Pakistan government's trustworthiness lowest in region in 2007-11: Human Development Index report

Pakistani government was trusted only by 28 percent people, lowest in the region, during the period between 2007-11, according to Human Development Index (HDI) report of the UNDP being released (today) Thursday. According to the report, Pakistan's politics is dominated by a few families - to some 100 families were represented in the recently dissolved national and provincial assemblies.
Women and people from poor and middle income categories hardly make to parliaments due to high cost of electioneering and socio-cultural constraints for women. Voters turnout in 2008 elections was a meagre 44.1 percent against 87.4 percent in 2008 Bangladesh elections and 59.7 percent in 2009 in Indian polls. Besides other reasons, people's lack of trust in the election system to bring positive changes can be a factor in deterring high voters' turnout. Moreover, local government system often provides more potential for participation of poor and marginalised communities in the political process.
Pakistan has been ranked at 146 in terms of Human Development Index whereas India was ranked at 136, Sri Lanka at 92 and Bangladesh at 146. The HDI report stated that national government was trusted only by 28 percent Pakistanis whereas trust in the national government in India was recorded 58 percent followed by 79 percent in Bangladesh and 33 percent in Nepal.
Pakistan has also been lagging behind in other areas in the region with 55 percent population to employment ratio as compared to 61 percent in India, 74 percent in Bangladesh and 86.4 per cent in Nepal. The overall loss in the human index due inequality was recorded at 30.9 percent. The homicide rate (per 100,000 people) was recorded at 7.8 percent, appallingly high in the region, as it was 3.4 percent (per 100,000 people) in India, 2.7 percent in Bangladesh and 2.8 percent in Nepal. The youth unemployment in the country was recorded at 10.5 percent in Pakistan and overall life satisfaction 5.3 percent and 34 percent satisfaction with freedom of choice. The report further revealed that only 20 percent people have trust in people.
The report also pointed out that Pakistan's expenditure on social sectors is lower than some of the poor African countries like Congo which spends 1.2 percent of GDP on health and 6.2 percent on education. Pakistan spends 0.8 percent of GDP on health and 1.8 percent on education as compared to Bangladesh and India's 1.2 percent on health, Bangladesh's 2.2 percent and India's 3.1 on education. Brazil, one of the highest HD performing countries, spends 4.25 percent of GDP on health and 5.7 percent on education.
The income inequality in Pakistan has increased from 0.27 to 0.29 during 2000-10. However, disparities in terms of regions, social outcomes and access to productive assets are more pronounced than income inequality. For example, net primary enrolment in Punjab is 61 percent as compared to Balochistan's 44 percent and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 52 percent. The infant mortality rate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is 76 per 1,000 as compared to Balochistan's 104 and Punjab's 82).
Around seven million children were out of school of which 60 percent were girls. Pakistan has already seen societal conflicts and tension arising out of unequal distribution of and access to resources. These issues need to be addressed in a timely manner before they aggravate further.
While Pakistan, like many other developing countries, is one of the lowest contributors to green house gas emissions, it is confronted with the challenges of environmental degradation. Estimates suggest that environmental degradation costs the country at least 3 percent of the annual GDP, with disproportionate impact on the poor and most vulnerable. The country is vulnerable to natural disasters and earthquake 2005 killed 75 thousand people, the 2010 floods affected 18 million people, destroyed or damaged 1.88 million houses and ruined 6.2 million acres of crops.