Elite privilege consumes $17.4bn of Pakistan’s economy: UNDP

In exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, UNDP’s Kanni Wignaraja says Pakistan has promised action over damning UN report.

Islamabad, Pakistan – Economic privileges accorded to Pakistan’s elite groups, including the corporate sector, feudal landlords, the political class and the country’s powerful military, add up to an estimated $17.4bn, or roughly 6 percent of the country’s economy, a new United Nations report has found. Released last week, the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) National Human Development Report (NHDR) for Pakistan focuses on issues of inequality in the South Asian country of 220 million people. The report uses the prism of “Power, People and Policy” to examine the stark income and economic opportunity disparities in the developing country.