has allocated tens of billions from public funds each year to the Sustainable Development Goals Achievement Programme, ostensibly to shore up its own and allied parties’ sagging political fortunes. SAP, as the programme is referred to, is the cover given to political development schemes sanctioned and overseen by parliamentarians in their respective constituencies. Such schemes have a long and controversial history and have been criticised as misuse of public resources by lawmakers, who often seek to use them to advance personal aims. Pet projects launched by them have often been found to be poorly conceived, ripe for exploitation and misaligned with the country’s overall development priorities.