I've seen many Pakistanis here who often like to respond to India's insults with their own insults saying "India is a poor country, people there live in immense poverty". The fact is, we are equally just as poor. Our region, South Asia, is the poorest region in the world with a recorded 800,000 Million people living in poverty: You will not find this anywhere else, leave aside Sub-Saharan Africa.
Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives comprise of MOST of the poorest people in the world in one region.
So, the point I want to get across is, please, stop using the poverty insult - it is not only embarrassing, it is humiliating.
We need to grow up. We need to help those in need in our country to get out of poverty.
We were doing so well when we were created in 1947, At the time of partition and independence in 1947, Pakistan inherited the most backward parts of South Asia with only one university, one Textile Mill and one Jute Factory. The country has made tremendous progress and its per Capita GNP remains the highest in South Asia. During the last decade poverty elimination programs helped many of the poor to participate and rise up. However the Global financial crisis and other factors like the occupation of Afghanistan have impacted Pakistani growth. Poverty in Pakistan has historically been higher in rural areas and lower in the cities. Out of the total 40 million living below the poverty line, 30 million live in rural areas. Poverty rose sharply in the rural areas in the 1990s and the gap in income between urban and rural areas of the country became more significant. This trend has been attributed to a disproportionate impact of economic events in the rural and urban areas. Punjab also has significan gradients in poverty among the different regions of the province.
Hopefully, I got my point out across to those who I wanted.