Editorial
The World Bank report on poverty released on October 6, 2026, claims that Pakistan stands with Afghanistan, Djibouti, Syria, and Yemen, where people are living below a $3 per day income. According to the report, Pakistan accounts for about 48% of the people in the region living below the $3 per day (about Rs840 daily income) poverty line.
It is the same country where the government collects taxes mostly on consumer goods, such as General Sales Tax, petroleum levies, and electricity surcharges, so every individual has to bear the direct brunt of filling the pocket of the tax collection system. Taxing the rich only is a bygone era in Pakistan.
Even Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, in the past, accepted that the FBR system is not working, while several ministers accepted that the system had failed and governance had collapsed, but at the same time, they had been providing extra benefits to FBR officials and the federal bureaucracy that, according to the structure, is responsible for governance and is responsible for the failure of governance.
The government seemingly plans to break the net of poverty through other means, such as enhancing FDI and providing opportunities for industrialization, instead of overhauling the FBR and governance, but there it is yet to get results.
SIFC was created to enhance Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Pakistan, but that too faced the fate of problems due to bureaucratic bottlenecks because SIFC can invite investors to Pakistan, which it had been doing well, but investors then face bureaucratic red-tapism at the ground level, from procurement of land to constructing the industries, and the whole such process is in the hands of bureaucrats.
Pakistan has seen a significant decrease in recent years in FDIs. In FY2025-26, FDI fell by 34% to $1.64 billion, with net inflows dropping to $14 million in June.
The agriculture sector is facing uncertainty, and a country that is considered an agrarian society is now importing wheat, cotton, and sugar.
On the other hand, politicians show indifferent, rather insensitive, behaviour by enjoying expensive aircraft for attending wedding ceremonies out of the country and using helicopters for launching protest campaigns against the government.
Once, a positive discussion started that governance could be fixed through forming smaller governing federating units (provinces), but this discussion has also been put under the carpet because politicians are not ready to surrender public money that are using for their pleasure.
A party that always harms state interests through protests and abuses state institutions is still free to play havoc with the public and is still marching towards Islamabad by using public funds of KP.
Once upon a time, there were news reports that this party—PTI—would be fixed and KP would be taken away from the clutches of this party through the use of constitutional power, but this discussion is also just in the air and nothing concrete is visible because the federal government started political negotiations with PTI, although all litmus tests confirmed that this party is harming the country by supporting terrorists such as TTP in the province. What a confusion Pakistan is facing. Confused governance is as harmful as enemies because confusion shatters the trust and confidence of the public in the government.
