Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday said the government is committed to alleviate poverty as progress and prosperity of Pakistan is linked with uplift of poor and downtrodden segments of the society.
“It is my belief that a country where there is an ocean of poor people and few rich cannot make progress,” he said while speaking at launch of Ehsaas District Development Portal ‘Data 4 Pakistan’ here. He said a civilized society cares for its poor and is identified not how the rich spend their lives but how the poor are living. He said this portal will help the government in spending development funds with justice and according to needs of the people.
He said unfortunately the powerful people in government spend all the development funds in their constituencies thus widening the gap between the rich and the poor. Lamenting the policies and practice of the previous governments, the prime minister said ground realities are not considered in the budget allocations at that time and more than half of Punjab’s budget is being spent on uplift of Lahore alone resultantly the metropolis became developed but other cities were ignored.
Highlighting the cons of this phenomenon, Imran said, “Firstly, all of the people go to that one developed city seeking employment opportunities, putting a burden on existing facilities. Further, facilities such as health and investment remain limited to a small area. This initiative is crucial, because it gives us an opportunity to inform the people where exactly funds are needed. Why is there a need to spend money, what is the state of education in that area, and why are our girls not enrolled in schools, all of these questions and more can be answered [through this initiative].”
“The current Punjab chief minister hails from a very poor area in the province. When he started spending money in his area, in Dera Ghazi Khan, there was a lot of uproar. However, when you go over the data you will realise that more money needs to be spent in DG Khan,” he said, adding that poverty is like a disease. “You are only able to find a cure once you have ascertained the exact cause,” he said.
He said the portal will help identify the areas which are in most need of funds, besides finding other vital statistics about issues being faced by the local people.
He said this is the first step in finding necessary ways and means to fight poverty. He said Data4Pakistan will also help in policy making at the higher level as well as allocation of budget. He said the earmarking of the budget will be on need and merit basis, without any political or other influences.
Earlier, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar said Data4Pakistan, the first initiative of its kind in the country, provides open and public access to a spatial interactive portal that has poverty estimates for every district in Pakistan, along with over 120 development and policy indicators. She said the portal currently has six rounds of district poverty and development data, covering the period 2004-2018.
This portal will be a very valuable resource for federal, provincial and district level policymakers, for decision making, she said.
