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Poverty rising in Pakistan

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January 4, 2001 

KARACHI (UNB/PPI) Poverty is rising in Pakistan in the absence of an effective poverty alleviation program, a report just unveiled said.

Poverty is projected to rise more speedily because of the International Monetary Fund's sever conditionalities and belt tightening as a result of the austerity program which is part of $596 million loan approved only four weeks back.

The annual review for the year 2000 of ``Social Development in Pakistan -- Towards Poverty Reduction'', by the Social Policy & Development Centre, Karachi, besides analyzing the grave phenomenon of poverty also goes through, the effects of implementing the conditionalities of the IMF for ``improvement'' of Pakistan's economy, that is part of the $596 million loan.

The conditionalities and program prescribed by the IMF ``will stifle the process of economic revival and exacerbate the problem of poverty,'' the SPDC report warns.

The number of the poor in the country will go up from the present 46 million to 60 million in the next few years. The number of poor during the last decade rose from 20 million to 46 million in Pakistan.

``The fact that Pakistan was denied access to the IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) means that we have been forced to defer the tackling of the problem of poverty and concentrate, instead, on reducing the fiscal and current account deficit to enhance the country's debt repayment capacity in the medium term,'' the report further stated.