Speakers at the inauguration of National Conference in Urban Poverty held government, foreign donors and the corporate sector responsible for increase in poverty.
The two-day conference, a joint effort of National Urban Poverty Alleviation Programme-UNDAP and Aga Khan University with key objective to develop a coalition building process to enhance understanding and agreement among stakeholders for ensuring sustainable development in urban areas of Pakistan opened on Monday at the AKU Auditorium. Adviser to the chief minister of Sindh on local government, Wasim Akhtar, was the chief guest.
Director, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Dr Nadeem-ul-Haque said that there was no understanding and proper explanation of poverty as the issue is being looked at with closed eyes. "When I ask about research on this subject that might have been undertaken to answers question before drawing plans to deal with the scourge of poverty, I am bewildered. There is none."
He said that they (planners and strategists) did not begin with asking questions and straight away came up with policies to deal with issues that were related with poverty and its dynamics. "The policies on poverty alleviation do not answer basic questions that are necessary to consider before beginning to experiment with the issue."
He said that all studies and researches on poverty should be based on global knowledge. "We must not begin with policies. Do not confuse policies with questions. We should see what is going around us in Pakistan and elsewhere in the world to understand the complexities of the problem. Solutions found out in isolation would not work."
He said we would have to look at it in global perspective. "Poverty is not an issue in itself but is the result of denial to the people to stand on their own. These may be innumerable."
Huque critical of different policies of the international donors to help poor out of poverty trap and government to encourage trade, commerce and investment had never been advantageous to the people of Pakistan.
He said the poor should be given market access and support from the civil society. In his view a little bit of tolerance for their (poor) presence among the others pursuing economic activity is one way of helping the marginally poor to come out of the absolute poverty trap.
He said that poverty is an urban phenomenon and the solution lies in urban development. To elaborate further he said that economic opportunities would always attract people, as it had been the process always.
In his view poverty reduces when the governments back off. The federal government would do a favour to the poor if it stops management of cities. "Leave it to the civil society. Government separates poor from the market," he added.
The poor would always come to urban settlements as the experience has shown that agricultural society continues to remain poor in the sense that it has no means to improve condition of the poor beyond certain limits.
Tasneem Siddiqui in his paper "Genesis of Poverty" said that Pakistan's poverty is a political issue. The issue has been exploited by the rich and the people in power politics rule the poor comfortably.
There has been application of coercive methods and use of brutal state force by the rich to suppress poor people and exploit them to their advantage. He said that the rich would not let the poor come out of the poverty trap.
He held macro economic policies, industrial policies and development plans drawn by the government from time to time to improve the condition of the poor. "But these have proved disadvantageous to the poor. The policies have been helpful to the rich. They are getting richer and the poor - poorer," he added.
Dr Mehtab Karim talking about "Challenges of urban growth in Pakistan and sharing of objectives and methodology of the conference" said he was unable to quote statistics from the UNDP sources. "Pakistani demographic figures are in dispute between the UNDP and Pakistan and therefore not usable, " he added.
He said, quoting from UNDP report, that Karachi has grown fourfold since 1941 and by 2015 it would be the 5th most populated city of the world. In his estimate Karachi has a population of 14.6 million. The city's growth rate is 3.5 percent.
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