Pakistan is a developing country of 170 million people, out of which at least 20 percent live below the poverty line. The Gross Domestic Product or GDP for Pakistan in 2010 stood at 167 billion dollars, constituting only 0.27 percent of the world economy.
The economy is deteriorating day by day, as inflation and unemployment has been rising. It is still a mystery of what our government has been doing to address this situation. The Government of Pakistan had once implemented a Poverty Reduction Strategy Monitoring Project with UNDP based on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP).
Perhaps, it has been swept under the rug like many other projects and the funds gone into the pockets of corrupt officials. It was supposed to monitor the implementation and impacts of PRSP, but no one knows much about it now. Not surprisingly, like various official ventures, this has also become a white elephant, only serving to put an extra burden on the national exchequer.
HASSAN BASHIR
Islamabad