New poverty line makes a third of Pakistanis poor

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ISLAMABAD: The PML-N government on Thursday announced that 60 million Pakistanis are living below the poverty line, posing a challenge for the ruling party.

The number of poor increased owing to the adoption of a new methodology for measuring poverty which uses the 2013-14 survey data, said Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal.

Addressing a seminar on ‘Poverty Estimation’ while co-chairing along with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Mr Iqbal said the incumbent government was committing itself to a greater challenge because 2001 poverty line formula that placed 20m people poor was outdated and misleading.

The new poverty line estimates the number of poor households at 6.8m to 7.6m. “So we are raising bar for ourselves. But we have decided to do so,” the minister said.

Using 2013-14 data, the poverty headcount ratio comes out to be 29.5pc of the population. In monetary terms, poverty line stands at Rs3,030 per adult equivalent per month, the minister said.

Under the old poverty line, the percentage of the poor fell by around 25 percentage points, from a high of 34.6pc in 2001-02 to 9.3pc in 2013-14.

Further analysis of the past data under the new poverty line estimates the poverty headcount ratio at 63.3pc in 2001-02, which has now fallen to 29.5pc.

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