Poverty: 60.3% Pakistanis living on $2 a day

KARACHI: There are 1.5 billion poor people in Asia of which 660 million are below the poverty line and majority of them live in the Saarc region, said FPCCI former vice president and senior businessman Khurram Sayeed. He said as per the Human Development Index, 60.3% Pakistanis live on $2 per day while UN says 71% of girls do not attend secondary school. Sayeed regretted the fact that many countries have been ignoring the poor in their struggle for improved economic growth that has resultantly triggered poverty. “The worst affected are women,” he said, adding that Pakistan could not achieve progress if half its population is ignored. He further added that the situation demanded concerned governments to revisit their policies and focus more towards the welfare of resource-less and marginalised sections.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2015.

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