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Deprivation of South Punjab and the inequality between the

Southern and Northern regions of Punjab: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Punjab is the largest populated province of Pakistan. With

56 percent of the total population of the country, it has

enormous socio-economic inter-district differences causing

inequality among the districts. This paper discusses the causes

and impacts of these differences by shedding light on historical

and chronological state of affairs. The colonial era and its

socio-economic impacts on Punjab, the population share of

districts, and the association between inequality and growth in

the province have been recognized in this paper as the

fundamental factors responsible for enormous inter-district

disparities in Punjab province. The Colonial rulers built Canal

Colonies, Cantonments, and railway networks in the province. They

also recruited large number of citizens of North and Central

Punjab in the Army. These colonial efforts played the key role in

rooting the inequalities between the Northern and Southern

regions of Punjab. These colonial actions benefitted the North

and Central Punjab districts concomitantly; they also led to the

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deprivation of the Southern regions. This would be elaborated in

the paper. After the independence from the British colonial rule,

the Government of Pakistan could not assist the deprived region.

The Government has an agenda of assisting the regions on the

basis of population shares. The South-West districts of Punjab

have relatively lower population than the Northern and Central

districts. Thus, the South-West always gets very low allocated

amount and therefore, has poverty prevalence.

Background

Nearly two centuries long British Rule in the subcontinent

generated various socio-economic factors that have their presence

in the post-partitioned Punjab as well. In Punjab, the British

implemented three strategies for the purpose of development of

their rule. First, they constructed the Canal Colonies for

irrigating the previously unfarmed large soils of North and

Central Punjab. The Canal Colonies brought up the formation of

migratory settlements as an externality supported by the British

then. The five rivers of Punjab were fine enough for taking water

into the canals.

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Concomitantly, the British rulers were also developing

Cantonments in the North-west regions of subcontinent for

protection of their colonial empire from Russia1. In this regard,

the British made Rawalpindi as the Headquarter of their military

garrisons as Rawalpindi was nearer to the Afghan regions that

were adjacent to the Russian occupied Central Asian States. This

great game between British and Russia (Soviet then) was

persistent in the period 1813-19072. Both the States wanted to

expand their territorial boundaries and the great game was a

response to their overwhelming obsession of occupying the world.

The British recruited more soldiers from the subcontinent for

countering the Soviet. For this, the British wanted more

recruitment from the Punjab regions because of the stronger

physique and wartime reputation of people belonging to these

regions3. Therefore, the British focused on building cantonments

in the North Punjab regions and recruited more soldiers from

these regions4. Alongside, the British also gave attention

1 Dewey, 1988.2 Khawaja, 20123 Muzamder, 2003 (12)4 The British also built one cantonment in Peshawar and one in Murree as well. In North Punjab, they made 5 cantonments

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towards constructing the railways in these regions. The

consequences of these developments in the Northern and Central

Punjab brought substantial changes in these regions. Partition of

subcontinent in the year 1947 caused the partition of Punjab. The

Eastern5 portion was given to India while the Western Punjab was

allotted to Pakistan. This paper is about the socio-economic

situation of the Pakistani-Punjab and that have the larger

colonial impacts. The paper discusses these aspects by dividing

the province into three regions, that is, North, Central and

Southern regions6. The paper elaborates that the Northern and

Central regions gained focus from the British as well as from the

Pak-Government meanwhile the Southern Punjab regions were largely

ignored. Also that, the reasons for deprivation of the Southern

Punjab regions will be discussed in details. The growth of North,

and Central Punjab proceeded along with the deprivation of the

South Punjab regions strengthened inequality.

Methodology

5 The Eastern Punjab was largely populated by Sikhs however; this region was relatively very smaller than the portion of Punjab assignedto Pakistan.6

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This paper entails an analysis of the inter-Punjab

disparities. The analysis has been performed by comparing the

results and findings of the previous scholarly published studies.

In this regard, the studies entailing strong evidence and data

findings have been recruited as reference models. For this, the

suggestions from the works of those analysts have been taken who

have conducted field work themselves or have authenticated their

research by other means. This paper has used consultation from

the works of Sajjad Akhtar7, Idrees Khawaja8, Ahmad Cheema9,

Maqbool Sial10, and Mr. Gohar Zaman11. In addition, some portion

of the analysis has been referred from the Scholarly papers of

Engerman12 and Skoloff13. The reports by the Social Policy and

Development Centre, by the Pak Institute of for Peace Studies,

and by the Committee on Demarcation of Provinces have also been

7 Mr. Akhtar is the Director of Center for Research on Poverty Reduction and Income Distribution, Planning Commission, Pakistan.8 Mr. Khawaja is Associate Professor at Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.9 Mr. Cheema is Lecturer in Economics in Department of Economics at Universityof Sargodha, Pakistan.10 Mr. Maqbool is a Foreign Faculty Professor in Department of Economics at University of Sargodha, Pakistan.11 Mr. Gohar Zaman is the Chairman of Special Committee on Demarcation of Provinces.12 Engerman and Schollof have discussed the development experience of the regions having the factor endowments. They discussed this in their sequential papers published in the years 1997, 2002, & 2006.13 Ibid.

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consulted. The paper has used a theoretical approach and

therefore contains no econometric analysis. However, the paper

entails statistical findings pertaining to the inequality, growth

and deprivation of the regions of Punjab. The political aspects

have not been discussed because of the restricted scope of the

paper. Only the socio-economic aspects have been discussed in

this paper.

Causes of inequality in Punjab

This part of the paper deals with the colonial efforts that

brought inequality in Punjab. The three main causes of inequality

have been mentioned below.

1. Canal Colonization

The British established nine canal colonies during the

period from 1885 to 194714. The canal colonies were named as

‘crown waste’. The formation of canals was carried out for

bringing water to the ‘crown waste’15. The British colonial

rulers encouraged migration from the nearby populous districts to

these canal colonies by establishing residential areas in them.

14 Khawaja, 2012 15 Ibid.

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They also allotted residential plots16 to the people and

transformed the barren area into an agricultural market17. The

irrigated land from the canals was only three million acres in

the year 1885 which then increased to fourteen million acres in

the next sixty years18. This caused prosperous to the regions of

canal colonies. The deprivation starts from here as no canal

colony was made in the South Punjab. Only the district of Multan

had a single colony leaving behind all of the remaining Southern

Punjab deserted.

On the other hand, the five districts of Central Punjab19

had nine canal colonies in them and were benefitting from

irrigating their lands. The path of inequality was established

from here. The reason for constructing the canal colonies were

apparent that five rivers used to pass through the Central

Punjab. These regions had average rainfalls and the climate was

appropriate for agriculture20. Meanwhile, the Southern Punjab

16 Ibid.17 Ali, 1988, p-3.18 In 1947, the canal irrigated area in Punjab was 14 million acres. This is an increase of 366 percent in the region (Ali, 1988, p-3).19 The Pakistani Central Punjab20 Idrees argues this very well and mentions that the planned supply of water from the canals implied average rainfall in the area served by a canal ─ greater the rainfall lesser the water needed.

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regions had very low rainfall and less water resources21. This is

necessary to mention that the British had their own pursuit of

profits in their minds. They selected the most suitable land for

irrigation because it would yield more production to the farmers.

More production implied more tax-revenue generation for the

British22. The canal colonies were the revenue generation tools

for the British therefore, the British promoted them23. The

British also wanted to earn revenues for financing their own

markets in Europe24. Therefore, they selected the most profitable

lands in Punjab leaving behind the barren lands of Southern

Punjab untouched.

2. Cantonments formed by the British

The British made Rawalpindi as military headquarter of the

entire Indian Army25. There were eight cantonments in Punjab and

five were in the three districts of Northern Punjab. Cantonments

were formed in order to provide suitable residence for the

British-Indian Officers. All of the necessary facilities were

21 Average rainfall in Central Punjab Districts was 460 mm in the ten years 1921-1931While it was 158 mm in South Punjab regions. (Put together). 22 Ali, 1988, p-323 Paustian, 1968, p.3024 Islam, 199725 Khawaja, 2012

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provided in the cantonments. The health, infrastructure and

educational facilities were provided there. The schools26 were

made for the children of the officers. The market was set up near

to the cantonments and sooner the markets turned into giant

markets of buyers and sellers. The railway lines were set up for

providing transportation facilities to the officers as well as

for the transport of soldiers, arms and military items via train.

The set up of railway lines entailed the involvement of large

number of laborers and soon the railway emerged as the largest

employee department of subcontinent. The formation of markets in

the North Punjab regions and the set up of railway lines in

Punjab gave much employment opportunities to the inhabitants of

North Punjab. Thus, the other than agriculture professions

progressed and generated benefits for the North and Central

Punjab regions27.

It is noticeable here that only one railway line passed

through the South Punjab, thus the British neglected the South

Punjab again28. Therefore, they remained uninformed by the

26 For example, The Lawrence School in Rawalpindi27 Khawaja, 201228 Ibid.

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employment opportunities in the railway. The inhabitants of South

Punjab were neither invited nor encouraged to participate in the

market of the North Punjab. The inhabitants of South Punjab did

not have any significant agricultural product therefore they

never travelled farther than their own land for trade purposes.

The people of South Punjab prefer staying in their own land29.

Thus, they remain deprived of the socio-economic progress taking

place in the North and Central Punjab regions.

The British did not give attention to the region because

they had no benefit for themselves in doing so. They did what

they understood beneficial for themselves. Even, the construction

of Railway lines was carried out in order to transport the raw

materials gained from the subcontinent to their own land30. The

British were extracting benefits from the subcontinent therefore;

they let the deprivation of deprived regions continued. Thus, the

South Punjab was continued to being ignored.

3. Military Recruitment in the Colonial era

As mentioned earlier that the British wanted more

recruitments from the Central and Northern regions of Punjab

29 Darling, 1928, p.106.30 Islam, 1997, p.17.

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because of the stronger physical fitness and warlike reputation

of the inhabitants of these regions. Most of the people from

North and Central Punjab were Rajpoots and Sikhs who have great

warlike reputation. The Rajppots have been very influential

during the Mughals era. Rajpoots had associations with Mughals31

and therefore they were always at the forefront for assisting the

Mughals in fighting against the opposing parties. Concurrently,

the Sikhs also had exceptional warlike reputations. The Rajpoots

and Sikhs had greater population in Central, and Eastern

Punjab32. Similarly, the Afghan origin people were living in the

north-western areas and also in North Punjab regions33.

Therefore, the British wanted these people to be recruited in the

Indian Army. For this, the British gave incentives to the

inhabitants of these regions to join the army by offering them

employment opportunities along with benefits.

31 Rajpoots have been very influential in Punjab. The famous title of Raja wasused by the Rajpoots. The emperor was called ‘Maharaja’. The Rajpoots had their proud rule in Punjab and were never defeated in their entire rule. It was the Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556-1605) who married to the Princess Jodha, the Daughter of Maharaja Bharmal. Jodha was also named as Marium-uz-Zamani. This marriage relationship turned the affiliation of Rajpoots for Akbar and thus, the Rajpoots later served for the Mughal Empire. Akbar’s famous advisor ‘Raja Birbal’ and many others have served the Mughals and have historical services in their names. (Smith, 1917; Abraham, 2000; Thomas, 2006) et.al. 32 33 Deway, 1988, p-96

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The British gave lands and living allowances to the higher

ranked soldiers and this urged the non-agricultural34 inhabitants

of North Punjab to join the Army. A large number of Central

Punjab inhabitants also joined the army. This gave good

employment opportunities to the unemployed residents of North and

Central Punjab. The people of Punjab, after getting recruited

into the British-Indian Army, also fought the first and second

world wars for the British.

It is noticeable here that the South Punjab was ignored

again for the recruitment of inhabitants in the army.

Approximately 200,000 soldiers from Punjab were recruited in the

Indian Army till the year 1919. The soldiers from North Punjab

were 86,000 in number sharing 43 percent of the Punjab Army. 49

percent were from the Central and Eastern Punjab while only eight

percent were from the South-West Punjab35. Thus, the inhabitants

of Southern Punjab regions could not benefit from the military

recruitments while inhabitants from the remaining Punjab earned

benefits of staying in the army. The British also gave land

34 The three districts of North Punjab have not been recognized as good agricultural lands. 35 Khawaja, 2012

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grants36 to the soldiers who participated in wars for the

British37. Thus the unequal grants again established the path of

inequality among the South-Punjab and other regions of Punjab.

4. Relationship between Inequality and Growth

The growth in Punjab during the colonial as well as in post

colonial era caused increase in inequality. It has been found by

the study conducted by Cheema and Sial that the growth in Punjab

also increased inequality in the region. Their findings were: i)

Poverty has positive relationship with inequality, ii) Difference

arises between the gross and net elasticity of growth which is

offset by inequality. Hence, they concluded with their study that

the inequality has a significant positive relationship with

growth in the country. They further found that the inequality in

Punjab was the greatest because of the high growth in the

Province. Their results are affirmed by the fact that they have

also found the growth elasticity of inequality higher in urban

36 The British preferred granting from non-monetary benefits. They took the finances with them because the British had war loans upon them after the FirstWorld War (Leigh, 1922, p. 79-103) this was a tactic of granting ‘their lands to themselves’. However, the British were successful enough to keep the grantees satisfied.37 Deway 1988 stated that 180,000 acres of land were granted to the soldiers.

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areas than in rural areas because the urban areas have more

growth38.

This further establishes the fact that while the growth was

going on in Punjab during the colonial rule, the inequality gap

was increasing. Similarly, after the partition, the selected

regions of Pakistani Punjab gained much focus from the Government

of Pakistan for the continuation of developmental projects. The

Growth of Punjab was increasing than other provinces

concurrently; it was increasing the inequality gap among the

selected and non-selected districts39.

5. Population Share

The Government has the budget-sharing formula based on the

population allocation of the regions. Therefore, the provincial

budget allocations go in favor of the populous districts of the

province. The districts in the center and north of Punjab have

higher population than the South-West districts. Therefore, the

North and Central districts get higher allocations of budgets and38 Ahmed Cheema and Maqbool Sial, conducted ‘A Pooled Regression Analysis’ in 201239 The commercial and urban districts of Punjab like Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Sargodha, and Gujranwala gained much focus from the Govt.while the Southern Punjab regions were ignored for development projects. Here,the Southern Punjab regions have been referred as non-selected districts that are facing high deprivation and poverty.

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funds. On the other hand, the South-West regions of Punjab get

small shares of the budget and allocated funds. Therefore, the

population-share formula continues to deprive the South-West

regions of Punjab40.

South Punjab: A current estimate of deprivation

In the current scenario, South Punjab lags behind other

regions of Punjab in terms of available health facilities,

employment opportunities, school enrolments, and growth. The

South Punjab has minimal industrial set up. Moreover, the average

landholdings of is also very small. Although, the North Punjab

inhabitants also have had small landholdings however, they got

the alternate employment opportunities as mentioned in the

previous section41. The people of South Punjab, on the other

hand, do not have alternate modes of employment than engaging in

small tract of cultivation. Moreover, the South Punjab does not

have significant rail-road and industrial infrastructure which

would avail them alternate employment opportunities. Only the

city of Multan has some infrastructure in it as a railway line

40 Akhtar, 1998.41 Khawaja, 2012

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passes through it on the way to Karachi42. The rest of South

Punjab has extensive poverty striking in them. Different socio-

economic aspects of South Punjab have been discussed below which

explain the deprivation of the respective region.

Education

The literacy rates in South Punjab are substantially lower

than the North and South Punjab regions. The educational

facilities are rare. The number of high schools is very less. The

weakness of education in South Punjab can be understood by the

fact that the whole South Punjab, being the largest area-wise

region of Province of Punjab43, has only two Universities and

four Medical Colleges in it44. The poor education facilities

available in the region as well as less-inclination towards

education by the inhabitants of the region have caused low

literacy in South Punjab. The inequality between the North and

South Punjab, in terms of literacy rate, has been showed below.

42 Ibid. 43 Zaman, Gohar. Understanding North Punjab in the Context of Pakistani. Report on SouthernPunjab by Special Committee on Demarcation of Provinces, Pak Institute for Peace Studies. 2011. (South Punjab regions share 48 % area of Punjab Province)44 Ibid.

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Rawalpindi Jhelum Chakwal Attock

75% 77% 72%

49%

literacy rates in North-Punjab

literacy rates in North-Punjab

(Source: A report prepared by Punjab Education Department in 2003)45

Bahawalnagar Bahawalpur Dera Ghazi Khan

Rajan Pur

35% 35% 31%21%

literacy rates in South-Punjab

literacy rates in South-Punjab

(Source: A report prepared by Punjab Education Department in 2003)46

Funds Allocation for South Punjab

The South Punjab districts get very less share of 45 Pak Institute of Peace Studies, Report on Understanding North Punjab in theContext of Pakistan. 201146 Ibid.

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the total budget of Punjab because of the Population-share

formula. In this regard, this fact is largely neglected that all

of the South Punjab districts together comprise of the thirty

percent population of Punjab which is a significant proportion47.

However, the Government does not take this fact into account and

shares the budget with respect to the population of districts.

Thus, the districts of South Punjab get less share and

allocations. The same formula has been continuing for several

years and the future forecasts for this are still unchanged. That

is, the Government does not have any other budget sharing

formula48. These are the reasons for which the leaders of South

Punjab favor the demarcation of South Punjab as a separate

province. The South Punjab needs more funds allocation for coming

out of the loop of poverty and deprivation. Below is the table

which explains the allocations of funds in Punjab (Table 1.1).

47 Zaman, 2011.48 Or the Government does not want to adopt other sharing formulas because of political reasons.

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(Table 1.1)49

Population-Share allocated funds received by South Punjab50

Despite the population-share formula, South Punjab still

gets fewer shares of funds than deserved by its population. In

the past ten years, the funds allocated to South Punjab always

lagged behind the share of its population51. This fact has been

pictured below:

49 Zaman, 2011.50 This is related to the Population-Share formula of funds allocation.51 No apparent reasons have been found for this; however there can be some political grounds for this allocation.

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(Population and Budget Allocation for South Punjab in a

comparison)52

Health Facilities

The health facilities in South Punjab are very dire. Only 86

health providing locations are available in the region shares the

48 percent of total area of Punjab. The rest of Punjab has 240

health care centers53. This shows prevalence of extensive

disparity among the South and North-Central Punjab. Below is the

table which compares the presence of health care centers in

Punjab.

52 Zaman, 201153 Ibid.

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(Table 1.2)54

Industrial Sector

South Punjab has very minimal industrial infrastructure in

it. A study conducted in the years 2008 found that there were

6712 industrial units working in Punjab and only 26 percent of

these were located in South Punjab55. South Punjab shares the

largest area of Punjab and therefore, it should have more

industrial units than other regions. Moreover, the overall

population of South Punjab is thirty percent of Province Punjab.

This significant population demand employment opportunities which

they find inadequate in the existing industrial units56. Poverty

South Punjab has prevalence of poverty. Approximately, 43%

of people of South Punjab are living below the poverty line57.

This shows the extent to which the poverty is prevalent in South

Punjab. The poverty is more prevalent in the districts of Layyah,54 Ibid.55 Zaman, 2011. (Only 1837 industrial units are functioning in South Punjab)56 Ibid.57 Ibid.

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Lodhran, Rajanpur, and Bhakkar58. On the other hand, the big

districts of South Punjab such as Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan and

Bahawalpur also have significant amount of poverty. The below

table enlists the poverty in these regions:

(Table 1.3)59

Conclusion

The Province of Punjab in Pakistan can be divided into three

regions: The North, Center, and the South region. Since the

colonial rule, the North and Center have been getting more

attention of the Government. The colonial rulers formed canal

colonies in Punjab which were largely situated in Central Punjab.

The canal colonies were made for irrigating the unfarmed but

cultivable lands. The British wanted more agricultural production

from this region as more production would eventually gave them

more tax-revenue. No canal colony was built in South Punjab 58 Ibid.59 Ibid.

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except one in Multan. The colonial rulers also built cantonments

in North Punjab and Central Punjab. The cantonments were the

residential settlements for British Officers and therefore, were

accumulated with all the necessary facilities of life. The

cantonments brought the formation of railway lines with them. The

railway, transforming into the largest employee department in

India, gave employment opportunities to the inhabitants of North

and Central Punjab regions. Moreover, the inhabitants of North

Punjab also got the opportunity to transform them into sellers in

the markets that were formed near to the cantonments in order to

assist the officers. This also gave better employment

opportunities to the inhabitants of North Punjab regions. No

cantonment was made in any region of South Punjab. The people of

North and Central Punjab also got recruitments in military and

they also received landholdings and other benefits from the

British. On the other hand, the South Punjab people remained at

disadvantage and got very less recruitments in military.

Moreover, the South Punjab inhabitants did not get the access to

the markets formed in the cantonment regions. South Punjab has

very less rainfall and poor agricultural conditions. They also

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did not get the alternate employment opportunities in the

colonial rule; therefore, the region stayed deprived in the

colonial rule. After the partition, the Government of Pakistan

adopted the population-share formula for allocating budget to the

districts. South Punjab districts having less population could

not get significant allocation of funds from the budget.

Therefore, this region is still deprived. There are very poor

health, education, and infrastructure facilities in the South

Punjab. The Government is ignoring the fact that the total

population of South Punjab is 30 percent of the population of

Punjab. This is a significant portion of population which is not

getting their basic rights because Provincial Government has

adopted population-share formula which assigns funds on the basis

of population of districts. Thus, the deprivation of South Punjab

has strong persistence. The relative rankings of districts of

Punjab, on the basis of their deprivation, have been mentioned in

the Appendix-A. Due to the persistence of deprivation in South

Punjab regions, the people of South Punjab have demanded

demarcation of Punjab.

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Appendix-A 60

TABLE 4.5 DEPRIVATION RANKING - PUNJAB (RURAL)

1 = Least Deprived 1 = Least Deprived

34 = Most Deprived 100 = Most Deprived

Low Deprivation Rural

Lahore 1 2 1.0

Gujrat 2 3 17.2

Sialkot 3 4 19.3

Gujranwala 4 5 23.8

T.T. Singh 5 7 26.6

Jhelum 6 8 28.1

Faisalabad 7 9 28.9

60 Social Development in Pakistan, Annual Review: Growth, Inequality and Poverty. Social Policy

and Development Centre, Oxford University Press. 2001.

Provincial Rank Provincial Rank Deprivation Scale

TABLE DEPRIVATION RANKING - PUNJAB (RURAL)

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Narowal 8 10 30.2

Rawalpindi 9 12 34.2

M.B.Din 10 13 35.6

Chakwal 11 14 35.6

Sheikhpura 12 15 37.9

Attock 13 16 38.3

Hafizabad 14 20 44.7

Sargodha 15 23 52.0

Kasur 16 24 52.7

Medium Deprivation

Mianwali 17 27 53.9

Khushab 18 29 54.3

Sahiwal 19 31 55.4

Vehari 20 34 57.7

Okara 21 36 60.0

Khanewal 22 42 64.6

Bahawalnagar 23 44 65.4

Multan 24 46 66.9

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Jhang 25 51 70.0

High Deprivation

Pakpattan 26 53 71.7

Bhakkar 27 55 72.7

Lodhran 28 60 76.6

Layyah 29 61 76.9

R.Y. Khan 30 63 78.2

Bahawalpur 31 64 80.3

Muzaffarabad 32 72 86.9

D.G. Khan 33 77 89.9

Rajanpur 34 86 100.0

1 = Least Deprived 1 = Least Deprived [1- 100]

34 = Most Deprived 100 = Most Deprived

Low Deprivation

Lahore 1 2 1.0

Gujrat 2 3 14.3

Faisalabad 3 4 16.0

TABLE DEPRIVATION RANKING - PUNJAB (URBAN)

Provincial Rank Provincial Rank Deprivation Scale

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Rawalpindi 4 5 18.8

Sialkot 5 6 23.1

Medium Deprivation

Attock 6 7 27.6

Narowal 7 8 39.8

Gujranwala 8 10 41.9

Sheikhpura 9 11 42.6

T.T. Singh 10 12 44.7

Jhelum 11 14 46.5

Kasur 12 15 48.0

Chakwal 13 19 57.8

Multan 14 21 58.5

High Deprivation

Vehari 15 22 59.5

D.G. Khan 16 23 60.9

Sahiwal 17 27 63.4

M.B.Din 18 28 63.9

Hafizabad 19 30 64.8

R.Y. Khan 20 32 66.3

Sargodha 21 33 67.0

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Jhang 22 34 67.5

Bahawalnagar 23 36 68.5

Okara 24 37 69.4

Bahawalpur 25 43 74.3

Khanewal 26 45 75.2

Khushab 27 49 79.8

Muzaffarabad 28 51 80.6

Pakpattan 29 53 83.1

Mianwali 30 60 87.8

Layyah 31 62 90.9

Bhakkar 32 66 92.6

Lodhran 33 67 93.5

Rajanpur 34 75 100.0

Source: The data taken from the Social Policy and Development

Centre, Pakistan

Findings

Classification of districts in terms of high, medium and low

deprivation is given in the above tables. Lahore, Sialkot,

Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Jhelum, Toba Tek

Singh and Attock classify as low deprivation. At the other end,

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Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, D.G. Khan, Layyah, Lodhran, Bhakkar,

Pakpattan, Rahimyar Khan, Bahawalpur and Jhang rank as high

deprivation. The highly deprived regions are situated in South

Punjab.

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