Re: Has poverty really gone down?
Thanks. needless to say my professor was not happy but I am glad you are
Re: Has poverty really gone down?
First of all its not just poverty, but medical services, immunizations etc.
the rate has already decreased from 108/1000 to 100.8/1000.
Unicef’s target which is considered pretty radical is to get pakistan to 81%
at the current rate of decrease, pakistan would be at 86%
To put this in context note that immunizations levels have gone from 57% to 67%
so while there is work to be done by all means. the country is defintely on teh right path.
now who wants to guess what these infant mortaity rates were during previous regimes rule and whether they increased or decreased?
Re: Has poverty really gone down?
I agree if only 10 people prosper and 1000 people suffer, it is not progress. But is that what has happened? Also an expanding middle-class is the proven backbone for building a stable economy which also leads to political stability.
Corruption feudalism etc are impediments but it takes time.
Re: Has poverty really gone down?
now who wants to guess what these infant mortaity rates were during previous regimes rule and whether they increased or decreased?
Ill let TRD do the honors
Re: Has poverty really gone down?
basic math, english and stats skills are a pre requisite :)
Re: Has poverty really gone down?
The growing disparity might be effecting crime rate aswell, but thats just a guess..
But whatever, atleast th economy is growing however skewed it might be... Hopefully things will eventually balance out. Everything is improving however slow.
Re: Has poverty really gone down?
as far as pverty reduction goes. IMF and World Bank's summary assessment was the following
"The staffs of the World Bank and IMF consider that Pakistan’s PRSP provides a
credible poverty reduction strategy and provides a sound basis for IDA and IMF concessional assistance. The staffs recommend that the Executive Directors of the World Bank and IMF reach the same conclusion."
to be fair, they are looking for more specificity but are in general pleased with what they see
"In the staffs’ assessment, the PRSP represents an adequate framework for the
country’s efforts towards achieving sustainable growth and poverty reduction. It has been prepared in a participatory manner and through consultation with all tiers of government, civil society, and the broader international community. The strategy is coherent and comprehensive, but to some extent lacks specificity."
I have a pdf of the report and can email it to u. not sure where I got it from, but can probably find a link also.
Re: Has poverty really gone down?
bah..link was right there
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/PAKISTANEXTN/Resources/JointStaffPRSP.pdf
Re: Has poverty really gone down?
Further reports from people who actually live in Pakistan, telling the reality, away from the so-called statistics espoused by those thousands of miles away.
Street crime in Karachi legacy of Musharraf govt
Trend continues unabated while the government looks the other way
KARACHI: No matter what the government claims, street crime in Karachi ñ Pakistan’s largest city and commercial capital is rising to uncontrollable heights. This is the legacy of the Musharraf government.
The government response has been poor. A drive started last month on the instructions of the prime minister to check street crime, has failed miserably.
The problem with such things is that if they are not nipped in the bud, the cancer spreads to other parts of the country.
The trend of car theft surged in the mid-nineties in Karachi and soon spread to other big cities.
But there have been instances where crime has been checked. Take for example, the trend of kidnapping for ransom.
Thanks to the efforts of the CPLC, an initiative started by former Sindh Governor Fakhruddin Ebrahim, and made workable against insurmountable odds by the duo of Nazim Haji and Jamil Yousuf, the problem of kidnapping of businessmen and their families in Karachi, was checked within months of its appearance.
Fakhruddin Ebrahim was an upright Governor of Sindh appointed by then prime minister Benazir Bhutto. His innovative approach to a number of problems is remembered even today.
Since the creation of the CPLC and its work in which it was actively assisted by the military, such incidents have been at a minimum. The same is not the case with street crime in Karachi.
Till the end of the 90s, crime in the city was restricted to political crime and petty theft. Now, mugging is a common problem. People are mugged in broad daylight.
Visitors to the high profile Ideas 2006 moot were mugged in front of the venue where hundreds of law enforcers were stationed.
A quick survey of this newspaper’s newsroom suggests that almost all persons have had their mobile phones snatched at least once.
This correspondent has been mugged twice and has had his phone and his briefcase stolen within a space of two months.
The phone was stolen on the evening that the Governor was taking a tour of the city to check how the police was dealing with street crime.
The briefcase was stolen within yards of the Governor House, one of the most secure parts of the city. A diary and keys were recovered from a house two streets down from the Karachi residence of the Prime Minister in Defence Phase 2.
Where to go, who to complain? People in Karachi now avoid speaking on mobile phones while in public for fear of having it snatched.
Millions are being spent on law and order. But most goes on securing the rich. The Sindh IG Police moves in a luxury four-wheel drive which costs over Rs4 million - about a lifetime’s salary of an average policeman.
He travels with a convoy comprising eight police guards. If the custodians of law and order are so scared, what does the common man expect?
The reputation of the police in the city is very poor. Most people, when interviewed, said that they had no hope of any relief from the police. Most policemen (not all) are considered ill-equipped and corrupt.
The bureaucracy has the quick solution. Hire more policemen. Now there is a fight amongst stakeholders about how many policemen should each interested party be able to induct.
Why do we blame policemen? This government has been as indecisive. There is no regard for the common man’s security. The government is controlled from Islamabad, who seems disinterested.
The billions spent on law and order as a whole leaves much to be desired. The situation in Interior Sindh is worse where one favourite policeman of the CM is able to brow beat a much more senior official.
Crime in Interior Sindh is reaching unimaginable proportions. The rule here is fast approaching “might is right.”
The irony is that the CCPO as well as the Sindh IG and the Director General of the Pakistan Rangers are good and upright men. They say that their hands are tied. But who is tying those hands?
Vested interests continue to call the shots. Take for example the incidents of mobile phone theft. These phones are openly sold in mobile phone markets in the city as reconditioned phones.
A much highlighted drive to jam stolen phones by the PTA is a farce. Phone theft continues to mount.
Shopkeepers openly offer services to unjam phones. They are not checked when selling stolen phones. They happily advertise these services. An unjamming costs Rs200. Why is no one checking this?
The local thana makes a tidy sum in protection money. Where is the government in all this? How does everyone become blind?
Logic suggests that if one is able to check the sale of stolen phones, the theft will drop. This would mean many quarters losing money and hence it will not happen in the foreseeable future.
This is a problem that is now spreading to other parts of the country. The government continues to play deaf and dumb.
Frustration of the people is growing. They want justice and they want protection. The government is lacking in both. Soon enough, we may start seeing vigilante justice on our streets where angry mobs will take the law into their own hands and kill suspected thieves. There have already been some such incidents. These are the real problems of the people. Is anyone in Islamabad listening?
Re: Has poverty really gone down?
TRD you need new excuses now, your old ones are lame, annoying and silly... Whenever youre proven wrong (which is a common sight) you start blabbering about how everyone else is outside of pakistan and youre the only one there and know whats going on!