The Harsh Truth

(Bismah Anzar, Karachi)

Fourty-year-old rickshaw driver Akbar took poisonous pills along with his wife and three daughters due to poverty.

Nearly six thousands suicides have been recorded in Pakistan in the past three years, most of them were male, unemployed and under 40.

According to the HRCP report, the ratio of suicides in Pakistan remained the highest last year, as at least 2,528 people - 1,725 males and 803 females - committed suicide in 2008. The ratio suggested that around seven people committed suicide in Pakistan every day due to poverty.

In 2009 more than 1,600 people committed suicide due to extreme poverty. On the other hand the wealthy government of a poor nation spends over 165 billion rupees just to run the affairs of this so called democratic government.

Interestingly" The government has allocated Rs 484 million in the Budget just for the Prime Minister's Secretariat.

Pakistan's population is 165 million and is the 6th most populous country in the world, official unemployment stands at 25% of the eligible workforce and health spending is only 2.07% of the national annual budget.

Labor force in the country was 51.78 million. Around 285,000 people lost their jobs in banking sector, 61,200 in computer industry, 115,000 in construction, and 120,200 in electronic and 69,000 in telecommunication.

This case of AKBAR is neither rare, nor it is uncommon. With the increasing rate of economic instability. Time is not far away when people would take extreme steps.

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Bismah Anzar
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