Background

Pakistan has currently a population of 184.35 million (6th largest in the world) with 21% percent of its population living above the poverty line. It has an area of approximately 796095 square kilometers (About Pakistan: UNDP) It is situated in a very ideal geographical location bordering the Arabian Sea with India on the East and Iran and Afghanistan on the west and China in the north. (Punlications: The World Factbook, 2013) Today the country is facing extreme terrorism and political instability. Military leaders continue to intervene in the politics of the country and to attain power leading to insurgency. Three recent events have had a very devastating impact on the economy of the country as well as relations of Pakistan with the world particularly USA. 1. Catastrophic floods of 2010 2. May 2011 US aid that killed Osama Bin Laden 3. November NATO air strike that accidently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers across the Afghanistani border. Basic Indicators of Development and their comparison with other countries GDP and GNI Economic Indicators GDP(PPP) GDP-Growth Rate Pakistan 523.9 Billion 3.7% India 4.735 Trillion 5.4% Bangladesh 305.5 Billion 6.1%

(Compare: Bangladesh-Pakistan Economy, 2013)

Although Bangladesh continues to remain poorer, in comparison with Pakistan and India, it can be observed that all the three nations have almost doubled their GDPs in a decade. Also, if we analyze the growth rates Bangladesh has shown a steady progress in this regard in comparison with India and Pakistan who have suffered a lot at the hands of Global Financial Crisis. Although Bangladesh also faced a lot of political turmoil and natural disasters but it did not let them affect the growth rate of the country which was not the case of Pakistan which continuously allowed political instability and corruption affect its growth rate. Population below the poverty line India Pakistan 29.8% (2010 est.) 22.3% (FY 05/06) (Compare: Bangladesh-Pakistan Economy, 2013) Bangladesh 31.51% (2010 est.)

Pakistan has performed well in this indicator however it is believed that the recent figures present a different picture. Nonetheless, it is also believe that Indias such a huge percentage living below the poverty line is perhaps it is because the 2nd largest population in the world. The recent figures of poverty in Pakistan suggest that the inflation in food prices has led to such a drastic increase in the population of Pakistan living below the poverty line Inflation India Pakistan 9.2% (2012 est.) 11.3% (2012 est.) (Compare: Bangladesh-Pakistan Economy, 2013) Bangladesh 8.8% (2012 est.)

All the three countries had to see extremely high inflation rates. Pakistan was the worst performer amongst the three probably because of the political instability which led to rupee depreciation to more than 40% after 2007. However, constantly falling commodity prices will definitely help all the three countries to control their inflation rates to some extent. (Saheed, 2009) Education and Literacy Expenditure on India Education % of GDP 4.5% % of Total Budget 12.7% Illiteracy Rate by 2015 71% (Compare: Bangladesh-Pakistan Economy, 2013) Pakistan 2.3% 9.9% 60% Bangladesh 2.1% 14.1% 61%

Education is extremely important for a nation but the amount of budget allocation shown in the above table indicates how backward Pakistan is in this sector. It is probably one of the reasons of extreme poverty as well high criminal rate. However, Bangladesh which emerged in 1971 is showing firm growth in its education sector which is leading to their constant progress. Health

Countries

Life Expectancy at Birth

Infant Mortality Rate (per 1000 live births)

Maternal Mortality Rate (per 100,000 live births)

Child Mortality Rate

Bangladesh Pakistan Sri Lanka India

58 years 60 years 73 years 62 years

81 38 16 70

850 340 140 570

112 136 19 73

Source: Human Development Report, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999 Health is again one of the most significant component which leads to the economic development o a country, however if we compare the figures, we would be disappointed to see that Pakistan is way too behind in this sector as well when compared to its neighbors India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. However, Pakistan can find solace in the fact that it is better than one of its neighboring countries i.e. Afghanistan. It is believed that such bad performance in this sector is because of the constant rise in the population of the country. It is believed that the population of Pakistan might reach to 4th largest by 2050. (Mussadaq, 2011) Human Development Index
Pakistans HDI indicators for 2012 relative to selected countries and groups
Pakistan India Bangladesh South Asia Low HDI HDI Value HDI Rank Life expectancy at birth Expected years of schooling Mean years of schooling GNI per capita (PPP US $)

0.515 0.554 0.515 0.558 0.466

146 136 146

65.7 65.8 69.2 66.2 59.1

7.3 10.7 8.1 10.2 8.5

4.9 4.4 4.8 4.7 4.2

2,566 3,285 1,785 3,343 1,633

Pakistan has been sharing its HDI rank with Bangladesh for quite a long time. It is ranked below the countries of South Asian region which shows that long term development in Pakistan would be something difficult to achieve. Although a good sign that can be observed is Pakistan has been ranked 10th in terms of Human Development Improvement. ( (Human development: Pakistan among most improved in UN report, 2011). On gender inequality index Pakistan has been ranked well with 123rd Rank which is better than India 132nd

However in MPI (Multi Dimensional Poverty Index) Pakistan is after Bangladesh which is a positive sign. (Khan, 2013)

Bibliography
About Pakistan: UNDP. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2013, from Pakistan UNDP Organization: http://www.pk.undp.org/content/pakistan/en/home/countryinfo/ Compare: Bangladesh-Pakistan Economy. (2013). Retrieved 10 5, 2013, from Indexmudi: http://www.indexmundi.com/factbook/compare/bangladesh.pakistan/economy Human development: Pakistan among most improved in UN report. (2011, February 28). Islamabad, Pakistan: The Express Tribune. Khan, M. (2013, March 15). Pakistan better than India on UNDP gender inequality index. Islamabad, Pakistan: The Express Tribune. Mussadaq, M. (2011, 10 27). Pakistan could become worlds fourth most populous country. Islamabad, Pakistan: The Express Tribune. Punlications: The World Factbook. (2013). Retrieved 10 5, 2013, from The World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pk.html Saheed, A. (2009). Comparative study on inflation, exchange rates and labour cost of major . PTJ .