PM Imran Khan says govt's mission is to fight poverty in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has inaugurated Ehsaas District Development Portal titled ‘Data4Pakistan’ where he reiterated that the federal government’s top mission is to fight poverty in the country, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

PM Imran Khan said the government is taking serious steps to alleviate poverty and also thanked Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar and her team over initiating a range of programmes for public welfare.

While criticising the destructive policies of the past rulers, the premier said that the previous government had spent a huge portion of Punjab’s budget on Lahore as 55 per cent expenditures were made in the provincial capital which deprived other parts of the province.

“Data4Pakistan will assist the government to find the areas where the allocation of funds is necessary. In past, development budget had been used on the instructions of influential persons where policymakers did not know about when and where to spend public funds.”

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“Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar comes from an unprivileged area. I think public funds should be spent on the people of Dera Ghazi Khan. Some people have launched criticism against Usman Buzdar when he starts spending money in his native area. Those people criticising the move should keep it in mind that public money must be spent in the areas where it is needed.”

“The time has arrived when separate budgets will be designed for the unprivileged districts for the appropriate distribution of funds. Poverty is like a disease which should be properly diagnosed before starting its treatment.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan has formally inaugurated Ehsaas District Development Portal titled ‘Data4Pakistan’ today.

The portal will provide open and public access to a spatial interactive portal that has poverty estimates for every district in Pakistan, along with over 120 development and policy indicators.

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Data4Pakistan will enable the general public to get complete information about the district poverty and development data, covering the period 2004-2018.

The portal has been developed in collaboration with the World Bank and will be hosted on the Ehsaas website of the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division.

It will be a very valuable resource for federal, provincial and district level policymakers for decision making.

Interactive maps allow the user to visualize and compare districts on poverty and two additional indicators. The user can also select a subset of provinces or a subset of districts to focus on, using a simple drop-down list.

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The innovative portal uses data produced by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, as part of its social and living standards measurement Surveys as well as the multiple indicators Custer Surveys produced by the provincial bureaus of statistics.

The indicators currently available in the portal, include a range of demographic, health, education and employment statistics as well as access to key services like water, sanitation, electricity and gas.

Ehsaas is about the creation of a ‘welfare state’ by countering elite capture and leveraging 21st-century tools—such as using data and technology to create precision safety nets and promoting social welfare and poverty alleviation solutions. The opening of Data4Pakistan portal is another important step of the government to foster evidence-based decision making.