Peshawar classified as one of the poorest provincial capitals

Only poverty rate of Quetta is higher in province plagued by strife

ISLAMABAD: Of the country’s provincial capitals, the poverty rate of Peshawar is staggeringly high at 31%. Only Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, has a higher proportion at 46.3%.

Islamabad, as a city and district, wields the most affluence in Pakistan. Just 3.1% of the district’s residents are categorised as ‘poor’ in the country’s first ever Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)—a remarkable figure considering a large portion of the country exists on a hand-to-mouth basis.



The federal capital is followed by two provincial capitals, Lahore and Karachi where the poverty rate is 4.3% and 4.5%, respectively, on the MPI scale.

The poverty ratio of only half a dozen districts is in single digits. The MPI is based on the Alkire Foster methodology which uses education, health and living standards as a yardstick to assess poverty instead of measuring income or consumption as a base.

Compiled with the help of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the report was released by the planning commission.



To tailor the measure in Pakistan’s context, 15 indicators were used in the country instead of the 10 used globally.

Of the total, eight indicators were included in the living standards category. These included access to water, sanitation, walls, overcrowding, electricity, cooking fuel, assets, and land. The livestock indicator is specific to rural areas. Three indicators fell under the spectrum of education and these included the quality of schooling, the number of years attended at an institute and attendance.

For health, four indicators were used including facilities such as basic health units, immunisation, ante-natal care and assisted child delivery.



Over the past few years, Islamabad is the only city in the country where the poverty ratio remained in single digits. It was measured at 3.1% in 2014-15, 5.8 percent in 2012-13, 9.6% in 2010-11 and 9.1% in 2008-09.

Lahore, meanwhile, was measured at 4.3% in 2014-15, 6.8% in 2012-13, 11.1% in 2010-11 and 10.3% in 2008-09. For Karachi, the poverty ratio was 4.5 in 2014-15, 6.7% in 2012-13, 9.9% in 2010-11 and 10.5% in 2008-09.

Rawalpindi was fourth in terms of the least poor city in the country. In this district, 7.5% people fell below the poverty line. The rate under the MPI scale was 7% in 2012-13, 11% in 2010-11 and 11.6% in 2008-09.

Jhelum and Attock were also listed among the cities where poverty was less than 10% as per this modern yardstick. For Jhelum, it was 8.5% and 9.9% in Attock.

Attock, which borders Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, is among the districts where there is a significant improvement in the poverty index. In 2014-15, it was measured at 9.9%.  The rate was 16.4% in 2012-13, 26.8% in 2010-11 and 32% in 2008-09.

The poorest of the poor

In contrast, there are many districts in Balochistan where 90% of the population lives below the poverty line. The most affluent district of the province is Quetta. Here too, almost half, or 46.3%, of the people live in abysmal conditions.

The poorest districts are Kila Abdullah where 97% of the people are extremely poor, followed by Harnai at 94.2%, Barkhan at 93.6%, Sherani at 90.6% and Tor Ghar at 92%.

Ziarat, the scenic city of Balochistan, where Quaid e Azam spent his last days, has 90% of its people living in extreme poverty.

District Kohlu has an abysmal standard of living as the poverty rate is 86.8%. However, things have been improving over the years.  In 2008-09, 97.8% of the population was below the poverty line and this rate reduced to 96.2 percent in 2010-11 before jumping to 98.3 percent in 2012-13.

The current rate, meanwhile, is the same as Dera Bugti where the poverty ratio in 2014-15 was recorded at 88.4 percent. For the latter area, the rate was 96.9% in 2008-09 and alarmingly 98% in 2010-11 before it improved a little at 95.5% in 2012-13.

In Chagai, the district where Pakistan conducted its nuclear test in 1998, 89.2% of the people are poor. There are dozens of districts across the country where around 80% of the population is categorised as poor under the MPI scale.

The most alarming indicator is the intensity of poverty as each poor person lacks access to half of the yardsticks used to measure poverty. The MPI findings show 60.6% of the country does not have access to cooking fuel, 48.5% do not complete schooling and almost four out of every 10 people, or 39%, do not have any assets. Also, 38% of the population lives in one-room shelter. About one-third of the population does not have access to health facilities in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2016.