This op-ed was originally published in Pakistan Today on 7 March 2023.
While cities are rightly recognised as engines of economic growth — drawing on agglomeration economies and urbanisation benefits — Dr. Mohey-ud-din argues that inclusive rural transformation deserves equal priority in Pakistan’s development agenda. Neglecting rural areas widens the urban-rural divide and triggers unsustainable migration that overburdens city infrastructure, fuels unplanned sprawl, and gives rise to slums and shanty towns.
The article grounds its case in hard data: according to the Population Census 2017, 63 percent of Pakistan’s population lives in rural areas, predominantly dependent on agriculture, livestock, small agro-based enterprises, and skill-based occupations. The Economic Survey of Pakistan 2022 shows that agriculture employs 39 percent of the total labour force while contributing 22 percent of national GDP — yet the sector remains characterised by low productivity, inefficiency, and stagnancy.
Dr. Mohey-ud-din draws on the Rural Integrated Development Model (RIDM) — a comprehensive, community-based approach combining microfinance, infrastructure development, capacity building, and community mobilisation — as a framework for reversing this neglect. His policy recommendations centre on public-private partnerships between government, Rural Support Programs (RSPs), NGOs, local communities, and microfinance banks. He advocates piloting an integrated development package in model villages that bundles micro infrastructure projects (tube wells, brick-lined water channels, solar-powered off-grid electricity for household and on-farm use), microloans for quality seeds and pesticides, farm mechanisation, and cooperative ownership of shared equipment — tractors, laser land-levellers, threshers, and combine harvesters — at community scale. Meeting the SDGs, the piece concludes, is not possible without addressing the specific structural needs of Pakistan’s rural majority.
Read the full article on Pakistan Today: