KARACHI:

Pakistan today stands at a striking crossroads of perception and reality. On the surface, headline numbers tell a story of revival – the stock market is scaling record highs, inflation has cooled from recent peaks, and the government proudly points to a stabilised economy under the IMF programme.

Yet beneath these upbeat indicators lies a harsher truth: millions of Pakistanis are sliding deeper into poverty, their livelihoods battered by inflation, weak social protection, and limited opportunities. The World Bank's latest poverty and resilience assessment lays bare this widening gap, showing how triumph in macroeconomic charts masks decline in everyday living conditions for vast sections of society.

Over the past two decades, Pakistan made progress in cutting poverty. In 2001,

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