Size of Pakistan’s middle class

Letter January 11, 2012
Your newspaper should be more diligent in letting writers and columnists quote figures without proper substantiation.

VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA: Could Nadir Hassan, with reference to his article of January 11 titled “The PTI — a post-ethnic party”, quote his sources when given the size of the middle class in Pakistan? I ask this because the country has not held a census in over 10 years and your newspaper should be more diligent in letting writers and columnists quote such figures without proper substantiation.

Also, since the article was not an academic one, let’s assume that the writer associated the middle class with a certain socio-economic status (instead of an income range). Even if successfully tapped, the chances of a victory in our system of democracy depend on the spread of this populace and how constituency lines are drawn.


Ali Akbar Ghangro


Published in The Express Tribune, January 12th, 2012.