New index reorders provincial race

According to The Express Tribune, a new Provincial Performance Scorecard called PPS-9 tracks how far each province has moved since its 2024 starting point. Dr Nasir Iqbal, a professor of economics and registrar at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, authored the index. Iqbal argues that conventional rankings, which place Punjab first, mainly reflect what a province inherited.

The scorecard relies on nine indicators covering public finance, output, jobs and household welfare, comparing each province with the national trend. Under two of three weighting approaches Punjab comes first, whereas K-P tops the table with equal weights. Sindh and Balochistan hold the last two places, but their order shifts with the weighting, so the report declines to rank one above the other. No single province leads across every function, and inflation returned to 11.1% in August 2026.

Sindh posts the lowest jobless rate in the country, yet poverty rose fastest there and inequality widened most among the four provinces. Iqbal says the aim is to track movement rather than level, with the government rather than the chief minister treated as the unit assessed. A proposed 12-month transparency compact would let each province publish six measures on its own, without new funding or federal approval.