Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Saturday said the government had reduced imports and enhanced exports and was also cutting down the fiscal deficit through its policies.
He said 10 million new jobs would soon be created for the youth while 500,000 houses would be constructed for the poor as promised by the PTI government.
Addressing a press conference at Mangla near Jhelum, the minister said 2019 was going to be the year of an economic change in the country.
Prime Minister Imran Khan is poised to give no let-up or make a deal or compromise on recovering looted resources of the country. He said overseas Pakistanis were the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and they should send foreign exchange through legal channels instead of hawala or hundi.
The minister said accountability was the election slogan of the PTI and would continue. He said grabbed lands were being retrieved from the land mafia.
The minister said Mangla and Jhelum had centuries-old history and the people of Jhelum had always defeated mafias.
The minister said accountability was the election slogan of the PTI and would continue. He said grabbed lands were being retrieved from the land mafia
Pakistan’s
unemployment rate slightly went down while the literacy rate improved during
the previous fiscal year 2017-18.
Pakistan
Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday released the Labour Force Survey for
fiscal year 2017-18, claiming that unemployment rate stood at 5.8 percent, down
from 5.9 percent in the previous year. Meanwhile, the Survey showed that the
national literacy rate improved to 62.3 percent in the fiscal year against 60.7
percent in 2014-15 when last Survey was conducted.
According
to the survey, the country’s unemployment rate has declined to 5.8 percent in
last financial year from 5.9 percent of the last survey. The unemployment rate
in females decreased to 8.3 percent from 9 percent. However, the unemployment
increased in males from 5 percent to 5.1 percent in the new survey.
In
employment, the own account worker ratio has reduced to 34.8 percent in 2017-18
from 36.1 percent. The contributing family worker ratio stood at 21.4 percent,
down from 23.8 percent. Meanwhile, the number of employees has increased to
42.4 percent from 38.7 percent. In sector wise, the employment rate in
agriculture sector has gone down to 38.5 percent in 2017-18 from 42.3 percent.
On the other hand, employment in industry and services sectors has enhanced
during previous fiscal year.
However,
the government’s estimates of unemployment are much bellowed than the
projection of independent economists. Pakistan’s unemployment ratio stands at
nine percent as against the official claim of six percent, Hafiz Pasha, an
eminent economist, had projected it last month. He said educated youth are
mostly not getting jobs and more than seven million youth are idle in the
country.
The
Labour Force Survey showed that Pakistan’s literacy has improved to 62.3
percent. The rate of illiteracy has stood at 37.7 percent. Literacy rate both
in females and males has improved to 51.8 percent from 49.6 percent and to 72.5
percent from 71.6 percent respectively. Area-wise rates suggest increase
in literacy rate both in rural (from 51.9 percent, 53.3 percent) and urban
areas (from 76 percent to 76.6 percent). Literacy rate rises in all provinces,
Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (from 54.1 percent to 55.3 percent), Punjab (from 61.9
percent to 64.7 percent), and Balochistan (from 54.3 percent to 55.5 percent)
except in Sindh where marginal decrease is observed from 63 percent to 62.2
percent.
In
level of education, the share of ‘No formal education’ trends up from 0.4
percent to 1.6 percent. All categories including Matric, Intermediate and
Degree and above seem to be on rise except a sort of decline in the category of
below Matric to 37.5 percent from 36.9 percent.
Only
53.5 percent of the country’s people are married while 42.3 percent people
never married. The rate of married has increased to 53.5 percent in last fiscal
year from 52.6 percent. Similarly, the rate of widowed has increased to 3.9
percent in 2017-18 from 3.6 percent. Meanwhile, the rate of divorced stood at
0.3 percent.
The
Survey’s estimates are based on the data of 43,361 sample households enumerated
through July 2017 to June 2018. The population of Pakistan as per Population
and Housing Census 2017 is estimated at 206.64 million on 1st January 2018.
