Pakistan's Sindh Province
MEMORANDUM
October 29, 2015
To:
Hon. Brad Sherman
Attention: Kinsey Kiriakos
From:
K. Alan Kronstadt, Specialist in South Asian Affairs, x7-5415
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Subject:
Pakistan’s Sindh Province
This memorandum responds to your request for information on Pakistan’s Sindh province, including
specific discussion of its Thatta and Badin districts. Content may appear in other CRS products. Please
contact me if you need further assistance.
Overview1
Sindh is one of Pakistan’s four provinces, accounting for roughly one-quarter of the country’s population
in less than 18% of its land area. Its provincial capital, Karachi, is among the world’s largest megacities,
and also the site of significant sectarian, ethnic, and political violence. Covering more than 54,000 square
miles of southeastern Pakistan (about the size of Florida, see Figure 1), Sindh stretches from the
Jacobabad district in the north to the vast Indus River delta wetlands abutting the Arabian Sea and India in
the south, and from the thinly-populated Dadu district in the west to the Thar Desert and a militarized
border with India to the east (see Figure 2). One-third of Pakistan’s 650-mile Arabian Sea coastline is in
Sindh. The vast majority of Sindh’s residents live at or near the final few hundred miles of the Indus’s
course.
Official government population statistics continue to be based on the most recent national census in 1998,
which put Sindh’s population at 30.4 million out of Pakistan’s then-total 132 million, with 52% living in
rural areas. Yet Pakistan’s population has grown rapidly in the current century and is now at or near 200
million.2 A provincial government department website reports a Sindh population of 44.2 million, but a
2012 press report citing government sources stated that Sindh’s population increased by more than 80%
from 1998-2011 to above 55 million. Other estimates reach as high as 60 million.3 About one in four
Pakistanis live in Sindh, and about one-third of Sindh’s population lives in the Karachi metropolitan area.
The province is notably more urban than is Pakistan overall. Estimates show that about half of Sindh’s
1 Tables and Appendix prepared by Susan Chesser, Information Research Specialist, 7-9547.
2 The CIA World Fact Book estimated a Pakistani population of just over 196 million in mid-2014.
3 See the Sindh Population Welfare Department at http://www.pwdsindh.gov.pk, and “Population Shoots Up by 47% Since
1998,” News International (Karachi), March 29, 2012.
Congressional Research Service
2
residents live in urban areas, while only 33%-38% of the entire country’s population does.4 According to
the CIA World Fact Book, about 14% of Pakistanis are ethnic Sindhis, and 12% speak Sindhi as their
mother tongue. If correct, this indicates that about half of Sindh’s population is comprised of ethnic
Sindhis.
Figure 1. Map of Pakistan
Source: Adapted by CRS
History
Sindh takes its name from the Sindhu River, today known as the Indus. Pakistan’s largest river, the Indus
runs nearly 2,000 miles from its origin on the Tibetan Plateau to a 16,000-sq. mi. delta at the Arabian Sea
near Karachi, modern Sindh’s capital, major seaport, and Pakistan’s business center. Evidence of an
advanced urban civilization at Kot Diji, in central Sindh, dates to 3300 BCE and is considered the
forerunner of the Indus Valley Civilization that flourished in the region for the next 2,000 years. Arab
invaders brought Islam to the region during the 8th century CE, and the Sindhi language developed in
4 Data from the Sindh Board of Investment website and the CIA World Fact Book.
Congressional Research Service
3
Arabic’s distinctive Nakshi script. Much of the region came into the orbit of the Mughal Empire during
the 17th century—Muslim emperors ruled first through the local Kalhora clan and later though Talpurs
from northern Sindh—until two major British military victories in 1843, and Sindh’s subsequent rule by
the Bombay Presidency, an administrative division of British India. According to the Sindh government’s
official history, the British conquest was “inhumane,” and “their supporters were Hindus,” resulting in “a
constant policy to subdue the Muslim majority and to lionize the Hindu minority in Sindh.”5
Figure 2. Districts of Sindh
Source: Government of Sindh website
“Father of the Nation” Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who would become the first leader of an independent
Pakistan, issued his famous Fourteen Points in 1929; these included a call for Sindh’s separation from the
Bombay Presidency. This was accomplished in 1936, when Sindh became a separate province with its
own legislature. Many Sindhis were leading supporters of the “two-nation theory” that identified South
Asia’s Muslims as a distinct nation deserving of its own state, and the Sindh Assembly was the first in
British India to endorse the 1940 Lahore Declaration calling for that independent Muslim state.
5 See the Sindh government website at http://www.sindh.gov.pk/dpt/History%20of%20Sindh/history.htm.
Congressional Research Service
4
At independence in 1947, Pakistan comprised five major ethnolinguistic groups: Bengalis—an absolute
majority of the original country’s entire population in then-East Pakistan—and Punjabis, Sindhis,
Pashtuns, and Baloch, each a majority within the four respective provinces of then-West Pakistan. All five
of these Muslim-majority communities had long self-identified as a distinct people or culture, and all
experienced active secessionist or nationalist movements in the wake of independence. Each of these
movements itself had vital transborder aspects, with Sindh’s spanning eastward to India.6 These links
grew primarily from more than one million, relatively wealthy, mostly Muslim, Urdu-speaking,
“Mohajirs” who settled in major Sindhi urban centers such as Karachi, Hyderabad, and Sukkur after
migrating from central and southern India during the 1947 Partition.
Regionalism and Separatism7
Pakistan’s 1971 bifurcation into two states left a “rump” (West) Pakistan dominated both politically and
demographically by Punjabis, but containing three other major ethnonationalist communities: Sindhis,
Pashtuns, and Baloch. Support for the two-state approach had always been tepid among these smaller
groups—the overarching logic of South Asian Muslim unity did little to incorporate the region’s narrower
separatist and autonomist movements—and the success of Bengali separatism led national leaders to
pursue a tough state-centric policy that sought to suppress ethno-lingual movements such as those of the
Baloch, Mohajirs, and Sindhis. Increased Punjabi dominance elicited considerable resentment among the
country’s ethnic minorities.
Sindhi nationalism predated the loss of East Pakistan, beginning soon after 1947 independence with
opposition to Punjabi settlers in rural areas and efforts to suppress the Sindhi language (Urdu was
declared Pakistan’s official language, thus empowering Urdu-speaking Mohajirs from India). Many
Sindhis also saw themselves acting in opposition to a “Mohajir-Punjabi nexus.” Within four years of
independence, the proportion of Sindhi-speakers in the province had dropped from 87% to 67%, and
Sindhis became a minority in their own capital city, where about 57% were Mohajirs by the early 1950s.8
The 1955 imposition of the “One-Unit” scheme, which had combined West Pakistan’s four provinces into
a single political unit, presented another grievance. Soon after, newly irrigated Sindhi land began being
granted to retired military officers and bureaucrats (mostly Punjabis), in a practice that continues today.
By one account, up to 40% of Sindh’s best farmland came to be owned by non-Sindhis.9 Moreover, Sindh,
as lower riparian of the Indus River, continues to have water disputes with Punjab, and Sindhis also found
themselves significantly underrepresented in the powerful Pakistani military and civil bureaucracy.
In the 1970s, with Sindhi and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-founder Z.A. Bhutto as Prime Minister,
Sindhi nationalists sought to change laws so as to strengthen Sindhi identity and potentially lead to a
separate or autonomous “Sindhudesh” (“Land of the Sindhis”). This movement was weakened by a
mixture of concessions and suppression by the federal government. The PPP was a national, rather than
Sindhi party, banned by General Zia ul-Haq after he took power in a 1977 military coup, and thus did not
provide a vehicle for separatism. Although Sindh has always possessed most of the characteristics
required for a viable independent state—and some nationalist sentiments persist to this day—its role as
6 Punjab and Bengal were bifurcated by the borders of the new Indian and Pakistani states, at great human cost during Partition.
Pashtun tribes remain numerous in Afghanistan, and sizeable Baloch populations are in both Afghanistan and Iran.
7 Content in this section is culled largely from Stephen Cohen, The Idea of Pakistan (Brookings Institution Press, 2004).
8 Feroz Ahmed, Ethnicity and Politics in Pakistan (Oxford University Press, 1998).
9 Ibid.
Congressional Research Service
5
Punjab’s conduit to the sea may well be the ultimate reason that successful Sindhi separatism faced long
odds.
Sindh’s Mohajirs had their own autonomist movement from the mid-1980s until the early 2000s. This was
rooted in that community’s loss of preeminence in provincial politics, bureaucracy, and industry, its lack
of meaningful representation in the army, and its loss of identity following migration, among other
factors.10 After the 1970 election elevated a Sindhi to the prime ministership, Mohajir student
organizations began efforts to consolidate community identity, and in 1984 the Muttahida Quami
Movement (MQM or United National Movement) political party was founded, one with an early
“penchant for torture, kidnapping, and murder.”11 Political violence in Karachi grew to such a scale that,
by the early-1990s, it had caught the attention of the army, which launched a crackdown that sent MQM
leader Altaf Hussein into apparently permanent exile in London. Yet the party remains a major player in
the province (and nationally) and has continued to be dominant in Karachi proper. Sindhi-Mohajir
frictions remain unresolved, especially given widespread perceptions among Mohajirs that the provincial
government is fundamentally unable to serve the needs of the Mohajir community.
Government and Politics
Sindh provides a core votebank for the national PPP. Rural Sindhis tend to overwhelmingly support that
party, and the city of Lakarna is the base of the powerful Bhutto dynasty (Z.A. Bhutto’s daughter, Benazir,
served twice as prime minister, from 1988-90 and again from 1993-1996; her widower, Asif Zardari, took
the party reins after her 2009 assassination and ruled Pakistan as its president from 2008-2013; their 26-
year-old son is now party chairman). Meanwhile, the MQM plays a significant role in both national and
provincial politics, and has for decades dominated municipal governance in Karachi.
Sindh sends 75 representatives to Pakistan’s 342-seat National Assembly (NA), or 22% of the chamber’s
total. The 2013 national election saw the PPP again account for a majority (55%) of Sindh’s
representation at the federal level, with 41 seats. The MQM won 23 seats (31% of Sindh’s total),
demonstrating that these two parties dominate provincial politics. Of the remaining 11 Sindhi seats in the
NA, 8 are held by parties affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League. The Lahore-based branch led by
current and thrice Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (PML-Nawaz) nearly swept Punjab in 2013 elections and
now enjoys an outright majority at the federal level.12
The Provincial Assembly of Sindh houses 168 seats for the province’s 28 administrative districts. At
present, 92 (55%) of these are held by the PPP, providing that party with an absolute majority. Another 51
seats (30%) are held by the MQM, thus nearly perfectly reflecting the relative proportions found in the
NA. The MQM leads an opposition alliance that includes the PML-N, which holds eight PA seats.13
Total Sindh government expenditures for FY2013/14 were $5.75 billion, nearly 7% higher than total
revenue (and up from a 2% deficit the previous year). By comparison, Punjab's provincial government
spent $8.8 billion in the last fiscal year, and Baluchistan's spent $1.6 billion. Sindh's provincial
10 Accounting for only 3% of Pakistan’s population from 1947 to 1971, Mohajirs held 21% of government jobs, were prominent
in the army, and controlled 7 of the country’s 12 largest business interests (Mohammed Wasem, Politics and the State in Pakistan
(Lahore: Progressive Publishers, 1989)).
11 Stephen Cohen, The Idea of Pakistan (Brookings Institution Press, 2004), p. 216.
12 Election Commission of Pakistan.
13 Ibid. The opposition alliance also includes eight members from the Pakistan Muslim League - Functional (an offshoot
associated with religious leader Pir Pagara) and four from Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Congressional Research Service
6
government expenditure was nearly identical to that of the North Dakota state government's ($5.8 billion)
in 2013, but for a population more than 50 times as large.14
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Quam Ali Shah is also the provincial president of the Pakistan People’s Party
and holds a parliamentary seat from the north-central Sindhi city of Khairpur. He was trained as a lawyer
and, having been born in the 1920s, is among the most senior of living PPP members. With the exception
of a six-week hiatus for the 2013 national elections, he has served as provincial chief minister since April
2008. He also served a 14-month stint in the same office for the government of Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto, and as industries minister in the federal cabinet of her father and PPP founder, Prime Minister
Z.A. Bhutto, during the 1970s. At present, Shah’s office comprises 24 cabinet ministers, 13 special
assistants, 5 parliamentary secretaries, 4 coordinators, 3 advisers with portfolios, and a political
secretary.15
Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad, in an appointed office that represents and reports to the federal
government in Islamabad, was seated in 2002, when he became the youngest-ever Sindhi governor at age
39. He began his political life as an MQM student activist during his training as a physician in Karachi
and later held ministerial posts in the provincial government. Upon the 1992 launch of the Pakistan
Army’s operations against the MQM (see below), Ebad sought and was granted political asylum in
Britain, along with many other MQM leaders, party chief Altaf Hussein among them. He reportedly
remained close to Hussein until he was appointed to the governorship by then-Chief of Army Staff Pervez
Musharraf, himself a Mohajir, who had declared himself President of Pakistan following a bloodless 1999
military coup (Musharraf’s party had made a power-sharing arrangement with the MQM following 2002
national elections). With the MQM chief remaining in apparently permanent exile overseas, Ebad has
been able to amass considerable influence over the party apparatus during more than 12 years as
governor, even as Pakistan’s Constitution requires that governors be formally and officially nonpartisan.16
Economy, Demographics, and Employment
According to the Sindh Board of Investment, provincial economic activity accounts for 33% of the
national GDP with only 23% of the country’s population. It also collects fully 70% of the country’s
income taxes and 62% of its sales taxes.17 Nearly half (45%) of Sindh’s employed labor force is engaged
in agricultural work. The poultry sector alone employs some 1.5 million people.18 The province is home
to 54% of country’s textile units and 45% of its sugar mills. Textiles are Pakistan’s leading export, both
globally and to the United States. Sindh also accounts for about half of Pakistan’s total seafood exports,
up to one-third of its rice, sugar cane, mango, and vegetable crop production, and 25% of its cotton.19
Granite and marble are major provincial mineral resources. About 60% of Pakistan’s oil fields and 44% of
its gas fields are located in Sindh, and these contribute 56% of the nation’s oil and 55% of its gas
production. Sindh government sources also claim that Sindh is the site of one of the world’s largest coal
14 These figures indicate that the Sindhi government spent an estimated $137 per resident last year. By way of comparison, the
Punjab government spent about $87 per resident, and the North Dakota government spent $7,825 (Pakistan Ministry of Finance,
“Pakistan Economic Survey 2013-2014,” at http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey_1314.html, and U.S. Census Bureau at
http://www2.census.gov/govs/state/g13-asfin.pdf).
15 See the Sindh government website at http://www.sindh.gov.pk.
16 “Profile: Dr Ishratul Ibad, the Sole Survivor,” Dawn (Karachi), December 27, 2014.
17 Sindh Board of Investment website at http://www.sbi.gos.pk/sindh-economy.php.
18 Sindh Board of Investment, “Sindh Investment Handbook,” at http://www.sbi.gos.pk/reports_publications.php.
19 Sindh Board of Investment website at http://www.sbi.gos.pk/sindh-economy.php.
Congressional Research Service
7
reserves of 185 billion tons, which would account for one-fifth of the world’s total reserves. However,
these claims are not supported by independent assessments, which generally find Pakistan as a whole
possessing just above 2 billion tons of reserves, the vast majority of these in Sindh.20
At 5.0% in 2012-13, Sindh's official unemployment rate was fully 1.2% lower than the country's overall
rate, and also bucked a nationwide trend by decreasing slightly over the previous year. (see Table 1).21
Table 1. Unemployment Rate by Percentage
2010-2011
2012-2013
Total
Male
Female
Total
Male
Female
Pakistan
6.0
5.1
8.9
6.2
5.4
9.0
Sindh
5.2
4.8
7.2
5.0
4.4
8.2
Source: “Population, Labor Force, and Employment,” Pakistan Economic Survey 2013-2014, at
www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_14/12_Population.pdf.
Sindh’s primary school enrollment rate (for ages 5-9) was 52% in 2014, 5 points lower than the national
rate and 10 points lower than Punjab's. Less than half of the province's girl children (48%) attend primary
school. Female disadvantage also is illuminated in literacy rates: for ages 10 and above, Sindh's was 60%
last year, the same as the national rate and only 2 points below Punjab's. However Sindh's female literacy
rate trailed Punjab's by 7 points (see Table 2). Data also show that, while overall education rates among
Sindh’s urban residents track almost perfectly with those of urban Pakistan overall, the province’s rural
populace is notably less likely to ever enroll in school, 22% of Sindh’s rural female population has ever
attended school, as compared to 37% of rural Pakistani women overall (see Table 3). Sindh, along with
the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, has been singled out for faring poorly in official assessments of
primary education performance, with one study finding less than one-third of its 5th-year students able to
perform 3rd-year-level math and one-quarter able to read at the 2nd-year level.22 More than one-third of the
Sindh government’s expenditures for the fiscal year ending March 2015 (38%) were devoted to
“education affairs and services,” up from 36% the previous year. In absolute terms, such spending
increased by 21%, from $975 million to about $1.2 billion in the most recent fiscal year.23
Table 2. Literacy Rate (10 years and above, by percentage)
2012-2013
Urban
Rural
Total
Male
Female
Total
Male
Female
Total
Male
Female
Total
Pakistan
82
69
76
64
37
51
71
48
60
Sindh
84
70
77
59
22
42
72
47
60
Badin
62
38
51
47
17
33
50
21
36
20 Ibid. The U.S. Energy Information Agency reports Pakistan’s proven coal reserves at 2.3 billion short tons in 2011.
21 “Population, Labor Force, and Employment,” Pakistan Economic Survey 2013-2014, at
www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_14/12_Population.pdf.
22 “Education,” Pakistan Economic Survey 2013-2014, at http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_14/10_Education.pdf.
23 Sindh Finance Department data at http://fdsindh.gov.pk/site/cms.php?page=budget_analysis. By way of comparison, the state
of Rhode Island spends roughly the same amount on education for a population about 2% the size of Sindh’s.
Congressional Research Service
8
Urban
Rural
Total
Male
Female
Total
Male
Female
Total
Male
Female
Total
Thatta
72
45
60
44
19
32
48
23
36
Source: “Education,” Pakistan Economic Survey 2013-2014, at
http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_14/10_Education.pdf.
Table 3. Percent of Population That Has Ever Attended School
2012-2013
Urban
Rural
Total
Male
Female
Total
Male
Female
Total
Male
Female
Total
Pakistan
84
70
77
66
39
53
72
50
61
Sindh
85
70
78
57
22
41
72
47
60
Badin
61
36
49
52
19
36
54
23
39
Thatta
68
48
59
46
19
33
49
23
37
Source: Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey 2012-2013, at
http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/pslm/publications/pslm_prov_dist_2012-13/education/2.1.pdf.
Some statistics suggest that Sindhis’ general health is slightly poorer than is Pakistan’s overall (see Table
4). About 11% of the Sindh government’s expenditures for the fiscal year ending March 2015 were
devoted to health services, down from 12% the previous year. In absolute terms, such spending was
essentially static, from $341 million to $347 million in the most recent fiscal year.24
Table 4. Percentage Distribution of Population Under 5 Years Fallen Sick or Injured
Sickness or injury occurred within two weeks of the 2012-2013 survey
Male
Female
Total
Pakistan
13.9
12.9
13.4
Sindh
15.8
14.4
15.1
Badin
20.4
18.9
19.7
Thatta
14.0
12.9
13.5
Source: Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey 2012-2013, at
http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/pslm/publications/pslm_prov_dist_2012-13/health/3.2.pdf.
The 700-mi Karachi-Lahore Motorway project, a top-tier effort of Prime Minister Sharif, is set to cost the
federal government $3 billion, including $600 million for land acquisition, and be complete by the end of
2017. About one-third of its total length runs through Sindh.
24 Sindh Finance Department data at http://fdsindh.gov.pk/site/cms.php?page=budget_analysis.
Congressional Research Service
9
Feudalism
Much of rural Sindh is regularly described as having a feudal economy, and fully one-quarter of its PA
seats are held by members designated as “landlords” by profession.25 In general, feudal systems are
marked by “unfree” labor (in that laborers are “bonded,” or tied to the land through obligation to its
owners); a fusion of economic and political power; a subsistence economy at the village level; and
“simple reproduction” in which surpluses generally are consumed by the landowner class rather than
deployed toward capital accumulation, as in capitalist systems.26
Following the British Empire’s annexation of Sindh in 1843, titles for huge tracts of farm land were
awarded to those mirs (tribal leaders) considered most useful to the region’s new rulers. At independence,
80% of Sindh’s land was held by large- and middle-scale landowners, most of whom are referred to as
“feudals” even today. One often cited, large-scale study found that 5% of Pakistanis own 64% of the
country’s farm land, and that Sindh is home to more than one million bonded laborers.27
An editorial piece in Dawn, Pakistan’s most popular English-language daily, lays out the central factors:
[W]e don't find feudals who maintain private armies or collect taxes, but what we definitely find is
large landholdings, bonded labor as well as total allegiance of peasants in return for economic support
and personal protection. As a result there is a very strong control of “feudals” in all parts of Sindh who
have a direct influence on the economic life of the poor and also enjoy control over the “official
machinery” in the province. Due to the colossal power base of the “feudal,” no one can dare to raise
his voice against the “land-lord” for fear of being economically crippled or facing the wrath of terror
which can be unleashed at any time. ... The feudal undertakes to fulfil his basic requirements of food
and shelter in return for total allegiance (including that of his family) to him. This means the peasant
has to give his life for the feudal if need be.
The editors also make the representative contention that feudal landowners see a direct interest in keeping
their “peasantry” uneducated, and so unskilled and dependent.28 This claim is supported by the education
statistics discussed above.
Karachi
With an estimated 20 million residents, the megacity of Karachi typically is listed as the world’s 7th most
populous and is by far Pakistan’s largest, accounting for roughly 10% of the country’s entire population
and more than half of its commercial activity. Karachi’s two major ports are the only ones in the country,
and so are critical for Pakistani commerce and importation.29 The Karachi Port Trust oversees 30
multipurpose berths that handled about 40 million tons of cargo in 2013-14. Port Qasim, established
further inland on the river delta about 15 miles from the Karachi Port, handled another 25 million tons. By
way of comparison, India’s Mumbai Port, 550 miles to the southeast of Karachi and that country’s largest,
25 Provincial Assembly of Sindh website at http://www.pas.gov.pk/index.php/members/stats/en/31.
26 S. Akbar Zaidi, Issues in Pakistan’s Economy (Oxford University press, 2000), p. 14
27 Cited in “Give Me Land, Lots of Land,” International Business Times, October 11, 2013.
28 “Feudalism Keeps Sindh Backward” (editorial), Dawn (Karachi), June 7, 2004.
29 The new, Chinese-funded and -operated Gwadar port—first opened in 2007 about 330 miles west of Karachi and only 75 miles
east of the Iranian border in Baluchistan—continues to see operations hampered by poor land connectivity, and did not launch its
first commercial export ship until May 2015 (“First Export Ship to Embark on Journey from Gwadar Port,” Express Tribune
(Karachi), May 10, 2015).
Congressional Research Service
10
moves more than twice as total much cargo annually.30 The Karachi Stock Exchange, Pakistan’s largest,
was established in 1949 and currently lists 559 companies. The exchange was the world’s fourth-best
performer in 2014, with an overall gain of nearly 27% (only Argentina, China, and India had better
performing markets last year).31 The decades-old Karachi Nuclear Power Plant is the smallest of three in
the country (the other two are in Chashma, Punjab), with a modest generating capacity of 100 MW. In late
2013, ground was broken for a Chinese-funded project to build two new reactors near Karachi that would
add a projected 2,200 MW.
Pervasive political, ethnic, and sectarian violence in Karachi has some analysts fearful that nuclear
facilities near the city would be subjected to attack by militants.32 In recent years such violence has
escalated to the point that, in 2014, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan issued a statement that,
“Violence in Karachi has become so commonplace that reports of ever more gruesome excesses against
the citizens are usually taken in the stride.”33 The interplay of the city’s ethnic-based political parties and
heavily armed organized crime networks has only worsened with a large Pashtun migration into Karachi
from western Pakistan. Attacks range from targeted killings to mass bombings, and minority Shia
Muslims are often the intended victims.
According to data from the New Delhi-based South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a trend of increased
violence in the Sindhi capital has been continuous since 2011.34 The SATP reports that Karachi accounted
for more than 96% of Sindh’s 1,180 terrorism-related fatalities in 2014, two-thirds of which were civilian
deaths. Killings of political party activists—targeting the PPP, MQM, and Pashtun-based Awami National
Party—reportedly have taken nearly 400 lives since 2011.35 An operation by the paramilitary Pakistan
Rangers was launched in 2013 to rid the city of terrorists and criminal gangs. This effort has largely failed
to meet those goals, but it is ongoing, in 2015 focusing in part on the MQM itself. In addition, the
Islamabad government notes that the poor security situation in Karachi has hampered a federal
supplementary immunization program there.36
Unique Provincial Challenges
Table 5 shows that, in 1998, Sindh’s population was more urbanized, more heavily male, and more
rapidly growing than Pakistan’s overall—characteristics that appear to continue. As noted above, Sindh
historically has possessed many of the trappings of a modern nation-state. Yet it exists in a circumstance
wherein its autonomy (and that of Pakistan’s other “minority provinces”) is significantly restrained by a
politically and demographically dominant Punjabi province and ethnicity. Sindh thus operates in a
30 “Transportation and Communications,” Pakistan Economic Survey 2013-2014, at
http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_14/10_Transport_and_coms.pdf.
31 “Best Performing Global Markets 2015,” CNN.com (undated).
32 The region is also vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis (“Outcry and Fear as Pakistan Builds Nuclear Reactors Near
Dangerous Karachi,” Washington Post, March 5, 2015).
33 See the January 9, 2014, statement at http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/hrcp-slams-horrors-in-karachi-turf-wars.
34 In mid-2011 four days of mayhem left up to 95 people dead and prompted the Sindh government to issue “shoot on sight”
orders to security forces. Another spasm of violence that year brought the 2011 death toll to more than 1,000 and elicited calls for
army intervention. (“Violence Escalates in Pakistan’s Karachi,” Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, May 18, 2012).
35 SATP sees the worsening situation in Karachi exacerbated by the presence of a wide range of sectarian-terrorist outfits
operating in the city. These prominently include TTP, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Sipah-e-Sahaba-Pakistan (SSP), Jundullah, Jaish-
e-Mohammad (JeM), Sunni Tehreek (ST) and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP), among many others. See “Sindh Assessment
– 2015” at http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/sindh/index.html.
36 “Health and Nutrition,” Pakistan Economic Survey 2013-2014, at
www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_14/11_Health_and_Nutrition.pdf.
Congressional Research Service
11
seemingly permanent state of disadvantage, and is seen by some to be unlikely to meet its full social and
economic potential in the absence of major qualitative changes to the Pakistani state.37
Table 5. Selected Indicators for Pakistan, and the Provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan38
Indicator
Pakistan
Sindh
Baluchistan
Population (1998 Census)
132,352,279
30,439,893
6,565,885
Population (updated
199,086,000 (2015 est.)
60,000,000 (2010 est.)
8,500,000 (2014 est.)
estimates)
Population Growth Rate
1.5%
2.8%
2.4%
Male/Female Distribution
Male: 51.4%
Male: 53.3%
Male: 53.4%
(2012-13)
Female: 48.6%
Female: 46.7%
Female: 46.6%
Rural/Urban Distribution
Rural: 66.3%
Rural: 52.5%
Rural: 75.7%
(2012-13)
Urban: 33.7%
Urban: 47.5%
Urban: 24.3%
0-14 years: 40.8%
0-14 years: 41.6%
0-14 years: 48.4%
15-24 years: 20.6%
15-24 years: 20.5%
15-24 years: 16.4%
Distribution by Age
25-54 years: 30.9%
25-54 years: 31.7%
25-54 years: 30.6%
(2012-13)
55-64 years: 4.4%
55-64 years: 4.3%
55-64 years: 3.4%
65 and over: 3.2%
65 and over: 2.0%
65 and over: 1.2%
Literacy Rate
47.4%
50.1%
40.9%
No formal education
(2012-13)
0.6%
0.6%
2.7%
Col ege degree, post-
graduate, or Ph.D.
3.4%
4.5%
1.5%
(2012-13)
Total: 6.2%
Total: 5.2%
Total: 3.9%
Unemployed Civilian Labor
Force Distribution (aged 10
Male: 4.2%
Male: 3.9%
Male: 3.1%
years and over) (2012-13)
Female: 2.1%
Female: 1.3%
Female: 0.8%
Muslim: 96.3%
Muslim: 91.3%
Muslim: 98.7%
Christian: 1.6%
Christian: 1.0%
Christian: 0.4%
Population by Religion
Hindu: 1.6%
Hindu: 6.5%
Hindu: 0.5%
Others: 0.5%
Others: 1.2%
Others: 0.4%
Geographical Area (area in
79.61
14.09
34.72
mil ions of hectares)
Cultivated Land Area as
Percentage of Total Area
28.3%
22.9%
2.7%
(2012-13)
Source: Prepared by CRS using information from the CIA World Factbook 2015, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics,
governments of Sindh and Balochistan, and U.S. Census Bureau
37 CRS interview with a former Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, Washington, D.C., May 22, 2015.
38 This table prepared by Hussein Hassan, Information Research Specialist, x7-2119.
Congressional Research Service
12
The website of Sindh’s current governor lists a host of key challenges faced by the province:
The testing challenges included the eradication of the rural-urban acrimony, inter-sectarian hostility,
issues of governance, demographic diversity, low literacy percentage, low agricultural productivity,
scant and deteriorating industrial units leading to low productivity and galloping unemployment. More
importantly, in the post 9/11 scenario, the formidable menace of extremism and terrorism and the
Madrassa-based religious bigotry had created an alarming situation.39
Some of these problems are linked to the province’s oftentimes dysfunctional relationship with Punjab,
one in which Sindh’s residents tend to feel used and underserved by their national government. Federal
expropriation of Sindhi farmland for the use of non-Sindhis is a central historic and ongoing source of
friction between Sindh and Punjab, as discussed above. Water disputes leave Sindhis feeling abused by
their upper riparian neighbors. Although Sindh contains vast acreage of fertile farmland and is relatively
rich in oil and gas resources, many of its residents find themselves suffering under “the prevalence of
internal [Punjabi and Mohajir] colonialism” that seeks to “systematically exploit” their indigenous
resources and perpetrate “an environmental injustice” resulting from Sindh’s “subordinate and peripheral
status in Pakistan.”40 Another notable challenge for Sindh continues to be improvement of its education
system, especially for females. This may fuel a host of other problems. In the words of one author and
longtime student of Pakistan,
[T]he population is growing ever bigger, largely because of lack of education for women; and the
water is ever diminishing, largely because the people are too uneducated, apathetic, conservative,
divided along tribal lines, and distrustful of one another and of the authorities to improve their
agriculture or build their own local water infrastructure. If this goes on, and is not reversed by
increased monsoon rains due to climate change, there is a real chance that Sindh one day will cease to
exist as an area of large-scale human habitation.41
Thatta and Badin
Thatta and Badin are two of Sindh’s four coastal districts (Karachi and Tharpakar are the others, see
Figure 2). According to a USAID estimate for 2010, each district is home to about 1.6 million people, but
Thatta, with a land area nearly three times as large as Badin’s, has a considerably lower population
density.42 Thatta covers nearly 7,600 square miles, making it about the size of Connecticut and Delaware
combined. Badin’s 2,600-square-mile land area is slightly larger than Delaware’s alone. Each district
holds 5 of the Sindh legislature’s 168 seats, or about 3%. In Thatta, three of these are held by PML-N
members and two by the PPP. In Badin, all are held by PPP members.
A 2005 World Bank assessment found fully 86% of the two district’s residents consider themselves to be
poor, a sentiment particularly strong among the nearly half of them living at or near the Arabian Sea
coast. Decreased fresh water flows from the Indus have pushed the region’s already fishing-heavy
economy further toward reliance on that sector as crop and livestock farming decreased in recent decades.
Greater dependence on an unreliable economic activity and diminishing fish stocks has left the agriculture
sector mostly undeveloped. Land ownership is highly skewed: in Badin, 9% of households own more than
80% of the land. Only one-third of households were reported to have a separate sanitation facility (toilet)
39 Official Sindh Government website at http://www.governorsindh.gov.pk/the-governor.
40 Abdul Hadi, “Environmental Injustice: Exploitation of Sindh’s Natural Resources in Pakistan,” Academic Journal of
Interdisciplinary Studies 4, 1, March 2015.
41 Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country (New York: Public Affairs, 2011), p 235.
42 See the ReliefWeb map at http://reliefweb.int/map/pakistan/pakistan-sindh-thatta-population-density-map-september-2014.
Congressional Research Service
13
or access to electricity, and the great majority used wood as cooking fuel. Both districts are highly
vulnerable to natural disasters, having experienced cyclones, droughts, floods, and earthquakes in recent
years. Citizens commonly rue a lack of access to health and education facilities, and to sufficient supplies
of drinking water.43
Table 2 shows that Thatta’s and Badin’s overall literacy rates of 36% are notably lower than the 60% of
both Pakistan and Sindh. The rates among females—at 23% and 21%, respectively—fall even further
behind those of Pakistan, at 48%. Some 17% of Badin’s rural females are literate, and Thatta’s 19% rate
in this demographic is only marginally better. Table 3 further illuminates the situation: While 70% of both
Pakistan’s and Sindh’s female populations have had some level of formal education, less than half of
Thatta’s women and one-third of Badin’s women have ever attended school. In these districts’ rural areas,
the rate is less than one in five. Table 4 shows that residents of Thatta and Badin also are notably more
likely to report illnesses.
U.S. Foreign Assistance
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) operates projects and programs
throughout Pakistan, including several dozen within Sindh communities. Infrastructure projects aimed at
boosting development, economic security, and enhancing general society, include restoring electrical
power stations, replacing inefficient equipment in water and waste facilities, and constructing schools and
a hospital. Several programs provide grants or supplementary income to community groups, micro-
entrepreneurs, farmers, and needy families, thereby building independent institutions and families, and
enriching civil society. Education programs include awarding scholarships based on merit and need, and
developing new university degree programs in teacher education. Programs in health are designed to
improve health services for mothers and children, make contraceptives easier to obtain, and build up
public health services. Other programs assist farmers, local governments, scientists, and small
businesses.
USAID has a history of assisting Sindh in times of drought (2014-2015), flood (summer 2010, September
2011-March 2012), and measles outbreak (May 2012-December 2013). The agency works with
international organizations to provide food, shelter, clean water, and other services to populations under
the duress of natural or manmade disasters. USAID also assists Pakistan in supporting Afghan refugees
who have settled in Sindh. USAID claims to be deeply invested in making Pakistan a more independent
country in the future. See the Appendix below for a listing of U.S. assistance projects in Sindh.
43 World Bank, “Socioeconomic Study and Proposal for Livelihood Improvements: Badin and Thatta Districts, Sindh, Pakistan,” April
25, 2005, at http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPAKISTAN/Resources/SocioeconStudyBadinThatta.pdf.
Congressional Research Service
14
Appendix: Current Major USAID Projects in Pakistan
Project
Project Title and
Total
Location
Timeline
Sector
Obligation
Project Objective
USAID Projects in Sindh
Sindh, Punjab, and
7/7/2011 –
Agriculture Policy
$22,713,134
To improve the capacity of local decision
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
7/6/2015
Project:
makers to analyze and make policy on
Agriculture and
issues related to economic growth and
Food Security
poverty reduction.
Sindh
9/22/2010 –
Anti-Fraud Hotline
$2,964,668
To prevent fraud, waste, and abuse in
9/21/2015
Project:
USAID projects by engaging citizens in
Democracy, Human
oversight and watchdog activities.
Rights and
Governance
Pakistan-wide
7/1/2009 –
Benazir Income
$160,000,000
To ensure that Pakistan's neediest families
9/30/2013
Support Program:
receive income supplements to meet basic
Democracy, Human
human needs.
Rights and
Governance
Sindh, Punjab, and
3/26/2009 –
Energy Efficiency
$41,985,301
To reduce peak electricity use through
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
3/31/2014
Project: Economic
the replacement of inefficient water
Growth and Trade
pumps in the public and industrial sector.
Sindh, Punjab, Khyber
10/10/2008 –
Energy Policy
$91,269,969
To strengthen Pakistan's energy sector by
Pakhtunkhwa,
1/31/2015
Project: Economic
improving the country's power generation
Federally Administered
Growth and Trade
and transmission capacity.
Tribal Areas (FATA),
Gilgit Baltistan, Azad
Kashmir, and the
Islamabad Capital
Territory
Sindh, Baluchistan,
5/7/2009 –
Firms Project:
Not provided
To increase the profitability and incomes
Punjab, Islamabad
12/31/2014
Science, Technology
of small and medium-sized enterprises
Capital Territory, and
and Innovation
throughout Pakistan.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Sindh, Punjab
4/4/2011 –
Grain Storage
$2,500,000
To support the establishment of public-
8/4/2014
Project: Agriculture
private partnerships for managing,
and Food Security
handling, and storing strategic grain
reserves in Punjab and Sindh.
Sindh
5/20/2010 –
Guddu Power
$19,123,730
To restore the efficiency of the power
12/31/2013
Station Project
plant lost due to aging equipment.
Sindh, Punjab,
1/14/2011 –
Health Care
$9,261,555
To strengthen public health services in
Islamabad Capital
4/14/2014
Management
Pakistan in the aftermath of the devolution
Territory, and Khyber
Program: Global
of power from the federal to the
Pakhtunkhwa
Health
provincial level.
Sindh
7/21/2008 –
Health Services
$5,010,532
To improve institutional capacity in
3/31/2013
Academy Support
Pakistan's public health sector through
Project: Global
human resource development,
Health
col aboration with national and
international universities, and evidence-
based policy development.
Congressional Research Service
15
Project
Project Title and
Total
Location
Timeline
Sector
Obligation
Project Objective
Sindh, Punjab,
9/2/2011 –
Health Supplies
Not provided
The Health Supplies Distribution Project
Islamabad Capital
9/2/2012
Distribution
(formerly known as DELIVER) seeks to
Territory (ICT),
Project: Global
enhance the Government of Pakistan's
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Health
procurement, distribution, and logistics
KPk), Gilgit Baltistan,
management systems for contraceptives.
and Azad Kashmir
Sindh
5/20/2010 –
Jamshoro Power
$19,329,150
To restore 150 megawatts of power
3/31/2014
Station Project:
generation capacity at the Jamshoro
Economic Growth
Thermal Power Station.
and Trade
Sindh, Baluchistan,
10/19/2007 –
Links to Learning
Not provided
The Links to Learning Project seeks to
FATA, ICT, and KPk
6/30/2012
Project: Economic
improve the quality of middle- and
Growth and Trade
secondary-school education.
Pakistan-wide
6/22/2009 –
Pakistan Trade
$37,118,147
To increase trade by facilitating
8/31/2014
Project: Economic
improvements in Pakistan's international
Growth and Trade
and regional trade environment.
Sindh, Baluchistan,
7/15/2011 –
Political Parties
$21,500,000
To develop the institutional capacity of
Punjab, ICT, and KPk
7/14/2016
Development ;
Pakistan's political parties to respond
Democracy, Human
democratically and effectively to
Rights and
constituents' concerns.
Governance
Pakistan-wide
8/31/2010 –
Small Grants and
$49,988,052
To empower grassroots organizations and
8/31/2015
Ambassador’s Fund
community groups working to strengthen
Program:
civil society in Pakistan. This is
Democracy, Human
accomplished through giving small grants
Rights and
to community organizations, allowing
Governance
them to build capacity, while improving
their ability to manage projects.
Pakistan-wide
9/1/2008 –
Teacher Education
$51,923,519
Improve systems and policies that support
5/30/2014
Program: Education
teachers, teacher educators, and
educational managers; provide support to
Pakistan's Higher Education Commission
and provincial departments of education,
col eges, and universities in developing
two new degree programs; and improve,
revise, evaluate, and standardize
curriculum and modules for pre-service
teacher education and institutionalize the
new degree programs for under-training
and existing teachers.
Sindh, Baluchistan,
9/17/2010 –
USAID Power
Not provided
The Power Distribution Program works
Punjab ICT, and KPk
9/16/2013
Distribution
with Pakistan's nine government-owned
Performance
electric power distribution companies to
Improvement
improve their operational and financial
Program: Economic
performance.
Growth and Trade
Sindh
9/1/2011 –
Sindh Basic
Not provided
increase student enrol ment in primary,
1/1/2019
Education Project
middle, and secondary schools in seven
districts of northern Sindh and in Karachi.
Congressional Research Service
16
Project
Project Title and
Total
Location
Timeline
Sector
Obligation
Project Objective
Sindh, Punjab, Azad
7/1/2004 –
Merit and Need
Not provided
MNBSP has two key objectives: Provide
Kashmir, Baluchistan,
3/1/2016
Based Scholarship
learning opportunities through
FATA, ICT, and KPk,
Program (MNBSP):
scholarships to disadvantaged students
Gilgit Baltistan, and
Education
who meet the academic criteria for
KPk
admission to 31 partner universities; and
build the capacity of these universities and
the Higher Education Commission in
designing, implementing, and evaluating the
scholarship program in a transparent and
equitable manner.
Sindh, Baluchistan,
6/1/2005 –
Pakistan-U.S.
Not provided
Increase the strength and breadth of
ICT, KPk, Punjab
6/1/2018
Science and
cooperation and linkages between
Technology
Pakistani scientists and institutions and
Cooperation
their counterparts in the United States;
Program: Education
improve the quality, relevance, or capacity
of education and research at Pakistani
institutions of science and technology; and
improve the well-being of ordinary
Pakistani people through innovations in
science and technology.
Sindh, Baluchistan,
6/1/2009 –
Entrepreneurs
Not provided
To increase the incomes of micro-
KPk, Punjab
9/1/2014
Project: Economic
entrepreneurs (predominantly women) by
Growth and
at least 50% on average, by promoting the
Agriculture
production and marketing of selected
agricultural and nonagricultural
commodities.
Sindh, Azad Kashmir,
7/1/2011 –
Agriculture
Not provided
The program enhances food security by
Baluchistan, Federal
7/1/2015
Innovation Project:
improving the productivity of the
Capital Territory,
Economic Growth
agricultural sector through agricultural
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
and Agriculture
research and innovation and dissemination
Punjab
of modern practices for cereals, annual
and perennial horticulture, and livestock.
Sindh, Azad Kashmir,
7/1/2011 –
Pakistan Strategy
Not provided
To to strengthen economic policy capacity
Baluchistan, Federal
7/1/2015
Support Program
in key institutions in the Government of
Capital Territory,
(PSSP): Economic
Pakistan.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
Growth and
Punjab
Agriculture
Sindh, Baluchistan,
11/10/2011 –
Agribusiness
$89,412,942
The project seeks to expand investment,
ICT, Azad Kashmir,
11/9/2016
Project: Agriculture
revenues, and employment opportunities
Gilgit Baltistan, FATA
and Food Security
in the agribusiness sector.
Sindh, Azad Kashmir,
5/1/2011 –
Citizens’ Voice
Not provided
Foster citizen engagement with federal,
Baluchistan, FATA,
5/1/2016
Project: Resilience
provincial, and local government
ICT, Gilgit Baltistan,
institutions on issues of public policy and
KPk, Punjab
good governance.
Congressional Research Service
17
Project
Project Title and
Total
Location
Timeline
Sector
Obligation
Project Objective
Sindh, Azad Kashmir,
8/1/2010 –
Gender Equity
Not provided
Enhancing gender equity by expanding
Baluchistan, Federal
8/1/2015
Program: Resilience
women’s access to justice and women’s
Capital Territory,
human rights; increasing women’s
Gilgit Baltistan, Khyber
empowerment by expanding knowledge of
Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab
their rights and opportunities to exercise
their rights in the workplace, community,
and home; combating gender-based
violence; and strengthening the capacity of
Pakistani organizations that advocate for
gender equity, women’s empowerment
and the elimination of gender-based
violence.
Sindh, Azad Kashmir,
10/1/2011 –
Municipal Services
Not provided
To strengthen the capacity of those
Baluchistan, FATA,
10/1/2016
Program: Resilience
provincial governments that are focused
ICT, Gilgit Baltistan,
on water, sanitation, and solid waste
KPk, Punjab
management service delivery in the
vulnerable areas, to better manage these
services and meet citizens’ basic needs
through infrastructure upgrades and
operational reforms.
Sindh, Azad Kashmir,
9/1/2012 –
Maternal and Child
Not provided
To improve the health status of Pakistani
Baluchistan, FATA,ICT, 5/1/2017
Health Program:
women and children by increasing access,
Gilgit Baltistan, KPk,
Health
availability, and utilization of key health
Punjab
services, as well as strengthen the health
system as a whole.
Sindh
9/1/2011 –
Health
Not provided
Building a new hospital in Jacobabad to
10/1/2015
Infrastructure
provide quality healthcare services for
Improvement:
more than one mil ion people in northern
Health
Sindh and neighboring districts of
Baluchistan; building facilities to provide
quality neonatal and maternal health
services to 30,000 to 35,000 patients per
year; and constructing and repairing
primary obstetric care facilities to increase
access to quality basic health services.
USAID Projects Beyond Sindh
Baluchistan
1/1/2009 –
Baluchistan
$25,400,000
Increase incomes of 14,300 households
12/30/2015
Agriculture Project:
(approximately 94,000 people) by 20% in
Economic Growth
more than 700 poorer communities in the
and Trade
several districts of Baluchistan located
within 100 miles of the Afghan border.
Islamabad Capital
10/1/2008 –
Construction of
$11,391,497
To enhance the work of Pakistan's elected
Territory
4/30/2012
Parliamentary
parliamentarians and the staff of the
Services Building:
national parliament and national assembly
Democracy, Human
by funding a purpose-built structure for
Rights and
the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary
Governance
Services.
Punjab
7/15/2011 –
Dairy Project:
$14,018,777
To increase the productivity and incomes
7/14/2014
Agriculture and
of small dairy farmers in Punjab.
Food Security
Congressional Research Service
18
Project
Project Title and
Total
Location
Timeline
Sector
Obligation
Project Objective
FATA
1/1/2010 –
FATA
$631,629,308
To improve conditions for the long-term
12/31/2014
Infrastructure
development of the Federally
Project: Working in
Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, by
Crises and Conflict
constructing or rehabilitating public
service infrastructure in water, energy,
and irrigation systems and roads.
FATA
1/1/2011 –
Gomal Zam Dam
$40,000,000
To mitigate Pakistan's energy shortage by
9/30/2013
Project: Economic
adding 17.4 megawatts to the national
Growth and Trade
power grid through the construction of
Gomal Zam Dam.
Islamabad Capital
7/1/2009 –
Higher Education
$90,000,000
To stabilize the higher education sector
Territory
3/31/2016
Commission
with budgetary support to universities,
Support Program:
financing for student scholarships, and the
Education
upgrade of resources for teaching and
research.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
3/26/2010 –
KP Reconstruction
$164,386,807
To enhance the stabilization and
12/31/2014
Program: Working
development of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by
in Crises and
rebuilding public infrastructure for
Conflict
education, health, water and sanitation
and increasing the capacity of the
provincial government.
Punjab
5/20/2010 –
Muzaffargarh Power $15,778,195
To restore 475 megawatts to Pakistan's
12/31/2013
Station Project:
national power grid by funding the
Economic Growth
modernization of the thermal power
and Trade
station at Muzaffargarh.
Baluchistan, FATA, and 4/16/2011 –
National Disaster
$4,720,839
To develop the capacity of the National
Azad Kashmir
12/31/2013
Management
Disaster Management Authority in
Authority
Information Management.
Information
Management
Support Project:
Working in Crises
and Conflict
Gilgit Baltistan
1/1/2011 –
Satpara
$26,000,000
To mitigate the energy shortage in Gilgit-
12/31/2014
Multipurpose Dam
Baltistan by adding 17.6 megawatts to the
Project: Economic
local power grid.
Growth and Trade
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
4/30/2010 –
Tarbela Dam
$16,500,000
To mitigate Pakistan's energy shortage by
12/31/2013
Project: Economic
adding 128 megawatts to the national grid
Growth and Trade
through the rehabilitation of Tarbela Dam.
Punjab
7/1/2011 –
Women’s Hostel
$6,653,563
To expand access to higher education for
8/31/2014
Project: Education
Pakistani women, particularly those from
remote areas, by providing them with
residential opportunities at Foreman
Christian Col ege in Lahore.
Sources: USAID Interactive Maps, accessed at http://map.usaid.gov/ and http://www.usaid.gov/pakistan/interactive-map on
May 4, 2015.
Notes: All projects listed here are noted as “Active” in the project page, linked from USAID’s interactive map at
http://map.usaid.gov/.