Adviser to Balochistan government on Economic Affairs Mr Kaiser Bengali has said that Pakistan faces severe income inequality issues as the rich and the poor live here in totally different worlds.
He was speaking at a penal on ‘human development and governance for inclusive and sustainable development’ on the evening of second day of the 18th sustainable development conference organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad on Wednesday.
To tackle the issue of inequalities, Mr Bengali said that proper land reforms and end of feudal system was the need of hour.
Dr Tariq Banuri said that sustainable growth required actions for achieving zero poverty and the government must take steps towards planning and implementing sustainable development goals (SDGs). “In order to keep our goals achievable, we have to bring down population growth to a manageable rate,” he added.
Dr Shoaib Sultan Khan, one of the pioneers of the Rural Support Programmes Network, said the network was working at local level to empower marginalised communities. To achieve the sustainable development, a socio-economic pillar besides administration and politics was necessary, he added.
Shakeel Ahmad from UNDP said that social spending at local level could benefit the poor and marginalised people and improve social sector indicators. Speaking at a penal on South Asian women parliamentarians for the rights of women, Dr Andrea Fleschenberg dos Ramos Pineu of HBS presented her study on gender quotas in political setups, and looked upon the challenges which parliamentarians have to face in terms of representation at the government level. She further said that issues like terrorism were over shadowing the other problems like food security, health, and education, and women were the ones being marginalised.
Member of National Assembly Arifa Khan said these problems were an off shoot of the industrialisation of South Asia by the West. She was of the view that funds should be allocated to tailor energy crisis in the country which had become an international issue.
Member of the National Assembly Saman Jafri said that decision-making should be done and policies should be worked upon at grassroots level.
