Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh is the fastest growing province of Pakistan followed by Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said renowned economist and former assistant secretary general of and director of of Regional Bureau of United Nations for Asia & Pacific Dr Hafiz A Pasha.

Addressing a ceremony, which was held to launch his book Growth & Inequality in Pakistan on Thursday, Dr Hafiz A Pasha said that the Human Development Index which was compiled with the data collected from 120 districts of Pakistan put Sindh ahead of Punjab in terms of economic growth.

He lamented that the deprivation and alienation of Balochistan continues and for the last 15 years, provincial growth remained below 3 percent.

Karachi economically progressed during former president Pervez Musharaff’s era to 6 percent but due to law and order, the growth declined to 2 percent until 2013-14 but now has again picked up to 4 percent, he noted adding that estimates show Karachi attracts 20 percent investment.

He claimed that the population census was faulty because migration factor from other provinces of Pakistan was not considered. “The population of Sindh is 2.5 to 3 million less shown in the census,” Dr Pasha claimed.

He said that in the war on terror, Pakistan’s actual cost was around $250 billion but Pakistan could not present its case in a proper manner by adopting the wrong methodology. “Overall, the total cumulative of the war on terror up to 2016-17 is $135 billion. This includes direct cost of $74 billion and indirect cost of $61 billion. This is more than four times the security and economic assitances provided by the US of $33 billion,” he added.

He called for investing in water, electricity and China Pakistan Economic Corridor on priority bases and termed these sectors the lifeline of Pakistan’s future. “Pakistan must invest up to 60-70 percent of resources for the development of these sectors,” he suggested.

Saying the official unemployment rate based on manipulation, he said that in fact the unployment rate stands at 9-10 percent. “A large number of people are tired of searching for jobs and now they are unemployed. The actual number of such youth is around 8-9 million which remains unaccounted,” he claimed.

Pakistan’s 45 percent of youth between the ages of 15 and 24 are jobless or idle including 1.2 million youths in the Sindh. “The dangerous situation may arise if these young people are directed somewhere else,” he noted.

Published in Daily Times, April 13^th 2018.