Human Security in Pakistan The pattern of expenditure on health has evolved in the right direction, with a rising share of preventive health. In both services, the rate of expansion in coverage has visibly slowed down. Implementation of the Financing Plan will enable an increase of almost 0.75% of the GDP in expenditure on health and education. As emphasized in the National Security Policy, there is a need to allocate more resources for strengthening disease surveillance and instituting epidemic response mechanisms. Also, there is a need for improvement in the network and quality of schools. Further, a moratorium needs to be imposed on the establishment of new general universities, as graduates and undergraduate entrants into the labor force have a very high unemployment rate of over 25%. Instead, the focus should be on the establishment of a network of IT Institutes to promote exports. 15.5 Gender Inequality The sub-component in the HSI relating to gender inequality has shown some improvement since 2015-16 by 1.2%. However, Pakistan has the worst ranking among the twelve countries in gender inequality. The evidence points primarily to differences in the labor market between female and male workers, as follows: i. The labor force participation rate is relatively low at 31% of males. For example, this rate was 21% for females and 68% for males in 2020-21. ii. The unemployment rate is substantially higher for females at over 63% more than that of males. For example, in 2020-21, the unemployment rate for females was 8.9%, while it was 5.5% for male workers. iii. There are big differences in wages in the same occupation between female and male workers, with the latter receiving significantly higher wages. For example, female professionals, on average, receive only 70% of the remuneration of male professionals. The time has come to take strong affirmative action in the labor market for females. This will include the following: i. Similar to job quotas among the provinces for entry positions into different public services, there should also be a national quota for women in these jobs. ii. A law should be enacted by each Provincial Government where equal access and equal pay be ensured for women, especially in the private sector. iii. As an incentive, an employer may be given a tax credit of 10% on the annual increase in wage and salary payments to female employees in the establishment. 124