The poor man's burden

For decades in general, and the past couple of years in particular, most of the people of Pakistan have struggled in lawlessness, destitution and poverty, with all their calls and agonies unheeded by a government focused on self-preservation and prolonging itself by whatever means possible. The means employed for its sustenance only worsened the poverty, among other issues, so much that people were left with no voice or stake except invoking the divine. For none in the government cared. Nor was the public good within its capacity, mandate or legitimacy. Therefore, the government, in order to conceal the real public plight, arbitrarily reduced the poverty threshold to 8,000 a month. Until then, the government had desperately passed the buck for, or deliberately overlooked and downplayed, the issues of its own making. It turned a deaf ear to the vanishingly few voices for the voiceless poor amid silenced, sold or mortgaged souls.

Yet the specter of poverty began to bother the elite - not for the public good, however. Recently, the World Bank has voiced the muted outcries of the poor, suggesting that Pakistan is home to almost half of the extremely poor population in the MENAAP region's 23 countries, which include the entire Middle East, North Africa and AF-Pak. This isn't news, however. What the World Bank has reported is nothing but a report of a painful lived, yet muzzled, silenced and unheeded reality of years. What, then, is the news? It is, in fact, the government's notice of the report - the government that remained oblivious to all that the people are grinding under.

The attention isn't glad tidings for the people, either. By now, I may sound so pessimistic that I fail to recognise the regime's sudden change of heart. I'm not - you'll acknowledge. The departure from their years-long deliberate oblivion to the poor's agonies is in fact merely gaslighting and dismissing the acute poverty.

The government has taken notice only to reject the World Bank's claim about the poorest. This makes the ultimate act of taking note of the report - however much it is to denounce it - newsworthy. Isn't it? Besides, the act also carries two vitriolic truths: that the poor, with all their agonies and screams for years, mattered little, if at all, to this regime, which in turn points to another established reality - that its legitimacy lies beyond the public.

Ironically, any achievement, however ill-gotten or deceptive, is readily taken credit for by the incumbent setup. The unbroken record of failures and issues - whether deliberate or arising from its illegitimacy, incapacity or both— is never its own. That is, the afflictions and agonies of the people are not the issue; their reporting is.

At the $3-a-day poverty line, which amounts to Rs25,000 a month - let alone those living below it or going without any income at all - this illustration suggests how harrowing life can be: flour costs Rs200 per kg, so 40 kg costs Rs8,000. Just imagine families of four to eight members who eat only loaves twice a day and consume two maunds a month. That would be Rs16,000 of the total Rs25,000, and that too without accounting for the uncertainty and inconsistency of earning $3 a day. What about groceries, healthcare, education, nutritious food, transport and funeral and wedding costs, let alone utilities? No one cares. Not at least this regime.

Had the poor had a voice, they would also have protested the report, calling it a gross underestimation of their miseries. They would also have protested the sheer hypocrisy of all those in positions of power, influence or public trust who, instead of voicing the people's grievances, exploit the vulnerabilities of the poor for personal gain, perks and connections. Notwithstanding the report, the World Bank's promises and the IMF's policies owe a great deal to the extreme poverty in the country.

Beyond predation, oppression, electoral fraud and the seeking of aid and begging in their name, the poor are, for the elite, a liability. For the poor, the regime and its patrons are only a burden on them and the country.