Express Tribune Editorials 8th September 2026

Sindh's healthcare gap

There is a peculiar, state-manufactured dysfunction currently plaguing Sindh's healthcare department that is entirely nonsensical at face value. More than 8,000 positions remain vacant in government-run health facilities and, on the other hand, thousands of trained and qualified lab technicians, radiographers and paramedical staff await employment for years on end.

In some public hospitals, including the province's largest public facilities, the ban on hiring technicians and paramedical staff has lasted for close to fifteen years – long enough for an entire generation of trained professionals to graduate, wait, and eventually give up or go abroad. The Sindh Medical Faculty alone has trained more than 69,000 students across 56 technician courses ranging from laboratory technology to operation theatre technology to dialysis. On paper, connecting vacant positions and available employees is no rocket science. But behind the seemingly simple procedure lie extensive roadblocks and hindrances that deter deserving candidates from careers that should essentially be theirs.

To its credit, the provincial government is not entirely blind to the problem. It has recently allowed hospitals to hire technicians and paramedical staff from third-party contractors, but even this is merely a workaround, not a fix. Contractual hiring comes without job security, career progression and even institutional loyalty that is often the backbone of a functioning healthcare system. This is not a long-term solution and, realistically, the workaround only extends the time taken for an actual solution to take centre stage.

A meaningful fix can only come in the form of a merit-based recruitment framework using verifiable Sindh Medical Faculty credentials that make large-scale favour-based appointments easier to filter. Transparent and auditable criteria will put an end to any political or legal reservations that the provincial government might have. Until then, a shortage of permission rather than skill will continue to devastate this already-crumbling healthcare infrastructure.

Our literacy deficit

International Literacy Day comes around each year with little cause for celebration in Pakistan. Despite decades of promises and successive education policies, a large share of the country's population still lacks basic literacy, while millions of children remain outside school altogether. The occasion, marked on Sept 8, should consequently serve as an opportunity to examine why a country that has long recognised education as essential to its progress has made so little headway in providing it.

Pakistan's literacy rate has improved to 63%, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2025-26. Yet this still leaves more than a third of the population aged 10 and above without literacy skills. The gender disparity is particularly stark as literacy stands at 73% for men and just 54% for women. These numbers become more troubling when placed alongside the country's repeated commitments to universal education and development. Literacy affects a person's ability to find work, understand information, use public services and engage with the institutions that govern their lives. In an increasingly digital economy, the consequences of educational exclusion are becoming even harder to overcome. Those who enter adulthood without adequate literacy are likely to find themselves further removed from economic opportunity as the nature of work changes. Pakistan's educational aspirations have little meaning if ordinary citizens were to remain without the education necessary to exercise their rights and participate in national life.

What Pakistan needs is greater continuity in education policy. International Literacy Day should prompt a sober assessment of this unfinished task. A country cannot claim the full promise of its development while so many of its people remain excluded from the basic knowledge needed to navigate society.

GSP+ tasks

As the GSP-Plus renewal is due, Pakistan has to brace itself to meet the EU's trade regulation benchmarks. Islamabad has no choice but to ensure compliance with high standards to seek inclusion in the successor regime, which carries more stringent regulations. Islamabad has also made significant progress in upholding, legislating and implementing competition criteria and the high standards of the 27-member bloc to remain a preferred destination for trade and tariffs.

It is also worth mentioning that Pakistan exports goods worth more than $9 billion to the EU, accounting for nearly 30% of its total exports. Thus, it is indispensable to heed the note of caution delivered by EU Ambassador Raimundas Karoblis on reforms, regulations and revitalisation, as losing such a staggering amount of business would be short-sighted. All that is required is to put the country's house in order by addressing the concerns of a major trading partner, especially in the realms of labour efficiency, human rights and the technical upgrading of its export products.

The saving grace, however, is that Pakistan has an introspection period of around two years to reflect on and rectify its shortcomings. Karoblis must be taken seriously, as he went on to say that 'concessions' for Pakistan from the Brussels trading scheme should "not be taken for granted". Despite its economic downslide and a tumultuous political landscape, Pakistan has taken the necessary measures to effectively implement international conventions on labour, civil rights and hygiene standards. This effort has been acknowledged by several EU delegations that praised the pace of compliance, hoping that legislative and administrative measures would soon be fully realised.

Islamabad would be well-advised to establish a high-powered monitoring commission to ensure the stringent application of EU standards, given its commitment to implementing 27 international conventions on human rights, the environment and good governance. This is the only way to continue benefiting from the advantages of the GSP-Plus status.