A parent stands outside a government school, wondering whether the teachers will turn up and whether the building is safe. Nearby, another family pays private school fees from an already stretched household budget. Both families live in Pakistan. Their children face very different prospects.

Pakistanis celebrate military strength and argue passionately about Western culture. Yet the ordinary citizen’s relationship with the state receives less attention. We do not need to adopt Western cultural values to demand effective public institutions. Our own Constitution provides the basis.

The argument we keep getting wrong

Public debates sometimes judge Western countries by family life, dress or personal freedoms. Such differences deserve discussion, but they tell us little about whether a government delivers clean water or protects a poor citizen’s legal rights. Cultural conservatism can coexist with competent administration. It is not established that criticism of Western morality forms part of an organised campaign to silence Pakistanis; the better question is why cultural comparisons can crowd out discussion of institutions.

Pakistan’s Constitution makes promises

Article 25 of Pakistan’s Constitution guarantees equality before the law and equal protection. Article 25A requires the state to provide free and compulsory education to children aged five to sixteen, in the manner determined by law. These are Pakistani constitutional commitments, not ideas borrowed from Europe. See the National Assembly’s constitutional documents.

UNICEF estimates that about 25.1 million Pakistani children aged five to sixteen are out of school. The figure reveals the distance between constitutional language and everyday reality. Enrolment alone is insufficient: children also need safe buildings, prepared teachers and actual learning.

Pakistan’s Economic Survey 2024–25 reported combined federal and provincial education spending of around 0.8% of GDP for July–March FY2025. This nine-month figure must not be mistaken for a final full-year ratio. Still, it raises difficult questions about public priorities and implementation.

What Germany can teach us about institutions

The World Justice Project’s 2025 Rule of Law Index ranked Germany sixth of 143 countries and Pakistan 130th. Their respective scores were approximately 0.83 and 0.37 on a zero-to-one scale. The index evaluates constraints on official power, corruption and justice, among other measures. It does not establish that every German receives equal treatment or that every Pakistani official acts unfairly. It does show a substantial difference in institutional performance.

Pakistan’s challenge is not merely the absence of laws. Enforcement can be uneven, procedures slow and access to public institutions unequal. A written right is less valuable when exercising it depends on money or influence.

Social protection is not universal prosperity

Germany has extensive statutory health and pension insurance, although eligibility and benefit levels vary. A cleaner in Germany is not automatically prosperous; housing costs and old-age poverty remain real problems. Social insurance nevertheless creates formal mechanisms to spread risks that would otherwise fall heavily on individual households.

Pakistan has social protection too. The Benazir Income Support Programme assists eligible low-income households. Acknowledging its existence makes the criticism more precise: the questions are whether coverage reaches those who need it and whether benefits are adequate when illness or rising prices threaten family budgets.

National security and drinking water

Pakistan’s nuclear capability reflects genuine security concerns, especially its rivalry with India. Defence spending cannot simply be equated with the cost of operating municipal water systems. But a country must also judge its security by whether its people can live healthy, educated lives.

The World Bank’s drinking-water indicator puts Pakistan’s use of safely managed drinking-water services at about 45% in 2024. That does not mean everyone else lacks water. It means their service fails at least one requirement concerning improved sources, availability, access on premises or specified contamination.

Water systems require maintenance, capable local agencies and reliable monitoring. A newly inaugurated scheme means little if households still cannot depend on it years later.

Why institutions matter more than slogans

Pakistan’s administrative system inherited important features from British colonial rule, especially a concern with maintaining order and collecting revenue. Independence did not freeze those institutions: successive military and civilian governments shaped them. I discussed part of this history in Pakistan Army: Colonial Legacy and Political Power Since 1947.

The 18th Constitutional Amendment changed the distribution of powers between the federation and provinces. Schools, hospitals and water services involve different layers of government. Fragmented responsibility can leave citizens unsure whom to hold accountable, especially where local government lacks resources or authority.

The problem with spending announcements

Pakistan’s debt obligations constrain the fiscal space available for public services. My earlier article, Pakistan Keeps Looking to the IMF. The Bigger Debt Story Is Sitting Inside Its Own Banks, examines the role of domestic borrowing. Larger budgets can help, but spending only matters when it produces reliable services.

A school needs functioning classrooms and teachers who attend. A hospital needs medicines, equipment and trained staff. Citizens should ask how much was allocated and what changed as a result. Visible construction projects often receive more attention than the less glamorous work of maintenance.

The Constitution’s social commitments

Article 38 sets out principles for social and economic well-being. But Articles 29 and 30 qualify how the Principles of Policy operate, including limits on challenging government action solely for noncompliance with them. This is different from the legal status of fundamental rights such as Articles 25 and 25A. The distinction matters for litigation, but it does not remove the political duty to explain policy choices.

Patriotism should make room for questions

A family in Karachi experiences economic policy through food prices and school fees, not only through national indicators. I explored this in Pakistan’s Numbers Are Improving. Why Does the Household Budget Still Feel Broken?. Economic stabilisation can coexist with continued hardship in individual homes.

Respect for parents does not require acceptance of corruption. Religious commitment does not conflict with reliable hospitals. Strong family ties can support, rather than replace, a demand for accountable government. Pakistan has capable professionals and worthwhile public programmes, but achievement in one field cannot cancel failure in another.

The question worth asking

Can a parent enrol a child in a functioning school without connections? Can a patient obtain treatment without exhausting savings? Can a worker seek justice without fearing the process itself? These questions matter more than arguments over whose culture is superior.

Pakistan does not need to become Germany. It needs to take its own constitutional promises seriously. When the next government announces a grand national achievement, citizens should ask what it will change for the child entering the neighbourhood government school.