Pakistanis among the happiest people?

The 'World's Happiest Nations Index' was released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations on March 14 ahead of the March 20 World's Happiness Day. The report ranks countries on six key variables that support people's well-being: per capita income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity.
"All the top five countries in the ranking have almost equally high values for the six factors identified to support happiness, and four of these countries - Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland - have been in first place in the six World Happiness Report rankings since the first report of 2012.
The 2018 top-10, as ever dominated by the Nordics, are Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.
Pakistanis are positioned as the happiest people among all bordering nations being 58 points ahead of India, 11 points ahead of China and 70 points ahead of Afghanistan.
Among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, Pakistan for 2018 is also ranked as the happiest nation at 75th position and India at 133rd as the most unhappy nation while Nepal is ranked at 101st. Bhutan has been placed at 97th rank and Sri Lanka at 116th position. Bangladesh is ranked at 115th in the happiness index.
Myanmar, which is embroiled in the ethnic violence between the majority Buddhists and the minority Rohingya Muslims, has been placed at 130th position.
In the region only war-ravaged Afghanistan fared worse than India, as the former was ranked 145th.
Finland, which was ranked 5th in 2017, displaced Norway to be the world's happiest country. Norway dropped to 2nd position in the index.
The US was relegated to 18th position this year from its 14th position of last year while the UK was ranked 20th.
The African countries - Tanzania (153rd), South Sudan (154th), Central African Republic (155th) and Burundi (156th) occupied the bottom positions in the Happiness Index.
Pakistanis are more happier than all of their neighbors. Pakistan rose from 80th place in 2017 to 75th place this year while all of its neighbors slid from last year's happiness rankings.
Finland topped the list that combines economic, health and polling data compiled by economists that are averaged over three years from 2015 to 2017. Taking the harsh, dark winters in their stride, Finns said access to nature, safety, childcare, good schools and free healthcare are among the best things about their country.
"I've joked with the other Americans that we are living the American dream here in Finland," said Brianna Owens, who moved from the US and is now a teacher in Espoo, Finland's second biggest city with a population of around 280,000. "I think everything in this society is set up for people to be successful, starting with university and transportation that works really well," Owens said. Finland rose from fifth place last year to oust Norway from the top spot.
Happiness Index is a development philosophy as well as an index which is used to measure the collective happiness in a nation. The concept was first used in Bhutan. The term 'Happiness Index' came into existence in 1979 during an interview at Bombay airport when the then king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, said, "We do not believe in Gross National Product. Gross National Happiness is more important."
To a great extent, this is true. People's happiness is not all about GDP growth. India, while maintaining an impressive GDP growth at an average of 7 % per annum for over a decade, yet its happiness index is sliding. India was ranked 118th in 2016, 122nd in 2017 and 133rd in 2018. Pakistan in spite of its economic challenges, however, improved to 75th position in 2018 from its 80th position in 2017.
Pakistan has fared well in all the 6 indicators applied for people's happiness.
Pakistanis seem to have benefited from the survey of 327 world cities conducted by Numbeo. Last year, Karachi was ranked 47. A visible reduction in violence is helping revive Pakistan's economy. As the country's largest city and its financial capital and economic hub, a safe and healthy Karachi bodes well for Pakistan's future.
Pakistan's society has come up as one of the most resilient societies of the world. Since decades it is fearlessly sustaining challenges of terrorism, proxy wars, security threats on its borders, threats of isolation and arm twisting by the US, natural disasters, energy shortages, etc.
The economic drivers of the country are unique in the world which is a rare combination of documented and undocumented economy which positions its people as the ones with one of the highest purchasing power in the region with an impressive yearly increase in per capita income.
Pakistan's retail market, driven largely by the growing middle class with growing purchasing power, is now one of world's fastest growing retail markets and has encouraged foreign investors like Metro of Germany, SPAR of Switzerland, Hyper Star of Dubai and other foreign brands to enter the market.
Pakistani's regime of generosity, charity giving and contribution in social sector is globally rated as one of the best.
Pakistan has managed to remain a traditional society with much of family ties intact. The family culture continues to be strong in Pakistan providing the required levels of financial and social comfort to all age groups of the family.
The large rural population of the country continues to be characterized by old traditions of a contented life-style.
Inflation in the country has been contained at around 5% over the last five years.
With more and more of healthcare moving in the hands of the private sector the quality of service is improving.
The freedom of expression and freedom of press exponentially grew in the last decade positioning Pakistan in the ranks of the OECD countries.
What is pulling down Pakistan is the issue of corruption. This impediment is required to be removed without any further loss of time.
(The writer is former President of Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry)