Advisor to the Finance Minister Khurram Shehzad on Tuesday said the World Bank\u2019s update, including the note \u201cGlobal Poverty Lines: What it Means for Pakistan\u201d reaffirmed that the national poverty line remained the most relevant benchmark for policymaking.
\n\u201cThis update clarifies earlier confusion: the higher international poverty rates recently cited were the result of a technical recalibration of global methodology and per-day dollar thresholds, not a sudden rise in poverty in Pakistan,\u201d he said on the official platform, X.
\nBased on the latest official Household Survey (2018-19), 21.9% of the population lived below the national Cost-of-Basic-Needs line.
\nThe World Bank\u2019s own assessment, he said, underscored that while international poverty lines were useful for cross-country comparisons, Pakistan\u2019s national line must continue to guide domestic policy, social protection and poverty reduction efforts.
\nThe advisor said poverty levels have indeed faced setbacks in recent years, largely due to extraordinary shocks such as COVID-19, floods, and macroeconomic stress.
\nThese challenges, which also affected many other developing countries, are being addressed through targeted actions.
\nElaborating Pakistan\u2019s measures, he said, the government had expanded the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), scaled up emergency cash transfers during crises, and continued to invest in job creation, agriculture, and small businesses to support sustainable livelihoods.
\nIn addition, Khurram said, a number of targeted programs to alleviate poverty were underway at the federal level, including the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, Workers\u2019 Welfare Fund, and Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, among others.
\nHe said provinces also have their own dedicated poverty reduction and social protection programs underway, recognizing that this is a national challenge requiring coordinated action across all tiers of government.
\nAt the same time, the advisor said, work was underway to make subsidies more targeted and equitable, strengthen social protection systems, and expand investment in health and education to build human capital.
\n\u201cThese priorities are aligned with the broader reform agenda, ensuring that Pakistan not only cushions vulnerable households against shocks but also creates the conditions for inclusive and sustained poverty reduction,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Advisor to the Finance Minister Khurram Shehzad on Tuesday said the World Bank\u2019s update, including the note \u201cGlobal Poverty Lines: What it Means for Pakistan\u201d reaffirmed that the national poverty line remained the most relevant benchmark for policymaking. \u201cThis update clarifies earlier confusion: the higher international poverty rates recently cited were the result of a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":81776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87164,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87147\/revisions\/87164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}