A total of 1,174 schemes were approved under Khushal Pakistan Programme-I (KPP-I) during Q2 FY06, of which 404 were for roads, 390 for electrification, 38 for gas, 27 for education, 9 for health, 227 for water supply, 77 for sanitation and 2 for bulldozers.
Largest number of KPP-I schemes (478) was approved in Punjab province. KPP-I schemes approved for Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan stood at 157, 294 and 67, respectively. KPP-I schemes implemented in Q2 FY06 provided temporary employment to 73,575 people and benefited 532,260 people. During Q2 FY05, a total of 598 schemes were approved under Tameer-e-Pakistan Programme (TPP), of which 381 were for road, 46 for sanitation, 59 for education and 102 for water supply.
TPP schemes generated 405,584 temporary employment during Q2 FY05.
Total disbursement under Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal programme projects declined by 13.9 percent to Rs 832 million during Q2 FY06. There was a decline of 22.4 percent to 581,427 households who benefited from PBM schemes during the same period.
Food Support Programme (FSP) is the largest programme of PBM, targeting poor to provide relief as wheat prices were increasing since year 2000. Total disbursement under FSP declined by 26.1 percent to Rs 639 million in Q2 FY06. During the same period number of households benefiting from FSP declined by 26.1 percent to 532,904. In Sindh province, there was an increase of 98 percent in FSP disbursement to 172 million in Q2 FY06, the remaining provinces and regions observed decline in FSP disbursement.
In the remaining projects of PBM, an increase was observed in disbursements as well as number of households benefiting from the projects in Q2 FY06 as compared to Q2 FY05.
During the same period increase in disbursement recorded for individual financial assistance stood at 75 percent at Rs 103 million. There was an increase of 5.4 percent to Rs 30 million in disbursement under national centres for rehabilitation of child labour during the same period.
There was an increase of 237 percent to Rs 17 million in disbursement under vocational training centres in Q2 FY06. Largest increase in PBM disbursement (357 percent) of Rs 42 million took place under institutional rehabilitation (Grant in aid to NGOs) during the same period.
Meanwhile, the Planning Commission is the designated agency to estimate poverty based on the official poverty line. Using the consistent methodology, it has been estimated that poverty in Pakistan which increased rapidly in the 1990s, and the rising trends continued until 2001-02, has declined by 6.7 percentage point between 2001-02 and 2004-05.
Statistics shows that poverty has declined from 32.1 percent in 2000-01 to 25.4 percent in 2004-05. This decline has been witnessed in rural as well as urban areas of the country.
In urban areas, the incidence of poverty reduced from about 22.7 percent in 2000-01 to 17.2 percent in 2004-05. In rural areas, it declined to around 32 percent in 2004-05 as compared to 39 percent in 2000-01. The 7-percent reduction in rural poverty has narrowed the urban-rural gap in the level of poverty. It indicates an improvement in the overall well being of both urban and rural residents.
The Planning Commission uses the calorie intake approach to compute the poverty line, which takes into account both food and non-food expenditures including health, education, housing, transport, recreation etc.
The results of 2004-05 PSLM show an increase in average household expenditure by 36 percent between the 2000-01 and 2004-05 period. The increase in per capita expenditure during the same period is more than 40 percent. After adjusting for inflation, the real expenditure in household and per capita terms increased by 15 percent and 19 percent respectively.
Although, according to the PSLM, the increase in consumption expenditure is relatively higher among rich families, the poorest households (lowest 40 percent) have also shown a considerable increase in their expenditure in real terms.
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