The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) report 2006 on annual update produced this year, provides information on the state of human development indicators up to year 2005.

It reveals development gaps within different parts of the country. A total of 98 districts have been ranked on various development indicators. The report confirms that politically skewed development paradigm has left the underprivileged areas less developed. Disparities in the level of development among the provinces are also evident.

Sindh and Balochistan suffer from relatively poor state of human development whereas Punjab emerges as the leading province in almost all areas of human development.

Primary enrolment ratio: According to the report, net primary enrolment ratio has increased from 33 per cent in 1998 to 48 percent in 2005. Likewise, literacy rate has increased from 45 per cent in 2001 to 53 per cent in 2005. This shows significant improvement.

But the provincial distribution reflects grim disparities. The top 10 districts comprise nine from Punjab and the remaining one from NWFP. These districts are Sialkot, Narowal, Jehlum, Chakwal, Gujrat, Rawalpindi, Abbotabad, Attock, Lahore and Gujranwala.

The first district from Sindh is Karachi which stands at No 11. The first district from rural Sindh is Sukkur which stood at No30. The first district from Balochistan is Kech which secured 18 position. Among the bottom 10 districts, seven belong to Balochistan and three to NWFP.

Literacy rate: Top 10 districts under this indicator also show similar trend. Seven districts belong to Punjab and the remaining provinces share one district each. These districts are: Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Chakwal, Gujranwala, Jehlum, Gujrat, Quetta, Abbotabad and Sialkot. The first district from the rural Sindh is Sukkur which stands at No 11 and the first district from Balochistan is Pishin at No 16. The bottom 10 districts comprise eight from Balochistan and two from NWFP.

Gender equality: Gender disparities are visibly prevalent throughout the country as measured by several indicators. However, the MDG report focuses on net primary enrolment. In terms of better gender equality top 10 districts are eight from Punjab and two from NWFP.

The districts are: Toba Tek Singh, Narowal, Lahore, Gujranwala, Jehlum, Sialkot, Abbotabad, Mansehra, Sarodha and Mandi Bahaudin. The first district from Sindh is Karachi which stood at No 13 and the first district from rural Sindh is Sukkur which stood at No 31. The first district from Balochistan is Sibi which stood at No 27. The bottom 10 districts comprise six from Balochistan, three from NWFP and one from Sindh.

Youth literacy: Ranking show nine districts from Punjab among the top 10 districts and the remaining one is from Sindh. Sialkot, Lahore, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Karachi, Jehlum, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh and Chakwal are among the top rankers.

The first district from rural Sindh is Sukkur which is ranked at No 18 and that from Balochistan is Quetta ranking at No 29. Balochistan and NWFP share seven and three districts respectively among the bottom 10 districts.

Child mortality: Pakistan is among the poorest performers on this important indicator. Countrywide, the trend of disparities is not too different. Punjab shares eight out of 10 top districts, whereas Balochistan and NWFP share one each. The top 10 are Chitral, Jehlum, Sialkot, Gwadar, Khushab, Attock, Chakwal, Gujrat, Minawali and Bahawalnagar.

The first district from Sindh, Hyderabad is ranked at 23. Zhob is the first district from Balochistan ranked at No 21. The bottom 10 districts include seven from Balochistan, two from Sindh and one from NWFP.

Clean drinking water is believed to be a fundamental human and a citizen right, which is unfortunately a rare commodity in the remote rural areas as well as in some mainstream urban areas. According to the ranking of the 98 districts, Punjab and Sindh share eight and two districts respectively among the top 10 districts. These districts are: Shaikhupura, Narowal, Layah, Gujranwala, Bakhar, Lahore, Kasur, Shikarpur, Ghotki and Sialkot. The first district from Balochistan is Quetta which is ranked poorly at No 47. Among the bottom 10 districts, Balochistan has six districts, one from Sindh and three from NWPF.

Sanitation: The trend is somewhat different in this indicator. Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan share three districts each among the top ten districts and Punjab shares only one.. The top ten districts placed in sequence are Quetta, Charsada, Kohat, Noshehro Feroz, Mardan, Pishin, Larkano, Nawabshah, Chaghi and Lahore. Balochistan has six districts among the bottom ten districts. Sindh and Punjab have one each and NWFP has two districts among the bottom 10 districts.

Conclusion: A scrutiny of the data indicates that Balochistan and Sindh receive lesser attention in the key areas of human development. Even within Punjab, which ranks highest among all the indicators except sanitation, almost all the districts belong to Central Punjab indicating poor state of human development in south Punjab. The following table of ten top districts clearly shows the disproportional trend of human development among the provinces.

Likewise, if the bottom 10 districts are analysed, the trend gets reversed. Balochistan shares the highest number i.e. 47 out of the 70 bottom districts whereas Punjab has only one among the bottom 70.

This trend shows that equal opportunities for development are not being provided to all citizens and the politically marginalised provinces of Sindh and Balochistan (specially their rural areas) are receiving less than the desirable share in development. Ironically, these are the richest districts in terms of natural resources. This is contrary to the Declaration of the United Nations on the MDGs which says: “No individual and no nation must be denied the opportunity to benefit from development”.

If the government is serious in providing equal development opportunities to all citizens, it should create special MDG funds for the provinces/districts to improve their human development indicators.