World Bank report: In Pakistan, violence rises with food insecurity

Report suggests poor Pakistanis dislike militants more than middle class

ISLAMABAD:

With Pakistan already named among the 10 nations that contribute the most to global poverty, a recent World Bank (WB) report has found that the likelihood of violence and terrorism in the country is increasing with the surge in food insecurity and land inequality.

The report, titled ‘Addressing Inequality in South Asia’, underscores the need to address increasing inequality and appalling poverty amid the government’s indifference towards the poor.



“In Pakistan, the probability of violent attacks by insurgents, sectarians, and terrorists is found to increase with food insecurity and land inequality”, the report stated. It cited studies carried out by Pakistan Institute of Policy Studies on the correlation between inequality and violence.

The report claimed that the impact of conflicts differs across income groups.

“Contrary to expectations, poor Pakistanis dislike militants more than middle-class citizens. The dislike is strongest among the urban poor, particularly in violent districts, suggesting that exposure to terrorist attacks reduces support for militants,” it said. It stated that a 6,000-person nationally representative survey was conducted to measure attitudes toward four militant organisations.

While citing a survey carried out by World Food Programme (WFP) in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in 2010, WB said 16% of households reported high levels of insecurity from strict rules imposed by militants, curfews or bans on freedom of movement, military operation against militants, displacement, and property damage. Almost two-thirds of respondents had experienced one or more shocks over the three-year study period.

In two conflict-affected regions of Pakistan, poor households were more likely to incur debts, to sustain house damage during fighting, to be displaced, to become victims of crime and theft, and to be affected by drought than wealthier households. Because of attacks by militants, many households did not send children to school, especially their girls, it added.



Due to these shocks, rural households were more likely to experience a drop in consumption than those in urban areas. It stated that In Pakistan, poorer and richer households rely on different coping strategies to deal with various kinds of shocks. When faced with a shock, a large majority of households in the poorest quintile borrowed money, reduced expenditures, switched to lower-quality food, or reduced the quantity of food they consumed.

As many as 11.5% of the poorest households reported selling their agricultural assets to cope with the shock — a strategy that compromises their long-term ability to earn an income. In contrast, the wealthiest groups are much less likely to use these mechanisms.

Since coming into power, the PML-N government has been ignoring the issue of poverty, as it has resisted fresh headcounts of the poor. Due to absence of poor households’ data, the policies of the government largely remain unfocused, according to poverty experts.

The WB report stated that energy subsidies disproportionately benefit the better-off in Pakistan. The poorest 40% of households availed about one-third of total electricity subsidies, while the richest 20% received around 40% of total subsidies.

According to another report of the WB, ‘A Measured Approach to Ending Poverty’, Pakistan was among top ten countries in 2011 contributing the most to poverty. It hosted 21.8 million poor people, which were 12.4% of the population. However, the independent economists question the authenticity of this figure, which was worked out by Planning Commission on the basis of data provided by highly-tainted Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2014.