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Political Gimmicks or Real Development: HDI - Human Development Index

The politicians put maximum resources on some visible projects like high rise buildings, monuments, some special infrastructure related projects in selected areas to be presented as showcase for propaganda to attract the voters. This gimmick may work to befool the uneducated masses, though useful for few, but in reality it hardly has any significant effect on the quality of life and even-handed development for majority poor population.  Creating few islands of prosperity in the sea of underdevelop masses is nothing but self deception and wastage or resources. Hence it is need:
"To shift the focus of development economics from national income accounting to people-centered policies"
Once focus is shifted to "Human Development" the other parameters would be inbuilt. After elections held on 11 May 2013, different political parties forming provincial governments in the provinces of Pakistan. Instead of gimmick projects in selected areas at the cost of ignoring development in the majority areas, it would be appropriate for the provincial governments to compete in the Human Development of masses through a measurable scale for each district i.e. HDI. The present data of HDI may be determined through survey by independent agency, to be repeated annually till completion of 5 years term. The results could be used for performance, development to reject or re-elect.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices to rank countries into four tiers of human development. It was created by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, followed by economist Amartya Sen in 1990, and published by the United Nations Development Programme.
World map by quartiles of Human Development Index in 2013.
  Very High
  Low
  High
  Data unavailable
  Medium

Devised and launched by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq in 1990 and had the explicit purpose "to shift the focus of development economics from national income accounting to people-centered policies"
It was Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s work on capabilities and functionings that provided the underlying conceptual framework. Haq was sure that a simple composite measure of human development was needed in order to convince the public, academics, and policy-makers that they can and should evaluate development not only by economic advances but also improvements in human well-being. Sen initially opposed this idea, but he went on to help Haq develop the Index. Sen was
worried that it was difficult to capture the full complexity of human capabilities in a single index but Haq persuaded him that only a single number would shift the attention of policy-makers from concentration on economic to human well-being.

The HDI combines three dimensions:
  • A long and healthy life: Life expectancy at birth
  • Education index: Mean years of schooling and Expected years of schooling
  • A decent standard of living: GNI per capita (PPP US$)
HDI has been criticised  a few authors have proposed alternative indices to address some of the index's shortcomings. However, of those proposed alternatives to the HDI, few have produced alternatives covering so many countries, and that no development index (other than, perhaps, Gross Domestic Product per capita) has been used so extensively—or effectively, in discussions and developmental planning as the HDI. 

Districts of Pakistan by Human Development Index

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic used to rank some area by level of "human development" and separate developed (high development),developing (middle development), and underdeveloped (low development) areas. The statistic is composed from data on life expectancyeducation and per-capita GNI (as an indicator of standard of living) collected at the national level.
The map here shows districts of Pakistan in order of their Human Development Index (HDI) as of 2005, the latest year for which data is available. The HDI values are provided by the Research Report No.73 "Trends in Regional Human Development Indices" by Haroon Jamal and Amir Jahan Khan.
All provinces and the vast majority of the districts have a medium HDI value (0.500-0.799). The districts of Karachi and Jhelum are approaching a high HDI value (>0.800) whilst AwaranSibiHangu and Battagram are about to make the transition from low to medium human development. Data was not available for IslamabadDera Bugti and Kohlu. All data has been narrowed down to 3 Decimal Places.
This data is published by a third-party organisation and is not officially endorsed by the United Nations. Thus, it is incompatible with data published by the United Nations due to variations in the calculations and formulas used by both parties.

Medium human development [edit]


DistrictHDI (2005 data)Province
Karachi0.789Sindh
Jhelum0.770Punjab
Haripur0.734Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Abbottabad0.731Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Sheikhupura0.730Punjab
Kasur0.713Punjab
Ghotki0.710Sindh
Bhakkar0.706Punjab
Ziarat0.699Balochistan
Gujranwala0.696Punjab
Sahiwal0.695Punjab
Chakwal0.694Punjab
Toba Tek Singh0.693Punjab
Nawabshah0.692Sindh
Sukkur0.690Sindh
Lahore0.688Punjab
Sialkot0.688Punjab
Khushab0.685Punjab
Mandi Bahauddin0.684Punjab
Layyah0.683Punjab
Mianwali0.682Punjab
Hyderabad0.680Sindh
Hafizabad0.679Punjab
Mardan0.676Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Swabi0.675Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Pakpattan0.673Punjab
Kohat0.673Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Faisalabad0.673Punjab
Mirpurkhas0.671Sindh
Okara0.670Punjab
Punjab average0.670Punjab
Dadu0.668Sindh
Khanewal0.667Punjab
Swat0.666Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Sargodha0.662Punjab
Khairpur0.660Sindh
Malakand0.659Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Jhang0.658Punjab
Pishin0.656Balochistan
Narowal0.655Punjab
Nowshera0.655Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Rahimyar Khan0.653Punjab
Attock0.652Punjab
Turbat0.651Balochistan
Bahawalnagar0.647Punjab
Multan0.644Punjab
Vehari0.643Punjab
Mastung0.640Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Peshawar0.639Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Rawalpindi0.638Punjab
Sanghar0.637Sindh
Gujrat0.636Punjab
Rajanpur0.635Punjab
Chagai0.632Balochistan
Naushahro Feroze0.631Sindh
Dera Ghazi Khan0.630Punjab
Charsadda0.629Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Badin0.628Sindh
Sindh average0.628Sindh
Muzaffargarh0.620Punjab
Bahawalpur0.618Punjab
Karak0.617Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Shikarpur0.615Sindh
Mansehra0.614Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Lodhran0.614Punjab
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa average0.607Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Chitral0.606Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Jaffarabad0.604Balochistan
Nasirabad0.598Balochistan
Lasbela0.596Balochistan
Thatta0.595Sindh
Dera Ismail Khan0.595Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Loralai0.588Balochistan
Lakki Marwat0.587Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Kalat0.587Balochistan
Bannu0.584Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Lower Dir0.583Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Barkhan0.580Balochistan
Buner0.578Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Panjgur0.574Balochistan
Kharan0.560Balochistan
Upper Dir0.559Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Zhob0.558Balochistan
Balochistan average0.556Balochistan
Larkana0.549Sindh
Quetta0.540Balochistan
Shangla0.534Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khuzdar0.525Balochistan
Jacobabad0.523Sindh
Qilla Saifullah0.519Balochistan
Tank0.506Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Low human development

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