Poverty: silent reversal

Pakistan's long-promised escape from poverty is slipping away. For nearly two decades, the country steadily pulled millions out of deprivation. Today, that progress has stalled — and, in many cases, reversed. This should trouble a nation that once cut poverty from 64% to just 22%. The uncomfortable truth is that Pakistan is no longer lifting people up, it is barely keeping them from falling.

The old engines of progress have broken down. The shift from farm labour to services once powered more than half of all poverty reduction. But that transition has reached its ceiling. Jobs now created — mostly in informal retail and low-productivity services — cannot sustain a dignified life. They merely prolong fragility. Remittances, another lifeline, have also lost their force, especially for the poorest who do not benefit from overseas migration.

Adjusted for inflation, families receive less real support than before, just as shocks become more frequent and more punishing. This fragility is systemic. An economy, where 85% of workers are informal and where almost half the population is outside the labour force, cannot claim to be on a development path. Women remain locked in low-paid farm work. Public services barely function. The fact that only 4% of households have daily access to piped water is a national indictment.

Yet at the heart of this crisis lies a failure of governance and priorities. Pakistan's fiscal system continues to lean on indirect taxes that spare the wealthy and suffocate the poor. Growth remains consumption-driven and disconnected from real livelihoods. Cash transfers like BISP may soften the blow, but they cannot substitute for jobs and a fair economic order.

If Pakistan does not shift toward inclusive, productive growth and build a state capable of delivering basic services, the country risks cementing a future where millions hover permanently at the poverty line.