The poverty trap
Saturday, May 10, 2014
From Print Edition
The News

To an enormous extent, the security of a country depends not just on the quality of its army or its arsenal of weapons but on its ability to safeguard the welfare of its people. When these people live in poverty, no nation can be safe. The rate of crime almost inevitably rises with poverty levels and the desperation of people. Given this, the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar did well to touch on the issue of what constitutes poverty while speaking at the first business session of the 47th annual meeting of the ADB board of governors in Astana Kazakhstan. Dar suggested that absolute poverty be defined as earning US$2 per day rather than the US$1.25 currently used by the ADB. This would be in line with the latest IMF revisions. Currently, 2.4 billion people live on US$2 or less a day.

Dar’s points are pertinent, especially with respect to Pakistan. It could be argued that, above all else, poverty is our most pressing problem. The state of people needs to be looked at. The finance minister has expressed confidence that economic growth in the coming years will stand at around four percent, while inflation will remain in the single digits because of improvements in both the agricultural and industrial sectors. This would certainly be very good news for our country and its people. The current government had come in on a promise of economic revival. If it is genuinely able to bring this about, it would do a huge service to a county where hunger grows by the day and as a consequence all kinds of other social problems multiply. We must hope then that Dar is able to put action behind his words. While the World Bank has welcomed his remarks, he needs also to make an impact at home by proving the government has a strategy to create some degree of economic revival. Mere promises at international forums are not enough. Change is especially important at a time when much depends on how people fare in the country and how committed they are to helping the state work smoothly and effectively. This sense of teamwork has been missing for some time because people have been so badly neglected. True economic progress would alter this, but logic suggests it would need to be tied in with improvements in the staggering energy sector which has held back industrial progress and created widespread unemployment. All these challenges Dar and his team will need to look at. If they can do so successfully, we will have walked a very long way towards making our country a more secure place for everyone to live in. Indeed, we need constant reminders that security depends essentially on the state of the people rather than anything else.