Poverty in Pakistan

Pakistanis an Asian country and comes under the category of “Central andWest Asia”. Today, the sight of the entire world is towards Asian countries because of their tremendous economic progress since last decade. This economic growth helps these countries to up their living standards and reduce poverty to greater extent.In an economic paper presented by Asian Development Bank (ADB) in June 2011, poverty updates of 25 Developing Member Countries (DMC’s) of ADB are presented by taking into account the impact of recent spikes in food prices. These 25 DMC’s include:Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timer-Lester, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam.

In this economic report many approaches are in use to measure poverty ratios in these countries. More common ratio of them is Head Count Ratio (HCR) “The proportion of country’s total population, spending less than $1.25 per day (extreme poverty) or $2 per day (moderate poverty)”. If a country’s HCR is reduced it mean’s that poverty level in this country is low and vice versa. In this economic paper, among DMC’s, china andIndiaare account for most reduction in poverty level because of their impressive economic growth and their HCR decrease to good level. But there are also many DMC’s whose poverty ratio increase despite the fact that their HCR decline. The reason behind this is that, these countries testimonies lethargic economic growth. Indeed, economic growth for any country is crucial for its survival but this only measure is insufficient to guarantee considerable poverty reduction. This observance about poverty increasing despite HCE reduction in DMC’s is due to inequality of income distribution inAsiaand Pacific.Pakistanis amongst those DMC’s whose poverty ratio increase while decrease in HCR. What are the factors behind this vicious circle of poverty that is expanding its volume day by day? And what is the reason behind the fact that National Income of Pakistan is less than National Income of any developed country. Let see some reasons…..

It is well marked fact that National income of any country is multiparty effort of four factor of production like Labor, Land, Capital, Entrepreneur and the national income of any country is sum up of wages of labor, rent of land, interest of capital and profit of entrepreneur. National income of any country also tells about the living standards of this country, higher the national income higher the living standards are enjoyed by the residents of this country. Unfortunately, national income ofPakistanis far less than any developing country national income that is good picture and evidence of worse poverty situation in Pakistan.

Pakistanis such a country who is suffering poverty from the very early time of its independence. At the time of separation of sub-continent and sovereignty in 1947 Pakistaninnate most backward parts of this continent with only one university, one Textile mill and one jute factory even that Pakistandoes not have its own bank. Facilities regarding food, education, transportation and hospitalization were insufficient enough to meet people requirements. These sectors due to their sluggish position where were unable to meet people requirements along with this, these all sectors of economy were also unable to produce income for the migrated poor people. This is also the worst fact that after the independence and death of Quaid-e-Azam and their loyal political leaders Pakistani nation does not locate any sincere, strong-minded, and worth able leader that possess the qualities to cope with this situation. Pakistan’s history is full of such dictators who make this country routes weak and weak just because of their personal interests and to make money so does not give attention towards country’s progress. Too much dishonesty, red tapes, favors, selfishness and greed was seen and still seen in government and political sectors. Big land lords take into custody most important parts of government and make illegal use of their authorities. Most of the money that was specified for welfare schemes of people was handicapped by politicians. Indeed after 64 years of independence, our country makes much progress in every field of life but due to erroneous policies and structure of government, changing nature of government, wrong political authorities and wrong standards of living money remain limited from always just in few hands. This situation makes the rich, richer and poor, poorer so widens the gap between rich and poor. So it is well said that “Corruption in our country has got the status of fifth factor of Production.

Pakistanis an underdeveloped country instead of activating many schemes to trim down poverty with the association of national and international organizations; it is still fail to achieve this goal. In 2008, 17% of people were living below the poverty line. That was the lowest figure in the history ofPakistan. But this figure has increase to 25% now.

Along with above reasons many other factors are also causing increase in poverty.Pakistanis an agricultural country.70% of its population’s income depends upon this sector but sorry to say that people belonging to this sector are uneducated and conservative; their minds are unable to adopt modern technology. So this sector is not paying them what they deserve. Their incomes are low so as their living standards are too.

Increasing population is also an important factor in increasing the poverty ratio ofPakistan. Poverty ratio in rural areas is more than in urban areas. Education is not so common here. Facilities regarding enjoyment are not available in villages. So the only way of enjoyment for rural people cause increase in their number of children. But these poor people do not know how they will feed their children with low income. This situation is also playing its role in poverty growth.

Pakistanis a country where man power is available is good size. Because of excess of this factor of production, this factor is getting less wages of his work and not gaining such importance that his power deserve. Political instability, corruption in government sectors, recession in economic and financial institution because of global crisis, lack of local and foreign investment due to uncertainty about country’s survival condition, wrong taxation system, every increasing burden of direct and indirect taxes on people, rising inflation, depreciation in value of Pakistani rupee in international as well as national market, these all factors jointly putting sarcastic effects on people income and causing to lower their purchasing power also. Lower income and lower purchasing power ratio mean increase in poverty ratio. This worse situation of poverty give rise to many social evils in poor people because to fulfill their daily needs these poor people agree to do wrong deeds like robbery, murder and get rupee as a reward.

I know that I as writer after writing and you as reader after reading can suggest many measures or methods to trim down this vicious circle of poverty, that are already told by many individuals, policy makers and economists in some what different manner. But the need of time is that we as nation, as patriot and we as politician now must be united to deal with this worst situation. Our government bodies now should place at end their personal and internal clashes and situate their capabilities at their level best for the welfare of this country so that all the people of this country with out any difference can enjoy beauties of life equally.

Source: http://www.pakcolumnist.com/poverty-in-pakistan.html