Post 18th amendment the provinces have been empowered with authority and resources to manage their affairs and thus provincial setups have become critical in assessing the performance of various political parties. Provincial governments are now in charge of healthcare, education, infrastructure development and novel projects, areas which are critical for development and well-being of the provinces residents. This article will focus on the performance of Sindh government, post 2024 elections and how it is performing so far on these metrics. Again even though legislation, law & order and various other administrative aspects could also be included in this analysis but for the sake of brevity only these four metrics have been chosen as the main focus due to their importance to the general public and media.
Sindh government has been focused on launching innovative projects introducing advanced healthcare procedures free of cost in cooperation with Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), free Cyber Knife facility at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), collaboration with large businesses like Engro to provide more comprehensive medical coverage to residents of Sindh’s rural areas like establishment of free clinics in district Thar. They have also fostered collaborations with international governments such as the South Korean government to build healthcare facilities including the 200 bed child healthcare institute in Sukkur built at a cost of 57.2 million dollars in order to expand the healthcare infrastructure across the province especially in the interior regions. It has also focused on developing healthcare centers plus affiliated hospitals like the Gambat institute of health sciences which is a 500 bed hospital in Khairpur district providing state of the art radiation treatments and complex procedures such as organ transplants to deserving and private patients as well. Other novel projects include a Rescue service by the name of Sindh emergency rescue services which provides emergency care, fire and rescue services and transport of patients to hospitals amongst others. The National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) has also been expanded to provide services to the population of interior Sindh with satellite centers being established across the province in order to increase coverage. Improvement in procedures along more modern lines is also in the works.
In the field of education the focus has been on enhancing partnership with private and multi-lateral donors to increase quality and coverage of education across the province. The People’s School program under the Sindh Education Foundation is a good example of this. This program is managing 35 schools across the province catering to 25,000 students via English medium and comprehensive high schools. Other programs like the Girl Stipend program aim to target female literacy in the interior by providing financial incentives for families to send their girls to schools in collaboration with the World Bank. Collaboration has also been sought with NGOs such as adopting of 300 primary schools with support of Akhuwat foundation to enhance education services. There has also been focus on establishing new public universities such as Sindh University of Technology and Shaheed Benazirabad University as well as increased funding for institutes, their faculty and programs and scholarships for deserving students via the Sindh Higher Education Commission whose budget of 35 billion for current year is largest amongst the provinces. Increased funding for enhancing literacy at primary and secondary education level has also been seen focusing on increasing teacher availability, enhancing learning outcomes and increasing enrollment with 34.2 billion allocated for 729 such projects across the province last year.
With regards to infrastructure spending, Sndh government has initiated multiple projects both in Karachi, the largest city in the country, as well as in the interior of province where even the remotest towns are being connected via a well paved road network from Thar to Mirpurkhas. Examples include the Malir expressway in Karachi, Larkana-Mehar, Jacobabad – Shahdadkot and Nawabshah – Mirpurkhas roads. About 23,000 kilometer roads network of province including provincial highways, access roads and secondary roads were revamped or constructed and are being managed by the provincial development authority increasing connectivity between towns and villages with a focus on linking the coastal towns with Karachi and linking the interior towns with each other and with Karachi. The government has also initiated public transport projects such as People’s bus service which operates in major towns such as Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah utilizing 300 buses with plans to expand further including women only pink buses across different routes for these towns. Revitalization of the Karachi circular railway is also in the works and its development is eagerly needed for residents of Karachi given the long delays the project has faced.
Along with these several novel projects have been continued by Sindh government in different sectors such as power sector where cooperation with Engro has led to continued development of Thar coal project in collaboration with Chinese partners reaching capacity of 1320 megawatt production as of 2025. The government has also focused on increasing solar, wind and hydropower capacity via initiatives such as Jhimpir wind power project, Manjhand renewable energy project, Rohri and Nara canal hydropower and via distribution of solar panels to low income households where it targets 200,000 panel distribution by July 2025. In agriculture sector it has focused on increasing crop yields by initiatives such as Climate smart technology focusing on water efficient agriculture, Double row Planting, Crop insurance and water management services amongst others.
Overall the Sindh Government is on right track in these areas but there is a lot of room for improvement in various initiatives especially Healthcare and Education through which revolutionary work can be done. Similar focus is necessary on the administrative side as well especially reforming courts and police where so far not much attention has been given. It is hoped that these areas will also be included in future programs.
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