KARACHI, the economic power-house of Pakistan, is a classic example of how economic disparities between classes, ethnic groups and sectarian communities transform into various sorts of malaise, including target killings, terrorism, etc.

During the last 25 years or so, Karachi has witnessed mass communal killings which can best be compared with the bloodbath of 1947 at the time of partition of the sub-continent.

Food security and sustainable economic progress that ensures industrial and commercial growth, as well as an all-round improvement in agricultural productivity in Sindh, are the issues which are yet to draw enough attention for a debate in the province.A Sindh Economic Revival programme was launched by President Musharraf amid glitter about seven years ago. An implementation and monitoring body was also formed, but it did not go beyond an announcement only.

Ethnicity dominates politics as it is considered the only way for getting economic opportunity. Out of nine major ethnic and linguist groups in Karachi, Balochs were found to be the poorest with an average per capita income Rs313 way back in 1988.

A World Bank-aided household survey in 1988 found Gujrati-speaking people at the top in Karachi with Rs670 per capita income, followed by Rs534 per capita income earned by Urdu-speaking population and Rs512 per capita income by Punjabis.

The per capita income of Sindhis was Rs435 while those of Pashtoons it was Rs395.

“In terms of disparities and inequalities, the socio-economic situation in this metropolis of 16 million has further worsened in the last 20 years,” a retired bureaucrat observed.

The “jobless” economic growth in the last nine years has created a new rent-earning class of stock-brokers, bankers, real- estate dealers, developers and contractors, he pointed out.

The number of poor has swelled to an unbelievable bulge that is yet to be measured.

“The Pashtuns have organised themselves on a political platform for the first time in 2008 elections and are asserting for their bigger share in the economic cake, the number of missing persons is highest among Balochs,” a young college teacher living in Lyari said.

“National reconciliation is a recipe only for politically powerful and rich of the country,” he remarked sarcastically as he said the poor would be made to fight among themselves again as was seen in last 25 years.

Beyond Karachi, say 35 to 40 miles is rural Sindh, which is, in fact, decades away from this glittering metropolis.

Thatta, Shah Bandar, Badin, Thana Bola Khan are in close vicinities of Karachi, but these, it seems, are an altogether different world where people live in abject poverty and have no work to do.

In Badin, more than 1.4 million acre agricultural land just went missing from sea-intrusion, dislocating hundreds if not thousand of families.

No state of emergency was declared for rehabilitation of these unsettled families now scattered all over the province.

What has government done to address this situation? “Overall development investment increased four-fold from Rs15.35 billion in 2002-03 to Rs60.14 billion by the year 2006-07,” a senior official explained, who said all this investment was made by provincial, federal and foreign assistance.

In the current fiscal year 2007-08, the Sindh government proposed to invest Rs50 billion while Rs16 billion was expected from the federal government.

“A bulk of the money went on investment in bricks,” a senior official explained, who is not ready to give any on the record statement on economic progress of Sindh and social conditions in his province.

As he elaborated, bulk of the development fund has been invested in construction of school and dispensary buildings which are still empty even after three to four years.

“The works and communication department eats up five times more money than health and three times more than education,” he revealed as the government and the assembly fails to provide basic facilities, furniture, teachers, equipment and necessary staff to run hospitals and schools.

As a consequence, as many as 7,000 schools are empty and many of these are being used as storage for illegally-procured wheat which will be brought to market sometimes later when good prices with handsome profits is ensured.

Quite a few hundred schools and hospital buildings are being used as livestock yards and parlours of local waderas.

In Dadu district, a provincial minister himself visited three buildings constructed for dispensaries and basic health units converted into police stations.

“The construction work in Sindh under development funding is in full swing now so that contractors can prepare their bills by June next for submission to various government departments,” the official said.

This has been a routine feature in this province for the last several years.

“Construction of projects do provide some temporary jobs to local unemployed persons,” he said, but these fail to provide much-needed infra structure facilities and a system that should give people a decent work.

One way of addressing unemployment is putting in operation the development plan which offers temporary jobs. The other way is to offer long and short term jobs in the government.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has announced to provide 40,000 jobs. Sindh’s total workforce is more than half a million persons that eat up as much as 43 per cent of provincial budget. From the remaining 57 per cent, the Sindh government takes up repair and maintenance work of its assets and for creating new assets.

The end result is more disrepair of the existing stock of assets which at times assumes an alarming proportion as had happened with Sukkur Barrage gates about 10 years ago.

The officials now admit and confess, not on the record but off the record, that huge development investment of about Rs200 billion in last five years -- from 2003-04 to 2007-08 -- has failed to bring any socio-economic change in the province.

“How many of you would like to admit your children in government schools?” the official asked this question and then goes on to say how many of you would like to get a medical treatment in a government hospital? Is it not a fact that people still die of drinking contaminated water in cities and villages?

A World Bank report, prepared about a few years ago, on Sindh did not mince words to single out bad governance as a key issue of the province.

Corruption, inefficiency and growing lawlessness are the offshoots of bad governance in the province.