The Pakistani Spectator

Many question, same theme, different, approaches .sizeable modes, vague intentions, existing motive to rectify, unavailability of platform, haphazard directions, inconclusive action and reaction, with resultant failure, disagreement and frustration, soreness culminating in to pessimisms and deliberate negligence ,embarking a hand full of sorrow ,pain and agony to the sufferer.

What is this term poor?

If we perceive this term through the vocabulary of dictionary, we can very well assess that the term has so many contextual meaning that it will never be regarded and used in the contest of our desired motive.

In thesaurus, poor means deficient, inadequate ,having little or no money or wealth, beggarly, destitute, down-and-out, necessitous, needy, penniless, poverty-stricken, below a standard of quality, bad, somebody regarded as irresponsible or worthless, unsatisfactory ,decidedly inferior quality, cheap, lousy, miserable, rotten, conspicuously deficient in quantity, fullness, meager, scant, scanty, spare, sparse, stingy, deserving pity, pathetic..

In the light of above definition if we perceive the definition it will be as in my version of opinion that, it is a person, having little or no money to look after himself or his belongings in the shape and contest of basic necessity of life.

Satisfactorily understanding the terminology as lay man, my next inquiry in terms of questionnaire will be, who are these people who could not make and over come these basic necessity as the essentials?

If we start taking a hunt so to dig the requisite criteria to search the desire motive, we can never find the base line which may delineate the demarcation line between poor and immediate above class as it will again open a chapter of discussion that demand horizon based methodology.

So concisely the chapter demand to curtail discussion to the resident class of people that groups together as poor ,rather to get in to the discussion of competitive match with immediate superior class, which may again be considered as poor in different immediately above class of people and so on .

Although here the term will not be utilized in the contest of basic necessity but again will be utilized in terms of horizon based methodology.

What is this term, horizon based methodology .Why do we have to take our discussion from the table of this entry?

Horizon in thesaurus is defined as a place where earth meets the sky .Its a circle in apparent sphere of sky. It is a circle on celestial sphere. It is also define as a geological layer however in the contest of our discussion it is the range of experience or limits that somebody’s interest, knowledge, experience, requirement and desire.

Methodology in thesaurus is the mode and method to conduct research or study to organize the system with principles and under lying rules and regulation.

So the horizon based methodology would be define as a self designed organized system of principle, rules and regulation that is restricted in the boundary of interest ,experiences ,requirements and desires , by self implementation.

This methodology has different perception in different classes of individual.

If I revert back to the theme of the chapter, and opinion based discussion to dig the class of people that are tagged as poor, in the light of same methodology, I would be of the opinion that it is this class of society that has similar more subdivisions to demand review, however at a glance the prime objective and motive of their business is to afford and balance the input in terms of finance and output in terms of living, in the name of necessity.

Critically evaluating such class ,it will be clear that this class exist in almost every immediate cadre that exist ,and modus operandi of these individual is to maintain the requisite cadre as none can afford to be disembarked from their position and class in the society .

In order to cut short my discussion, these different classes of so called poor exists in different cadres of society, rich, middle and poor, maintaining and trying a status quo so to manage and become affordable to continue their survival though living in hand to mouth or at the extreme of their demarcation line thus continuing and maintaining their status in the format and design, in spite of the continuous rise of inflation.

Although a mild change in inflation does not sabotage the existing upper classes of poor, that in extreme case can only change their mask status, but switching and down grading at the lowest cadre of population is a menace as ultimate acceptance at the cost and corner of disgrace and ego is the main thrust which is not bearded and brings disaster in the form of crime, suicide, and malpractices.

We in our system of society are used to ,this facts that retrieving back where one can feel and maintain a slight better position in the cadre, is actually not allowed .this is partially due to the fact that we can not compromise what is in our opinion a status symbol and essentiality in the form of luxury ,and similarly the threat that deceiving your own entry would let one ground in the eyes of society ,thereby striving to balance the same in the run , even at the cost of the state of hand to mouth .

If we perceive on the contrary the lowest cadre or class in our system that has nothing but to perceive things in thoughts only, multiple reasons and threats would be felt, however few may be observed in state of dissatisfaction in such class whereas majority has comfortable mode to continue their reservation with minimal discomfort.

These minorities are the people that are striving hard to maintain their base line ,which if breached would take them to the below poverty line where majority are satisfactorily managing their issues ,as norms ,nature ,comfort ,necessity, desire has been over come and ego and self respect has been sacrificed ,due to their extremes of dependencies or whatever .

It is this minority class of people that are most affected by any such rise in inflation and price rise, as at the extreme of demarcation has already been reached and is according to their horizon base methodology, a factor that will smashed their existence in society .

Political history and poverty

In February 1997, Nawaz Sharif became Prime Minister of Pakistan.

He made improving the economy his top priority, emphasizing liberalization and privatization of the economy.

The second biggest challenge for Sharif’s government was to avoid default on its foreign obligations.

When Benazir Bhutto’s second government was dismissed in November 1996, foreign exchange reserves had sunk to below $630 million, or just enough to finance a little over four week’s imports.

This was in contrast to debt repayment of just over $600 million due in December 1997.

In order to cope with this precarious situation, Sharif made a direct plea to Pakistanis living abroad to make foreign exchange deposits to help tide the country over with its debt obligations.

The third challenge for the Sharif government was to control the rising domestic debt, which reached 90 percent of the GDP in 1996-97.

The fourth challenge was to control the accelerating trends in poverty, which were on the rise in the 1990s.

Towards the end of 1997, Pakistan again found itself in political crisis.

His political instability greatly affected the economy and had an especially great impact on foreign investment.

The prime minister developed differences with the president over the passage of the 13th amendment and with the judiciary over the establishment of special “anti-terrorist” courts.

The crises were ultimately ended by covert military intervention, which resulted in resignation of President Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari and marginalization of the role of Chief Justice of Pakistan, Sajjad Ali Shah.

Domestic businessmen put investment decisions on hold.

In addition, several necessary, but sensitive, decisions were postponed.

The government had done nothing to act on its commitment to reduce the number of federal government employees from 300,000 to 200,000 by the end of November.

The government also promised international agencies that it would protect public sector power corporations—such as the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), and Sui Northern Gas Company—from imminent bankruptcy by raising utility rates from 20 to 50 percent.

But Sharif balked at taking such decisions in the politically charged environment that prevailed in the country.

At the beginning of 1998, Nawaz Sharif’s government claimed that the country’s economic prospects were improving.

But in reality, the economic scene remained cheerless, if not bleak, and negatively affected by the deteriorating law and order situation in the country. Several other factors also undermined confidence.

The government, despite its electoral mandate, had shied away from taking tough, but necessary, fiscal decisions.

In addition the government did little to achieve the macroeconomic targets set out in its loan program with the IMF.

In May 1998, Pakistan conducted nuclear tests, which resulted in economic sanctions from the international community.

These sanctions greatly affected the already poor economy.

However, the situation changed at the end of the year when the United Sates began to relax the sanctions and encouraged international financial institutions to provide help to Pakistan.

In November, the United States lifted some of the economic sanctions on India (which also tested nuclear weapons in 1998) and Pakistan after securing their commitments to practice non-proliferation.

However, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) The prime minister developed differences with the president over the passage of the 13th amendment and with the judiciary over the establishment of special “anti-terrorist” courts.

The crises were ultimately ended by covert military intervention, which resulted in resignation of President Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari and marginalization of the role of Chief Justice of Pakistan, Sajjad Ali Shah.

The sanctions imposed on Pakistan by the USA are not significant in terms of potential American assistance to Pakistan; in fact, the US government has not given any economic loans or grants to Pakistan since the USA aid was cut off to Islamabad in 1990 following Pakistan’s refusal to freeze its nuclear program.

However, they have indirectly affected other resources of assistance: the IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank will not resume economic assistance until the US and other G8 countries have signaled that they will not block approval.

It was again towards the end of 1998 that Pakistan faced another severe political crisis. Sharif enforced his Shariat Bill to impose Islamic law, which prompted widespread opposition from minorities, human rights groups, and even some Islamic groups, who complained that it would undermine rights guaranteed in the 1973 constitution while simply serving to distract from more important issues.

Civil strife increased in Karachi and the Mutthida Quami Movement (MQM) ended its coalition with the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) party.

Subsequently, Sharif dismissed the government in Sindh and imposed central government rule in the province.

Furthermore, the army chief resigned amid rumors about an imminent military coup in the country, which was followed by an intensification of the political crisis in October 1999, when the military took over the reins of government.

All these factors adversely affected the economy as political uncertainty led to the evaporation of foreign investors’ confidence.

For details, see Economist Intelligence Unit, Pakistan Country Report, Fourth Quarter (November) 1997, 7

Measurement of poverty

The most common way to measure poverty is based on income or consumption levels.

A person is considered poor if his or her consumption or income level falls below a minimum level necessary to meet basic needs.

This minimum level is usually called the poverty line.

The World Bank uses reference lines set at $1 and $2 per day in the 1999 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms (where PPPs measure relative purchasing power by comparison to other countries).

It was estimated that in 1999, 2.2 billion people worldwide had consumption levels below $1 a day—23 percent of the population of the developing world, with an additional 2.8 billion living on less than $2 a day.

In Pakistan, 31 percent of the population lives on less than $1 a day, while 85 percent lives on less than $2 a day.

Furthermore, Pakistan has a per capita income of $420 a year.

The World Bank began including many other factors besides income levels to measure poverty.

These non-income indicators include health, education, and access to basic services.

In these terms, Pakistan has, for example, an adult literacy rate of 42 percent for males and 71 percent for females.

In the health sector, nearly one in ten children die before reaching the age of five.

Pakistan’s method to measure poverty line

The government of Pakistan uses a different yardstick for measuring the poverty in the country and sets its own poverty line.

Instead of applying the universal formula of one dollar a day of earnings per capita to count the absolute poor, it considers a monthly income of PRs 748, enough to afford 2,350 calories a day, or almost PRs 1,000 less, as being poor.

Those having less than that income are held as too poor now.

What that means is that, instead of an income of PRs 1,710 a month on the basis of PRs 57 for a dollar for 30 days, one has to get PRs 25 per day or PRs 748 in a month not to be regarded as poor.

The incidence of poverty increased in Pakistan during the 1990s.

A report from the Asian Development Bank, “Country Strategy and Program 2002-2006, Pakistan,” outlines the economic reversal that occurred in the 1990s.

Poverty increased from 26.6 percent in 1992 to 32.2 percent in 1999, with the total number of poor increasing by more than 12 million people.

Poverty is most intense in rural areas, where about three-fourths of the poor live.

The failure of economic growth to keep up with a burgeoning workforce (growing at an average rate of 2.4 percent a year) exacerbated these trends.

Structural causes of economic failure, such as an expanding foreign debt and economic mismanagement, were joined by a failure to invest in growth in human development, in areas like education, health care, and other basic social services.

Private investment faltered also, driven by political uncertainty.

According to some studies, caloric-based poverty in effect doubled from 17.4 percent in 1987-88 to 32.6 percent in 1998-99.

As a result, Pakistan became less competitive as economic globalization expanded in the 1990s.

There are various ways that serves a poverty alleviation pillars.

The first pillar of this strategy is macroeconomic stabilization and resumption of economic growth.

The second pillar of poverty alleviation strategy is improved governance.

Structural reforms constitute the third pillar of the poverty alleviation strategy.

Broad based reforms in tax administration, trade liberalization, and the financial sector form the core. In tax administration, the Central Board of Revenue is being restructured, while the tax base has been widened. Trade liberalization has resulted in tariff rationalization, removal of various restrictions on exports and imports, and deregulation. Financial sector reforms have already resulted in a sound and healthy banking system, a buoyant stock market, a growing corporate debt market, and the strengthening of regulation and supervision.

The fourth pillar of the strategy is poverty-targeted interventions.

Prominent among these are education sector reforms, healthcare for all, population planning, Zakat, the Khushali program for employment generation through public works, a food support program, and the Khushali bank.

Last 5 posts by Dr Razahaider

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