Of 175 countries, Pakistan has been placed at 144 on Human Development Index (HDI) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Pakistan's ranking is the lowest in South Asia following the Maldives (86) , Sri Lanka (99), India (127), Bhutan (136), Bangladesh (139) and Nepal (143).

The HDI ranking is based on achievements in terms of life expectancy, education and real income. Pakistan"s low ranking reflects low importance attached to human development in the country.

Human development is a broad concept encompassing moral, economic, political and cultural rights. It aims at creating an environment in which people can realize their potentials to the full and become more productive.

According to the UNDP, human development means to give people access to the resources essential for a decent standard of living and participating in the communal life, particularly in making decisions that affect them.

Human development is thus about making individuals productive economic agents and empowering them. Economic growth and political development are meaningless without human development. In fact, human development is the very end of economic and political development.

As Pakistan's low HDI ranking brings out, human development has remained a neglected area in Pakistan. Education and health, to which human development is fundamentally linked, have not received proper government attention. Just look at the relevant indicators and the point is made.

According to official statistics, literacy level in Pakistan is 54 per cent, which means that nearly half of the population is illiterate. The government aims at increasing literacy level to 60 per cent by 2006, while most of the developing countries have already surpassed this level.

In the year 2000, literacy level in Pakistan was 47.1 per cent, which means in four years literacy level has gone up by only 6.9 percentage points. Between 2000 and 2004, the average annual increase in literacy has been only 1.62 per cent, whereas during the same period, the average increase in population has been 2.3 per cent.

From 1997-98 to 2001-02, national expenditure on education has been only 1.7 per cent of the GDP. In the last financial year, that is 2003-04, total expenditure on education (by central and provincial governments) was RsIll billion-only 9.5 per cent of the total expenditure by the federal and provincial governments and 2.5 per cent of the GDP.

In the current financial year federal budget, Rs 24.76 billion have been allocated to education (Rs12.2 billion under current expenditure and Rs12.56 billion under development expenditure). The share of education in the total federal budget is only 2.7 per cent.

In 2003-04, total public expenditure on health was Rs 32.8 billion, which is only 0.73 per cent of the GDP and 2.96 per cent of the total expenditure by the federal and provincial governments.

In the current financial year's federal budget, Rs9.9 billion (Rs3.3 billion under current expenditure and Rs6.6 billion under development expenditure) will be spent by the health sector, which makes up only 1.09 per cent of the total expenditure. In contrast, Rs194 billion--21.5 per cent of the total expenditure-have been allocated to defence.

The low budgetary allocations for education and health account for poor human development related social indicators of Pakistan. The low literacy level has already been mentioned.

Let's turn to other indicators, Life expectancy in Pakistan is 64 years- less than that in many other developing countries: 74 in Sri Lanka, 73 in Malaysia, 71 in China and 70 in the Philippines.

Infant mortality rate (per 1000 births) in Pakistan is 82, among the highest in Asia. Even in countries like Bhutan and Nepal, which are counted among the least developed countries, infant mortality rate is 60 and 63 respectively. Pakistan's under-5 mortality rate of 105 is also among the highest in Asia.

Not only does Pakistan spend less on health and education, the major beneficiary of the expenditure on these two sectors have been the more affluent section of society.

That is why literacy is associated with high income. This is confirmed by Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS) 2001-02 conducted by the Statistics Division. The relevant findings of the PIHS are as follows:

* Only 25 per cent of the poorest individuals are literate.

* The gross enrolment primary level rate in 1998-99 was 71 per cent, while in 2001-02 it increased by only 1 per cent to 72 per cent. The net enrolment rate remained stagnant at 42 per cent from 1998-99 to 2001-02. For the richest 20 per cent of the population, the rate of gross primary enrolment is 106, while that for the poorest 20 per cent of the population is 56.

* In case of gross middle level enrolment, the share of the richest 20 per cent of the population is 75, while that of the poorest 20 per cent of the population is 23.

* In case of gross matric level enrolment, the share of the richest 20 per cent of the population is 87, while that of the poorest 20 per cent of the population is 17.

* Primary dropout rate is 13 per cent, which shots up to 28 per cent in case of class 6. Here too the income factor plays an important role. For instance, in rural areas, 53 per cent of the poorest section of society drops out before completing class 6 compared with only 23 per cent of the richest segment.

* Of the people who have ever attended school 70.5 per cent belong to the richest 20 per cent of the population, with 56 per cent belonging to the poorest 20 per cent of the population.

* There is also a sharp rural-urban divide. For instance, net primary enrolment in case of rural and urban areas is 38 and 56 percent respectively.

The percentage of people (age 10 or more) who have ever attended a school in case of rural and urban areas is 43 and 65 respectively.

Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Millennium Declaration 2000, which commits it to making all-out efforts to promote human dignity and eradicate poverty both of which are linked to human development.

However, as the above data show, Pakistan is way behind fulfilling its commitment. Though the country has achieved a very healthy economic growth rate, the same has not been pro-poor. This is evident from high unemployment and poverty levels.

According to the Economic Survey, the unemployment rate in Pakistan has increased from 5.37 per cent in 1995 to 8.27 per cent in 2004. In rural areas, the unemployment rate has increased from 4.80 per cent in 1995 to 7.55 per cent in 2004.

The urban unemployment rate has jumped from 6.90 per cent in 1995 to 9.80 per cent in 2004. The size of unemployed labour force has more than doubled from 1.84 million in 1995 to 3.72 million in 2004.

As for poverty, measured by the international standard of earning less than $1 a day, at least one-third of the population is poor. On the other hand, countries having a much smaller GDP size than Pakistan"s are far ahead of it in literacy and other HD-related indicators. For instance, Sri Lanka's GDP is three times smaller than Pakistan's but its literacy level is more than 95 per cent.

There is a reciprocal relationship between poverty and human development. Lack of health and education reduces people's productive capacity which curtails their employability and earning power thus perpetuating their poverty.

On the other hand, poverty makes it difficult for the people to have access to health and education and thus restricts their development not only as economic agents. but also, as responsible citizens.

As for economic growth, it is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for human development. No doubt, owing to resource constraint, it is difficult. for a developing country like Pakistan to allocate sufficient funds for human development.

Hence, it is by accelerating the pace of growth that sufficient resources can be generated for raising the standard of living of the people. What is needed, however, is a pro-people growth: higher investment in labour intensive sectors like SMEs and agriculture so as to create greater employment opportunities.

Of course, there is another dimension to growth-human development relationship. Without developing its human resources a country cannot sustain a high growth rate. Poor, illiterate, unskilled, sick and disgruntled' people are a serious obstacle to development.

Pro-people economic growth should be accompanied by optimal utilization of resources. When a country allocates Rs 194 billion to defence and only Rs24 billion and Rs12 billion to education and health respectively, it is clear that it is not optimally utilizing its resources.