Poverty in Pakistan

Pakistan is home to a significant proportion of the world’s poor. Almost a quarter of the country’s 158 million people survive beneath a poverty line evaluated as the cost of basic food and essential non-food items and which has been adopted as the benchmark for progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This indicator stood at 26.1% in 1990 but rose to 34.5% by the end of that decade. The figure of 23.9% reported by the most recent household survey conducted in 2004/05 therefore implies a rate of poverty reduction which would meet the 2015 target of 13%. However, the survey draws attention to the large number of families living just above the poverty line, warning that their status is “very sensitive” to economic shocks such as food price inflation.

Pakistani school children © United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network

Prospects for achieving the wider range of MDGs in Pakistan are at best uncertain, none more so than in education where net primary enrolment remains barely over 50%, with girls lagging behind. Progress is far too slow to reach the 2015 Goal of equal and universal enrolment. A history of priority government spending on military and business interests has condemned many children to approach adulthood through the inappropriate experience of factory labour or unregulated religious madrasa schools. About 1.5 million children are believed to attend madrasas, some of which are suspected of fermenting Islamist extremism in defiance of government attempts to monitor their curriculum.

Adult literacy remains just over 50% and, in rural areas, literacy of women is only 20%. Poor awareness about the MDGs amongst both public and private sectors allows the government to escape censure for inaction, for example, its exceptionally low spending on education and health which together amounts to less than 5% of GDP.

Health in Pakistan

A booming urban private health sector offers little consolation to the majority of the population which depends on public facilities compromised by underfunding, corruption and shortages of qualified staff. Poor national health standards are reflected in the exceptionally high incidence of tuberculosis and in Pakistan’s status as one of only four countries where polio remains endemic.

Waiting for water © Catholic Relief Services

Rates of child and infant mortality are high in relation to other South Asian countries. Modest rates of reduction since 1990 suggest that the MDG targets for mortality remain very demanding, although the sharp rise in immunisation of young children since 2000 should bring rewards. The proportion of births assisted by qualified health workers remains below 50% and, in the absence of convincing data, it is possible that the rate of maternal mortality has not fallen significantly in the MDG period. Questions are also being asked about official data which claims that the targets for access to safe water and sanitation will be achieved.
Food Security in Pakistan

Steep rises in food prices are creating concern about a new class of urban poor in Pakistan’s cities. Production of the staple crop of wheat has been falling rather than rising, aggravated by wastage in transport, inadequate storage facilities, deteriorating irrigation systems and conversion of land for other purposes. A potentially controversial government solution aims to attract investment in agriculture from Middle Eastern countries, the object being to convert the wheat deficit into surplus, ambitiously addressing food security issues in both Pakistan and the investor countries.

Whether innovative or conventional, policies to boost food production in Pakistan must recognise that the natural water cycle has been exploited to the extent that the country may become water-deficient within five years. Mega-project solutions such as the controversial Kalabagh dam have run into strong popular objections – the division of water resources between Sindh and Punjab provinces proving to be contentious. World Bank estimates of the cost of addressing overall water scarcity issues in Pakistan are astronomic.



The OneWorld Pakistan Guide was first published in this format in May 2004 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Shazad Ali

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