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ABP India Summit 2023: Javed Akhtar Saw "No Visible Poverty" in Lahore, Pakistan

No, what he's saying is, in India, you don't need to look for slums as they hit you in the face but he never saw the same in Lahore.
He didnt go to one. Kot lakhpat / qainchi is a huge slum just opposite Packages mall / DHA.
 
I guess this is the proof that Pakistan has a vast undocumented economy and conditions aren't as bad as they're made out to be. I have seen the glamour of the elites of Lahore (they have good housing authorities, access to hormone replacement therapy and many more first world amenities), but never the poverty of Lahore. It seems all the poor people of Pakistan live in Peshawar, Karachi and other cities where documentaries show orphan children roaming in the streets and gun violence.
The vast majority of the residents of these housing societies are middle-class and upper-middle class, not elites. In fact, elites prefer to live outside these housing societies in their gigantic farmhouses.
 
He didnt go to one. Kot lakhpat / qainchi is a huge slum just opposite Packages mall / DHA.
Now why would you miss pointing out this.... No one is saying that poverty or slums don't exist, first listen to what he said.
 
Hoi ni sakta

unless all he was was some nice DHA areas :P
DHA Lahore makes up more than 40% of Lahore plus there are countless other housing societies in Lahore. Poverty exists in Lahore but it isn't anywhere as bad as it is in Karachi, Mumbai and New Delhi.
 
I dont know about India but In Pakistan People spend majority of there earning on there outlook. At whatever level possible. A person will spend his life saving on building a house. Buying a car. Wearing good clothing etc. People will eat simple home cooked food there whole life. Never Eat from Restaurants, Buy branded cloths, even if they can afford from there monthly income. But will sure buy a Motorbike or a car if they can after years of saving.
Pakistani Middle class is the most miserable segment. Look at there lifestyle you will feel they are Well Off. Neat home, car, well manerred kids, Social life and so on. But how they manage it, only Allah knows or them. As a Pakistani you would agree with me .But this life is really a jail. A merried young man doesnt do anything his whole life no travel no vacation no party no outing. Because He have to spend on merriages, Funerals, Kids Good looking Clothings. Keep his house maintained, Make himself LOOK well off. Thats pretty much have become the PAKISTANI dream.
Imagine if our people stop maintaining there lifestyle and start spending on leisure what would our middle class societies will look like?
 
DHA Lahore makes up more than 40% of Lahore plus there are countless other housing societies in Lahore. Poverty exists in Lahore but it isn't anywhere as bad as it is in Karachi, Mumbai and New Delhi.
It was once reported that Ambani had a helipad built atop his residence so he doesn't have to drive through slums when commuting to and from the airport. I'm sure Lahore has it's share of run down areas but like Mumbai or Delhi, they are not dotted all over the city.
 

Famous Indian writer and poet Javed Akhtar told his audience at a conference in New Delhi that he saw "no visible poverty" in Lahore during his multiple visits to Pakistan over the last three decades. Responding to Indian novelist Chetan Bhagat's query about Pakistan's economic crisis at ABP's "Ideas of India Summit 2023" in Mumbai, Akhtar said: "Unlike what you see in Delhi and Mumbai, I did not see any visible poverty in Lahore". This was Akhtar's first interview upon his return to India after attending "Faiz Festival" in Lahore, Pakistan.
That is also my observation when I first time went to Pak about 5 years ago. There is no where close to poverty / slums compared to what you hear in the media. But my visit was limited to half a dozen big cities, not sure about the country, I also went to few villages in Punjab they were quite good.

They need to focus on keeping the cities clean, I found Lahore and Islamabad much cleaner compared to the rest. Pakistanis throw garbage on the streets without any hesitation.
 
The vast majority of the residents of these housing societies are middle-class and upper-middle class, not elites. In fact, elites prefer to live outside these housing societies in their gigantic farmhouses.
Things are even better than I thought then! You guys should be praising the army for DHAs that make Lahore look like a first world city, relatively free of poverty.
 
i had heard during my childhood someone saying Islamabad is very beautiful..
 
He didnt go to one. Kot lakhpat / qainchi is a huge slum just opposite Packages mall / DHA.

Just about every posh area has an associated slum that provides much of the domestic labor, in all major cities in Pakistan. There were becoming such eyesores in Islamabad a few years ago, that the solution was to build nice decorative walls around them rather than solve the basic problems that created them.
 
Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia had proportionally as little poverty, slums and open defecation as Pakistan. You know what happened to those countries later.
You mean multi ethnic countries formed from remains of former empires .


Where later one ethnicity forced it's will on others leading to collapse

Like India ??
 

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