Poverty head count down to 23.9 percent

The poverty head count which stood at 34.5 percent in 2000-01 has come down to 23.9 percent by 2004-05 - a substantial decline of 10.6 percentage points.
Talking to various delegation at Shah Jewena District Jhang, Federal Minister for Environment Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat said, in absolute numbers the count of poor persons has fallen from 49.23 million in 2000-01 to 36.45 million in 2004-05 - a fall of 12.8 million.
Rural areas of the country have witnessed a higher fall in poverty, where the percentage of population living below the poverty line has declined from 39.3 percent in 2000-01 to 28.1 percent by 2004-05, while urban poverty fell from 22.7 percent to 14.9 percent during this period.
This substantial decline in poverty has been made possible by robust economic growth, combined with the rising expenditures on the 17 pro-poor sectors identified in the PRSP.
PRSP budgetary expenditures on the 17 pro-poor sectors amounted to Rs 434.6 billion in 2005-06, while cumulative PRSP expenditures (budgetary as well as non-budgetary) during 2001-06 amounted to Rs 1,441 billion, with the budgetary expenditures averaging 4.7 percent of the GDP during this 5 year period.
Earlier, addressing a public gathering after inaugurating a bridge at Loheywala, Sargodha Road, and a road (Market Committee Road) in his constituency near Mandi Shah Jewna he said record development schemes had already been completed while more schemes were being executed to provide maximum civic amenities to the residents of this constituency.
He further said people should support this government to complete the ongoing projects in addition to launching new mega development projects to strengthen the national economy.
All promises made to the people during the last elections would be fulfilled before next elections, he said. He added locality of Loheywala was earlier cut from the rest of the district during flood season. However, this bridge had provided a reliable and permanent road link to the residents of the locality.
He said that this bridge had been completed with an estimated cost of Rs 2 million while Rs 1.3 million had been spent on the construction of the Market Committee Road.