Mass Poverty in Pakistan: Some Preliminary Findings

The disillusionment of many developing countries with pastpolicies which paid exclusive attention to the rate of growth has, inrecent years, led to a some¬what belated interest in the problems ofunemployment, income distribution and mass poverty. Pakistan/perhaps,has the unique, if dubious, distinction of being one of the firstdeveloping countries both to adopt and, later, to reject growthmanshipas a national creed.1 Although serious doubts about the assumptions andimplications of the official strategy of economic growth in Pakistanbegan to be expressed in 1968, the issues were clouded by the politicaldemand for the autonomy, and later the separation of the eastern wing ofthe country. At the recent Pakistan Economic Conference, held inFebruary 1973, some of the basic issues of Pakistan's developmentstrategy were discussed hi detail in various papers [1], [7], [14],[25]. The focus of these papers was on income distribution andemployment and their implications for the future growth strategy. Thepresent author in his paper [14] at the Conference, presented sometentative estimates of mass poverty and unemployment in West Pakistan.The present paper is designed to give more systematic estimates of theextent of mass poverty in Pakistan.