WE can only agree with the assessment of Haoliang Xu, UNDP regional director for Asia and the Pacific, when he says that there is no “sense of urgency” in Pakistan at the national level to deal with this country’s socio-economic crises. To illustrate his point, the UN official, while speaking to this newspaper, highlighted Pakistan’s poor performance where the Millennium Development Goals are concerned. Instead of pushing us further into despondency, such observations, bitter as they are to digest, should prompt us to take remedial measures. Frankly speaking, our performance in the field of socio-economic development is nothing short of shameful. Taking the MDGs as a benchmark, it would be interesting to see how many of our MNAs, for example, could name even a single of the eight goals. The fact is that the state, the politicians, much of civil society and the general population are simply not concerned about human development.

We are in no position to meet the MDGs by 2015. Ever since the global community under the aegis of the UN pledged to meet the goals back in 2000, Pakistan has had only marginal success. For example, UNDP figures show that this country is on track to achieve nine MDG indicators, while we are off track on 25. While Punjab is faring better than other provinces, it is nevertheless true that Pakistan’s most populous province is off track on most indicators. Balochistan, which is at the bottom of the table nationally, has miserable figures all around. In the province, 43pc of children are underweight (against a target of 20pc) while Balochistan’s infant and maternal mortality figures are equally depressing.

It is, ultimately, a matter of priorities. For our state and society, goals like eradicating hunger, achieving universal primary education or ensuring environmental sustainability are evidently not worth focusing on. It is strange that official delegations make it a point to attend international conferences on the MDGs every year, yet the state has very little to show when it comes to actual progress on the goals. Even at a societal level the emphasis is on charity; we are not interested in teaching men to fish, we would much rather give them fish, and that too in unequal measure. Comparatively, others in the region, including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, are making good progress in meeting the goals. There is still time to act before poverty, illiteracy, hunger and disease combine to completely paralyse the functioning of the state. For this, we will need to reorient ourselves towards achieving social and economic justice. It may be unpalatable to listen to those who say that Pakistan is in “terminal decline”, yet such assessments might prove true unless the rulers and people of this country choose to change the narrative.