Impressive Govt's policies to cut poverty, social issues.

• Author: Kazm, S. Kamal Hayder

Byline: S. Kamal Hayder Kazmi

The Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan identified that the government scrutinizes pro-poor expenditure in dissimilar sectors by the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) under PRSP-II program. Expenditure on these pro-poor sectors is explaining growing trend in absolute terms also percent of GDP. The officials also identified in their statistics that during 2013-14 there was 7.7 percent of GDP, 8.3 percent of GDP during 2014-15, 9.3 percent in 2015-16, 9.5 percent in 2016-17, while slightly dropped to 9.2 percent of GDP in 2017-18 but in absolute terms increased to Rs 3,167.92 billion.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) released 50th edition of its annual statistical report: key indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2019. The report identified that the extreme poverty (or below $1.9 per day poverty line) in Pakistan has gone down from 28.6 percent of total population in 2001 to 3.9 percent in 2015. The report added that on the basis of National Poverty Line, Pakistan's poverty ratio fell to 24.3 percent in 2015 as against to 64.3 percent in 2001.

Recently Prime Minister Khan has launched a comprehensive Poverty Alleviation Program 'Ehsaas' on 27th March, 2019 with its 4 focus regions and 155 policy actions to decline inequality, invest in people and uplift lagging districts. It was estimated that under this program, the Government of Pakistan would allocate an extra amount of Rs.80 billion in Pakistan's social protection spending in the budget 2019-20 that would be raised to Rs.120 billion in 2021. No doubt, Ehsaas is a poverty elevation program. Prime Minister urged during the launching ceremony, that the government is launching the help programs for street children, and for transgenders who are treated so cruelly in Pakistan. There will be a special crackdown on bonded labor.

The daily laborers will be assisted and protected under the Tahaffuz program. Bait-ul-Maal will fund homes for 10,000 orphaned children. Furthermore, to assist women, at village levels particularly the government will empower them with livestock by which they can get milk, they could feed their kids. It is also recorded that the program is for the extreme poor, orphans, widows, homeless, disabled, jobless, poor farmers, laborers, sick and undernourished; students from low-income backgrounds and for poor women and elderly citizens.

This plan is also about lifting lagging areas where...