ISLAMABAD, Jan 12: The incidence of poverty and unemployment in Pakistan has increased over the last 15 years, almost highest in South Asia, owing to macro-economic strategy based on structural adjustment programmes imposed by the IMF and the World Bank , says a report prepared by the Mehbub-ul-Haq Human Development Centre.

The report entitled "Human Development in South Asia 2003: The Employment Challenge" released here on Monday said that ironically, the macroeconomic strategy based on structural adjustment programmes imposed and approved by the IMF and World Bank, supposedly to change the structure of the economy to improve the balance of payments, control inflation and revive growth, had the opposite effects in practice.

The report finds that female economic activity rate in Pakistan was the lowest among the South Asian region at 15.4 per cent, when compared with 43.5 per cent in India, 57.2 per cent in Bangladesh, 85 per cent in Nepal, 41.6 per cent in Sri Lanka, 59.6 per cent in Bhutan and 28.6 per cent in Maldives.

The report also noted that unemployment rate in Pakistan at 7.8 per cent during 1990-2001 was also higher than 7.3 per cent in India, 3.3 per cent in Bangladesh, 1.1 per cent in Nepal, 1.4 per cent in Bhutan and two per cent in Maldives.

It also shows that percentage of female work force at 29 per cent in Pakistan was second lowest after 22 per cent in Maldives while percentage of female employment at 14 per cent was also the lowest in the region.

On the other hand, female unemployment rate in Pakistan during 1990-2000 was the second highest at 14.9 per cent after 16.2 per cent of Sri Lanka while male unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent was lower than 7 per cent in India and 7.1 per cent in Sri Lanka.

Similarly, Pakistan's population was growing at 2.62 per cent in 1995-2000 and is expected to rise at 2.44 per cent per year till 2005. As such, it also outclasses India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In Pakistan, there is a general agreement that the incidence of poverty has increased over the 1990s, as the combination of deflationary macro-economic measures and de-industrialisation following upon trade liberalisation has made itself felt. This intertwining of low employment generation and increasing poverty has been an important outcome of the experience of the past decade and a half in Pakistan.

For the period 1960-90, Pakistan's growth was high for a low income country, at around six per cent per annum with a two per cent variation. However, in the decade of 1990s, significant deceleration of growth occurred in Pakistan, especially in certain sectors such as manufacturing.

Further, such growth as has occurred, has been associated with very inadequate performance in terms of human development indicators. It has also been argued that the Pakistani pattern is indicative of "growth without development" because despite its 'respectable' per capital growth over the second half of the 20th century, the country has 'systematically underperformed' on most social and political indicators, such as education, health, sanitation, fertility, gender equality, corruption, political instability and democracy.