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This article discusses and analyses the presence of discretionary allocations of annual development programmes (ADP)—the annual development budget—in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The paper builds a strong theory and uses robust empirical techniques to assess how the political and bureaucratic elite discretionarily and disproportionally allocates the development funds to meet two central objectives: First, to allow misappropriation of the development funds to their benefit; and second, to make constituency/district-specific allocations to buy political allegiance, indulge in pork-barrel and promote patronage politics— clientelism. For empirical assessment, the article applies an unbalanced panel dataset for districts from the provincial level sources. The theoretical propositions and the empirical results show a presence of discretion and clientelism in the process of budget making and projects' allocation to districts/constituencies, for incumbent politicians and senior career officials in charge of the budgetary-making process make disproportionate budgetary allocations in ADP to their home districts or constituencies or the projects with leverage of extraction and kickbacks in the process of allocations, bidding, and execution. It is evident that constituencies or districts, without representation in the government/cabinet and/or senior bureaucracy in the ministries that make public policy, receive far lesser budgetary allocations than their proportionate share, notwithstanding their prevailing poor social and economic landscape. Such discretionary allocations suffice personal interests and support clientelism in resource sharing, creating inter-regions and inter-districts/constituencies disparity in terms of economic and social development within the province.

A key argument made by several economists with respect to
decentralisation reform is that it can reduce poverty. This assertion is
based on the view that it leads to improvements in public sector
services delivery. The efficient provision of public goods by the local
governments may occur because of their ability to take into account
local determinants while providing services, such as health and
education [Oates (1972)]. It may also be due to competition, as local
governments encourage the provision of efficient public services to, and
lower tax burdens on the lower strata of society [Brennan and Buchanan
(1980)].

Illiteracy is a social phenomenon reflecting structural problems of society; therefore, the nature of the illiteracy problem can be better understood and the solutions found by looking at the larger social context. The complexity and social ramifications of illiteracy make it inappropriate to talk about eradication of illiteracy by a certain date. Literacy is not merely learning the mechanics of decoding the alphabet. To be meaningful, literacy must help meet people's basic learning needs, and, to that end, it must be reinforced and supplemented by a network of opportunities for diverse and continuing education and post-literacy learning. Effective primary education for children and the use of all channels of communication and education to create a learning society are essential conditions for nurturing a culture of literacy. Participation of all segments of society and additional resources are needed to promote literacy as an integral part of the effort to meet basic education needs. The research agenda in literacy should include, in addition to technical aspects, the exploration of policy issues relating to the role of literacy in a larger social context.

It is argued that the nature of the illiteracy problem can be better understood & solutions found by looking at the larger social context. In order to be meaningful, literacy must help to meet people's basic learning needs & must be reinforced by a network of opportunities for diverse & continuing education & postliteracy learning. The importance of obtaining participation from all segments of society is stressed. Research issues needing future attention include teaching & learning methods appropriate to specific cultural & linguistic settings, development of more accurate & meaningful measures of literacy, & improved training of adult literacy instructors. Adapted from the source document.

This paper aims at exploring the political economy of Balochistan and the underlying causes of social and economic development of the province. The paper presents a brief and critical account on the historical development of the Baloch nation and nationhood. The paper argues that The Baloch notwithstanding having a huge and resourceful land has failed to keep the pace of socio-economic development and modernity with other fellow nations in the region. After the independence of Pakistan and the formation of Balochistan as a province of Pakistan, the Baloch because of her political disorganization and economic backwardness failed to exert herself within the federation to grab the resource share. The story of economic and social backwardness of the Baloch and Balochistan is a multifaceted puzzle. A section of the Baloch nationalists believe that the centralist nature of Pakistani federation is such that small nationalities like the Baloch would find it hard to accommodate within the federation. That is because, the resource distribution and representation to both elected bodies and state institutions are based upon population, and Balochistan in spite of having 44% of Pakistan territory accommodates only 5% of country's total population. The paper also touches the geostrategic importance of Balochistan and underlines its economic difficulty in terms of the dearth of human resources, physical infrastructure, economic autonomy, productivity among others.