Deeper poverty

PAKISTAN’S poverty crisis is far deeper than official indicators suggest. While the government celebrates economic stabilisation, almost four in every 10 Pakistanis suffer from deprivation in health, education, and living standards. The latest UNDP figures put multidimensional poverty at 38.3pc of the population against 19.3pc for South Asia. We are worse off than nearby countries — poverty affects 16.4pc of India’s and 14.9pc of Bangladesh’s population. These estimates are based on surveys from different years, however, and should not be treated as a strictly contemporaneous ranking. Still,…