Pakistan, Feb. 8 -- Driven by neoliberalism, Pakistan has given up control over key public services like healthcare, education, and utilities, handing them over to private corporations in the hope that market competition will lift society as a whole. However, this expectation has fallen apart, as privatization and deregulation have shut out the poor while allowing a handful of powerful corporations to snap up wealth.

By stepping away from its responsibilities in sectors crucial to human dignity, the state has widened social inequalities, forcing the majority to get by in a system that only caters to the elite.

As the state pulled back, economic disparity shot up. The wealthiest 1 percent of Pakistanis have taken over 9 percent of the na...