Poverty in Pakistan is one of those problems which could not be resolved despite impressive progress made in various sectors of the economy during the last few years.

How should poverty be defined? As laid down in the chapter on 'Income distribution and poverty' in the Economic Survey, 2002-03, poverty has its manifestations in hunger, lack of shelter while sick and being unable to see the doctor, inability to go to school in order to learn to read and write, being without a job, losing one's child to illness due to non-avail-ability of potable drinking water and being powerless having no representation and freedom.

According to official statistics, poverty in Pakistan stood at 31.8 per cent in 2003. Of this, rural poverty stood at 38.65 percent, while urban poverty was estimated at 22.39 percent, during the year.

Rural population being more than two-third of the country's total population and as many as 38-39 per cent of the rural population being below the poverty line, the attention of the policy-makers remained generally focused on rural poverty. On the other hand, urban population being only about one-third of the country's total population and a relatively smaller percentage (22-23 per cent) of the urban population being below the poverty line, less attention had so far been paid to the urban poverty and the urban poor.

However, despite the lower urban population. and a relatively smaller percentage of the urban population being below the poverty line, urban poverty is of a far more threatening and explosive nature and it has a potential to hurt the economy much more than rural poverty. This is so, firstly, because the level of awareness in the cities is much more than in the rural areas, due inter-alia to a higher literacy percentage. Even an un-educated person living in the city has a much better understanding of things, compared to an uneducated person living in the rural areas. Therefore, the urban poor is likely, to react more strongly in an unfavourable situation than the rural poor.

Secondly, the wide gap between the rich and the poor is more easily discernible in the urban than in the rural areas. On the one hand, the cities have beautiful houses and colonies for the rich and., on the other hand, there are 'kutchi abadis' and slums, inhabited by the poor. On one extreme, people can be seen driving to their workplaces or elsewhere in their luxurious cars and, on the other extreme, a poor person does not have enough money even to hire a taxi to take his ailing child to the hospital.

In the same city, there are Pizza houses, KFC's and. Mc'Donald chains, filled with customers and there are, also, people who can not even have two square meals a day. The alarming inequality, described. in the preceding lines, is bound to lead to a deep sense of frustration and bitterness.

The problems of unemployment and under-employment, coupled with rising prices and increasing burden of indirect taxes had hard-hit the urban population. Besides those who are unemployed, majority of even employed persons in big cities like Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi are under-employed. A large number of people in these cities are doing two to three jobs at a time, in order to make both ends meet and educate their children. The threat of hunger and poverty has swallowed the happiness of millions of young men and women living in these cities.

The government policy, also, adds fuel to the fire. The labour policy entitles an unskilled factory worker to a minimum wage of Rs2,500 per month. In addition, the employer is duty-bound to provide medical facilities to his sick worker and, also, bear educational expenses of up to two children of the worker employed by him. However, an informal enquiry made from the sources in the All Pakistan Federation of Labour (APFOL) had. revealed that the level of compliance with regard to extension of the above-mentioned facilities to the factory workers by their employers was only about 30 per cent.

While majority of the workers were not letting the facilities given to them in the labour policy, the government was reported to have adopted a non-interventionist attitude so as not to pose any problem to the smooth running of the factories. Such an attitude amounted to leaving the workers at the mercy of their employers. Since labour unions were still far from being strong and effective, who was expected to safeguard the genuine interests of the workers, if the government did not do that?

The urban population is presently estimated at slightly less than 50 million, at 32 per cent of the country's total population. Taking urban poverty at 22-23 per cent, the number of urban poor would work out approximately to 10-11 million. About 30 percent of the urban population is concentrated only in two cities namely Karachi and Lahore, where the number of the urban poor should be around three million.

As a result of innumerable miseries suffered by 'the urban poor during the last couple of decades, the life in our cities today is not the same as it used to be in the 1960's and 1970's. Growing unemployment and poverty, rising prices of essential commodities, increase in the burden of indirect taxes, lack of access to health-care and education for the poor, transport difficulties, shortage of water and frequent electricity breakdowns, pressure of workload, below subsistence wages received by the majority of the urban people and an exploitative culture which made the rich richer and the poor poorer had resulted in social instability and unrest, a drugs and arms culture, and marked increase in the rate of crimes such as thefts and robberies at gun-point, looting of banks, snatching of cars, kidnapping for ransom, senseless murders and terrorism.

The above-mentioned scenario had created a strong sense of insecurity among the residents of cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad/ Rawalpindi and they had been forced to hire the services of armed security guards to protect their localities from robbers and thieves, at least, at night. During the last few years, the number of such agencies, which provided the services of armed security guards to city residents on demand, had increased. manifold.

Needless to say that such an environment, which is marked with insecurity and charged with tension, does not help in attracting foreign investors. Even industrial production, exports and revenue collection would have done much better, if the atmosphere in the urban areas was friendly and cordial.

The government had taken political and administrative measures, during the last few years, to bring about improvement in the security environment in the urban areas. Development work such as water supply schemes and construction of roads had, also, been started to remove the genuine difficulties of the people living in urban areas. However, much more still needed to be done. The government should pay greater attention to employment generation, particularly for the educated unemployed. This could possibly be clone by setting up an education corps for starting a literacy campaign throughout the length and breadth of the country.

Besides, instead of adopting a non-interventionist attitude, the government should do as much as possible to ensure that workers are not deprived of their due rights granted to them in the labour policy. The government should persuade the employers to follow the rules in letter and spirit and be fair and just, rather generous, to their employees in giving what is due to them, which would, also, be in line with the teachings of Islam In addition, sincere efforts were required. to make education and health-care more accessible to the urban poor. The government could, also, consider granting proprietary rights to katchi abadis and extending the facility of micro-credit to the urban poor at reasonable mark-up.

The moment the urban poor realise that the government is making a sincere effort to alleviate all their sufferings, that would, in all probability, bring a world of change in the security environment in e urban areas.