With the start of the PTI government, one of their focus was towards looking at matters that can alleviate poverty. In an effort recently made by the government, Prime Minister Imran Khan has launched the Data 4 Pakistan portal.
Data 4 Pakistan is a portal that incorporates interactive maps that allow anyone to visualize and compare any two districts of Pakistan on the following indicators. The indicators are as follows: Poverty, Demographics, Water and sanitation, Electricity and other utilities, Employment, Education, Justice, Gender equality, Women empowerment, Maternal health, Vaccine and child health and Hygiene behaviors. Prime Minister Imran Khan formally launched Data 4 Pakistan, which in accordance to the government, is a-first-of-its kind Ehsaas District Development Portal that works to reduce widespread poverty and discrepancy in development across Pakistan.
The portal was made official in a launch ceremony which was organized at Prime Minister’s Office in Islamabad. The ceremony was attended by cabinet members, federal secretaries, and members of civil society. Data 4 Pakistan portal is a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the World Bank. It is supplemented by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) which has collected the data from 2004-2018 for different development indicators for the portal. While addressing the launch ceremony, PM Khan said that the incumbent government is working towards bringing down the poverty levels as Pakistan can never grow without working for the poor and lower segment of the country. He also highlighted that Data 4 Pakistan will allow the government to spend development funds according to the need of people and ensuring transparency.
In the ceremony, PM Khan also stressed that narrow-minded strategies and inefficient allocation of development funds made by the government was the result of the negligence at the poor. He said: “Unfortunately, previous governments had spent all the development funds in only a handful of constituencies that widened the gap between the rich and poor. For instance, more than half of Punjab’s budget was spent only on Lahore, making it much more developed than other cities in the province”.
