The official pursuit of high economic growth has become a contentious issue in Pakistan now as it does not seem to benefit the very poor directly or reduce abject poverty immediately.

The protest is based on the argument that the high growth rate (6.4 per cent last year and the target of 6.6 per cent in the current year) makes the rich richer and increases the number of the poor. That appears to be a valid argument, although the objective of the government is to reduce poverty and lower the number of the poor.

The prevailing trend in the region is for promoting higher economic growth, particularly in the largely populated countries with a huge backlog of the poor, like China and India.

China's economic miracle sprung from the 10 per cent economic growth for 10 years or over 8 per cent for 20 years. And India after achieving an economic growth rate of 7 to 8 per cent is targeting a growth rate of 10 per cent which it holds as possible and realistic. It deems this rate of growth imperative to become a medium super power with strong economic muscles.

China and India have problems of large number of poor in the less developed regions while the number of the absolute poor has been steadily declining, far more in China than in India. Hence what is happening in Pakistan following the very recent high economic growth is nothing new or unusual for the region.

The government, too, admits that what is important is not only a high economic growth rate but also its sustainability and acceleration. Otherwise popular discontent or disillusionment can explode into violence instead of the unemployment suicides increasing and some of the fathers putting their children too to death after killing their mothers as they cannot support them financially.

We need a high economic growth for a variety of valid reasons. We need it to make up for the low economic growth of the 1990s, described by officials like the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Dr Ishrat Husain, as the 'lost decade".

We need it to make up for the very poor economic performance of the second half of the 1990s when the average annual growth was 2.7 per cent. The second half of the decade began with a growth rate of 0.1 per cent and ended with 1.8 per cent growth in 2000-01.

A country with a population growth of 3.1 per cent annually, which has come down probably to 2.5 percent, cannot afford to sustain low economic growth and make its socio-economic problems more complex.

A low growth rate does not make the poor less poor or reduced their total number. Instead it aggravates their poverty while the rich are able to look after themselves pretty well or even profit by such a situation.

It increases the number of unemployed, lowers the wages and raises the overall number of the poor. So we need a higher rate of growth to increase employment and raise the wages of those already employed.

But a new tendency in much of the West led by the US is that of economic growth increasing without an increase in employment. That is achieved through higher productivity. That is happening in Pakistan, too, through overtime payments to the already employed.

A high economic growth rate is essential to increase the official revenues and enable the government spend far more on development and social welfare. At a time when the developing countries are aspiring for a higher rate of growth all around us, and even Russia has been able to achieve a 7 per cent growth, Pakistan cannot afford to lag behind others, particularly India with whom we have to have larger and even free trade eventually.

While India has opted for a 10 per cent growth rate in the medium and long term, having achieved 6-7 per cent growth, China is trying to hold down its explosive growth rate to prevent overheating of the economy and its difficult consequences. And yet the growth rate is higher than it wants now as the momentum of the growth cannot be restrained easily.

Pakistan needs a higher growth rate to face the rapidly increasing competition in the world of the WTO de-regulations and the end of the textile quota system from the end of this year, through larger production and improved quality we have to make our products cheaper in the world, as the Chinese goods are and compete more effectively. And we need to produce more of the value-added products to sell, through diligent hard work.

Official aid in the world is coming down steadily, while politically motivated aid is increasing at a high price. Foreign investment, too, is not too dependable and can be conditioned by various international factors. Foreign aid is more of a fair weather friend. Hence we have to seek higher growth through mobilizing more of domestic resources and the financial assets of overseas Pakistanis.

High economic growth rate in developing countries with large population is one side of the coin. That has to be balanced with safety nets for the poor to prevent them from starving or living in grossly undernourished conditions and exposing themselves to epidemics and other diseases.

Secondly, the poor have to be provided facilities for education and technical training by the state, and the private sector if possible, so as to enable them earn more and make the economy richer. The poor have to cease to be perceived as a noisy liability and make a productive asset.

In the early 1980s Paul Straighten. Dr Mahbubul Haq and others wrote a book, "First Things First" - Meeting basic human needs in Developing Countries. We ought to make that book our guide for the social and economic re-generation of the country. They spoke of "development with a human face", and not of the miracles of the market economy alone.

If we do not seek such an all round development social tensions, political unrest and economic conflicts would continue and explode into violence in unexpected places and with fearsome frequency.

We have the resources to take care of the poor if we go about it methodically. If the food grains and other edible items lost between harvest, transportation, storage depots, and the damage they suffer before they finally reach the consumer are prevented they can meet the needs of the poor without extra cost to the nation.

Storage and transportation of food items as a whole around the country have to be improved radically for better food availability and cheaper food. And scientific cultivation of the crops, including through the modern bio-technology, along with adequate and proper uses of fertilisers and pesticides can increase food production greatly. That along with proper storage and transportation and more efficient marketing can increase the availability of food items manifold and wipe out hunger.

Abolishing poverty, beginning with reducing it step by step and turning the poor into a major productive asset, by enlisting the women too in the task, is within the means of the government and the country. What we need are the right initiatives and not mere bureaucratic tinkering, and its feudal endorsement.

Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain talks of ending the deprivation of the people in the country. That should not mean reducing hunger or more food stamps or reducing gross malnutrition, providing more medical facilities and some shelter. It should also remove illiteracy and enable the poor earn far more through real technical training.

The approach to the removal of deprivation should be total and comprehensive. In such an environment high economic growth would be accompanied by real safety nets for the poor.

Much of that has to begin in the rural areas where two-thirds of the people live and where bonded labour in large number is still common. In fact, there have been bonded families under duress for long.

But as long as the feudal lords reign in the rural areas as well as in the assemblies there is small scope for a real transformation of rural society. And women would continue to be given the most deplorable treatment or subjected to excessive pain and infinite humiliation, particularly when they belong to poor or low income families.