The elections are approaching and parties are making promises to the electorate. One gets to hear a variety of claims; some are sensible, but there are others that make you pause and think for a second.

One such instance happened last week when Asif Ali Zardari claimed that his government would provide one government job for each family without a member in government service if they came to power.

This followed on the heels of Imran Khan's promise last month that his government would create 10 million jobs over five years if his party won the elections.

Simple question: is this even possible?

Rhetorically, yes. But reality is slightly different.

Data analyst Asim Bashir writes for Dawn.com and breaks down the numbers:

Every hour for the next five years, the PTI must create 228 jobs and the PPP, 735 jobs.

The claims made by the PTI and PPP are improbable because "after debt servicing, expenditure on defence and general administration, the government’s leftover budget is not sufficient for Pakistan’s development ambitions."

Read the rest here.