Pakistan is an agrarian economy
which is regarded to be a developing country. About 60% of the population has to
survive under $2 per day. Pakistan was considered an economic tiger in 1960s,
but now at it has a very low economic growth and most of the investors are
reluctant to put their money in the Pakistani economy because of the red tape
and perpetual fear of the terrorism and unstable democratic system.
There are many causes for the poverty in Pakistan, but I would like to broach
upon some of the issues. The biggest cause for poverty in Pakistan is that for
the 60 years Pakistan has been on war for at least 6 times directly or
indirectly. This means that either Pakistan has been fighting its own war or it
has been fighting war in the name of “war against terror”. This has destroyed
the economy and has forced business community to move towards countries like
Bangladesh and India. In order to remove poverty from the country the government
of Pakistan should keep itself away from wars as far as possible. Wars never get
any positive result you can see the example of Europe. Europeans countries
caused the World War 1 and 2, but now they have formed the European Union
because they are well aware of the adverse consequences of war.
There is another cause of poverty which is called overpopulation. Some countries
have been able to use their population to increase economic growth, but Pakistan
has failed to do so. The only way to increase economic growth by increasing
population is to educate the people and give then a certain skill which could
contribute towards the economic growth, but most of the children in Pakistan are
not even sent to schools and they do not acquire any knowledge. Government
should make it a legal obligation on every parent to send their children to
schools and every person in Pakistan should have minimum education of 12 years.
Pakistan is poorly faced with the problem of unemployment. The existing
unemployment rate is 15%. Thousands of young doctors, engineers and other
educated people are out of job. There are no opportunities for youth to utilize
their capabilities or abilities in right direction. Pakistan is facing the
problem of brain drain due to unemployment because we are unable to utilize
their precious hands in the progress of the country. The most horrible part is
that it is rising every year it will show to be risky for the economy of
Pakistan. It has negative impact on society. It creates frustration and
revengeful attitude. It leads to an increase in the incidences of crimes.
Justice delayed is justice denied. Timely justice is the core value of a welfare
society. It is the duty of the state to promote justice. But in the case of
Pakistan it has always been a day dream for the poor masses. Since the
independence judiciary has been in prison at the hands of establishment. Weak
judiciary has been unable to redress the grievances of the masses. Under such
conditions people choice to violent actions and resolve their issues by extreme
methods.
Owing to poor governance, the government is losing control over law and order
situation. When individuals put themselves in front of institutions, they set a
bad example. Suicide attacks, target killing, robbery and other crimes have
become norm of the day. And government seems helpless in this regard.
Corruption has become a major threat to Pakistani society because of four
important reasons. First, the image of Pakistan has enormously suffered in the
past few decades or so as the corrupt practices while awarding contracts, the
launching of foreign funded projects and money laundering done by high level
officials earned a bad name for the country.
In 1996, transparency international a Berlin based civil society organization,
rated Pakistan as the second most corrupt country in the world. The report TI
was a source of great shame for Pakistan was it not shattered the country’s
image but also discouraged foreign donors to support Pakistan in its
developmental projects. When the culture of greed resulting into taking
commission from foreign companies and agencies deepened, the trust and
confidence of the world diminished. According to TI’s national corruption
perception NCP Survey 2010 there occurs widespread corruption in Pakistan from
195 billion rupees in 2009 to 223 billion rupees in 2010.
Conclusion:
Poverty has not only harmed us economically, but also socially and legally.
People who do not have enough money to meet their needs have to sustain pain
which leads them to break the law. Lawlessness is the greatest in the country
where people are deprived of the basic necessities and due to that they indulge
in to criminal activities. It is sad to say but even immediate family members do
not respect or love the person who is in financial difficulties and he or she is
left secluded to dead with the atrocities of life.
Leadership has got central importance here; with proper planning and good
government policies the problem can be solved. All they need to do is to appoint
competent and wall qualified economists to help them tackle this issue and
obviously their sincerity for its solution cannot be ignored as well. A country
economy is the backbone of its country with its solution when it is saved many
problems will automatically. Alone leadership is not enough for its solution.
People of Pakistan have too got responsibility with equal share. People need to
cooperate fully with government and should be sincere with their own country and
put all their energies for eradication of poverty.