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THE UNDP’s Human Development Report for 2023-24 ranks Pakistan 164th out of 193 countries. Last year, Pakistan stood at 161. Its decline on the Human Development Index (HDI) did not create much of a stir in the country. Perhaps few were surprised, considering the protracted political instability, the colossal losses resulting from the 2022 floods, poor governance and staggering inflation.

Among the eight Saarc countries, only Pakistan and Afghanistan fall in the ‘low human development’ category.

TOGETHER, Pakistan and India are home to the largest number of poor people in the world. Yet, instead of jointly addressing the plight of the people, they continue to quarrel and periodically engage in conflict. Even the recent visit of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to Goa to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting was met by the pejoratives of hawks on both sides.

All these overzealous nationalistic elements conveniently gloss over the fact that millions of poor people on both sides of the border live a life bereft of human dignity and basic necessities.

PAKISTAN has slipped 20 rungs on the ladder of human development this year. Last year, Pakistan was ranked 125th on the Human Development Index (HDI) and was in the category of ‘medium human development’.

This year Pakistan has been ranked 145 and thus falls in the category of ‘low human development’ countries. The latest annual Human Development Report of UNDP has ranked 187 countries on the HDI. Among the Saarc countries, Pakistan has performed better than Bangladesh (146), Afghanistan (172) and Nepal (157), whereas India (134), Sri Lanka (97), Bhutan (141) and the Maldives (109) have outshone Pakistan.

Pakistan Human Capital Review, released by the World Bank, depicts a gloomy picture of Pakistan in various areas of human capital development. One of the key findings is that Pakistan’s Human Capital Index (HCI) value of 0.41 is lower than the South Asian average of 0.48; Bangladesh stands at 0.46 and Nepal at 0.49.

The state of human capital development in Pakistan is comparable to that in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has an average HCI value of 0.40. This sombre fact is a wakeup call for policy makers, planners and political decision-makers in Pakistan. The World Bank 

The chief minister of Sindh had to face an embarrassing situation when a recalcitrant mafia trashed his strict instructions against cheating during the school examinations in Sindh. The media ridiculed the writ of the government by airing footages of unrelenting cheating in the examinations and leaking of exam papers on a daily basis. The situation reached a level when the government of Sindh had to summon the counter-terrorism department to bring the haywire examinations machinery under control.

Sindh was the leading province when it came to education indicators during the early decades of the country. However its education standard nose-dived particularly after the decade of 1980s.

Although income-based poverty in Pakistan has declined from 57.9 per cent in 1989 to 29.5 per cent in 2013-14, the country experiences substantial level of multifaceted inequalities. Urban-rural, men-women, inter-provincial and intra-provincial and rich-poor divides are of appalling proportions that keep fuelling social disharmony and political instability in the country.

According to a report of the World Bank, the per capita income of the top 10 per cent population is $2,100, which is twice higher than the national average. Some 42 per cent of the national income is captured by top 20 per cent of the population. The super-rich 18,000 people possess $72,700 per capita income.

A chronically ailing education sector in Sindh has prompted a belated emergency by the incumbent chief minister. Before enduring this inexorable rot during the recent decades, Sindh was the torch-bearer of education in the country. Decay of education indicators in Sindh coincided with an overall failure of education sector in the country.

Although no province has shown enviable performance in the education sector, the pace and magnitude of decline is mind-boggling in Sindh. It is widely believed that education in Sindh was subjected to a systematic degeneration since the Zia-regime. Following the footprints of the martial law regime, successive governments converted education department into a graveyard of talent by wholesale recruitment of incompetent teachers and officers.

Human Development Report is a barometer of the state of human development in different countries of the world. The report is not only an ultrasound of individual countries but also shows relative ranking among regions and countries. The Human Development Index is an aggregate value of a range of human development indicators. It encompasses a wider spectrum of vital indicators of human development sectors e.g. health, education, environment, gender and income.

Launched in 1990, the flagship annual document of UNDP provides an empirical evidence of commitment, or lack of it, of governments to develop its people. Gone are the days when development was measured only against income, infrastructure development, financial wealth and weaponry.

The UNDP has released its flagship document Human Development Report 2014 entitled "sustaining human progress: reducing vulnerabilities and building resilience". The annual report provides status of all countries against vital indicators of human development.

Pakistan, ranked at 146 out of 185 countries, has been bracketed among low human development countries. Pakistan barely maintained last year’s ranking when it shared 146th position with Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh this year moved four rungs up and stood at 142nd position. With such an ignominious ranking, a nuclear power, flaunting atom bomb has been outshined by all other SAARC countries except the war-ravaged Afghanistan. Even Afghanistan has improved its position from 175th in 2012 to 169th this year.