<p>Nearly 60 million Pakistanis live below the poverty line, said a leading daily lamenting that "areas such as defence get the better of development".<br /><br /></p>.<p>An editorial in the Dawn Wednesday said a study on poverty has brought Pakistan face to face with a reality that it will find hard to accept: "Every third Pakistani is caught in the ‘poor’ bracket i.e. some 58.7 million out of a total population of 180 million subsist below the poverty line." <br /><br />The daily called the figure daunting, "but they are much needed for planning, especially when the government appears too embarrassed to release statistics related to poverty". <br /><br />The Sustainable Development Policy Institute, which carried out the economic-mapping exercise, has called for a policy to combat acute poverty. "These are facts which are being kept under wraps at great peril to the country," it said.<br /><br />The editorial said that quite clearly, "the dilemma as we know is yet to be overcome". "Areas such as defence get the better of development; the more affluent are able to deny the less affluent in the name of sustaining themselves; and the small change that reaches the marginalised segments is never enough to pull them into the promised mainstream," it added.<br /><br />"The formula that channels resources and attaches due importance to the underdeveloped is yet to be found. Worse, an earnest search for such a formula is yet to begin."<br /><br />The daily went on to say that "development has proceeded in the only manner it could: the gap between the more privileged and the more backward has increased with time, even as successive governments have dangled ‘special packages’ in front of those with the greatest need". <br /><br />"This reflects in social, political and, quite often, ethnic tensions, in revolts and in militancy," it noted.<br /></p>
<p>Nearly 60 million Pakistanis live below the poverty line, said a leading daily lamenting that "areas such as defence get the better of development".<br /><br /></p>.<p>An editorial in the Dawn Wednesday said a study on poverty has brought Pakistan face to face with a reality that it will find hard to accept: "Every third Pakistani is caught in the ‘poor’ bracket i.e. some 58.7 million out of a total population of 180 million subsist below the poverty line." <br /><br />The daily called the figure daunting, "but they are much needed for planning, especially when the government appears too embarrassed to release statistics related to poverty". <br /><br />The Sustainable Development Policy Institute, which carried out the economic-mapping exercise, has called for a policy to combat acute poverty. "These are facts which are being kept under wraps at great peril to the country," it said.<br /><br />The editorial said that quite clearly, "the dilemma as we know is yet to be overcome". "Areas such as defence get the better of development; the more affluent are able to deny the less affluent in the name of sustaining themselves; and the small change that reaches the marginalised segments is never enough to pull them into the promised mainstream," it added.<br /><br />"The formula that channels resources and attaches due importance to the underdeveloped is yet to be found. Worse, an earnest search for such a formula is yet to begin."<br /><br />The daily went on to say that "development has proceeded in the only manner it could: the gap between the more privileged and the more backward has increased with time, even as successive governments have dangled ‘special packages’ in front of those with the greatest need". <br /><br />"This reflects in social, political and, quite often, ethnic tensions, in revolts and in militancy," it noted.<br /></p>