Published on, Sept. 24 -- September 24, 2025 4:08 AM

A World Bank report declares that poverty reduction "has come to a troubling halt, reversing years of progress." Indeed, poverty, which fell from over 64% of Pakistanis in 2001 to about 22% in 2019, has climbed back to roughly 25% in 2023?24. Two decades of decline have thus been erased, undoing gains in literacy, health and income that ordinary families fought so hard to achieve.

What lies behind this reversal? From 2020 onward, inflation, pandemic lockdowns and catastrophic floods smacked into a vulnerable economy, pulling millions just above the poverty line back under water. Even in 2018, fully 14% of households were living on the edge: one bad harvest, one interest rate jump away...