Federal current expenditure on Health Affairs and Services — federal hospitals, health institutions, and federal health programmes.
Source: Budget in Brief — Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan.
Health spending pays for hospitals, doctors, medicine, and disease-prevention programmes — the things that keep a population alive and able to work. Countries that spend too little on health usually end up with worse outcomes during emergencies, like disease outbreaks, and weaker long-term productivity.
Just like education, health became mostly a provincial subject after 2010's 18th Amendment. The federal numbers on this page only cover federal hospitals and health institutions — a small fraction of what Pakistan actually spends on healthcare nationwide. Provinces fund the much larger share of public hospitals and clinics through their own separate budgets, which this Budget Workshop does not track.
Looking at how small federal health spending is compared to debt servicing or subsidies is a useful reality check on how Pakistan's federal government actually allocates its money, even if the bigger health story plays out at the provincial level.
Health was devolved to the provinces under the 18th Amendment (2010); the bulk of Pakistan's actual public health spending happens in provincial budgets, not here.
Is this Pakistan's total health budget?
No. This is the federal government's current expenditure on health only. Health is a provincial subject since the 18th Amendment, and provincial health budgets are several times larger than this federal figure, but are tracked in separate provincial budget documents not covered by this dataset.
Does this include PSDP development spending on health?
No — this is current expenditure only. Health-tagged PSDP development projects are booked under PSDP, a different classification, and are not added in here to avoid double-counting.
Why was health handed to the provinces?
Like education, health was decentralized under the 18th Constitutional Amendment of 2010, based on the idea that provincial governments are better placed to manage hospitals and clinics close to the people who use them.
What does the federal government still fund in health?
Mainly federal hospitals and institutions, plus national programmes like the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), which the federal government still coordinates because disease control benefits from a single national strategy.
How does Pakistan's health spending compare internationally?
Pakistan has historically spent a smaller share of GDP on health than most regional peers, a gap often linked to weaker health outcomes like higher infant mortality and lower life expectancy compared to similar-income countries.
Did COVID-19 change federal health spending?
Yes — federal health allocations rose noticeably during the pandemic years to fund emergency response, vaccines, and related programmes, before settling back toward more typical levels in later years.
Where can I find provincial health budget figures?
Each province publishes its own Budget in Brief through its provincial Finance Department, where the much larger provincial health allocations are listed in detail.
Why is low health spending a concern for ordinary Pakistanis?
Limited public health spending means longer wait times, fewer resources at public hospitals, and a heavier reliance on costly private healthcare for families who can't always afford it.
Every figure on this page is the Budget Estimate (BE) for that fiscal year, transcribed from that year’s own official Budget in Brief (Finance Division, Government of Pakistan). Most recent year:
Budget in Brief, FY2026-27 (Table 1: Budget at a Glance, Table 2/3: Fiscal Deficit & Financing / BE & RE Comparison, Table 11: Function-Wise Expenditure)Related Budget Categories
Related Provincial Pages