“There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the upper.” Victor Hugo, Les Misérables.

Let’s be honest: we don’t need another diagnostic. We already know the patient is bleeding. What Pakistan needs now is a surgical plan—practical, bold, and morally sound.

For too long, we’ve accepted poverty as collateral damage in the pursuit of elite consensus and IMF appeasement. But poverty is not an economic inevitability. It’s a political choice; we have the tools. The question is: do we dare use them?

It begins at the source: revenue. Not just collecting more—but collecting fairly and intelligently. Three big fissures need closing. First, agricultural income: time to stop pretending. We must tax progressively above subsistence thresholds, synchronized across provinces.

Digitize land records, use satellite imagery to estimate yields, and enforce returns based on real output. Second, the retail-wholesale sector — our country’s backbone — remains untaxed. Use utility, mobile, and point-of-sale data for automatic registration, offer simplified compliance pathways, and blacklist evaders.

Third, exemptions: eliminate the alphabet soup of favours. Every tax break must have a limited time-frame or a sunset clause. Any system people don’t understand breeds mistrust. The tax code should not be a maze for the honest and a playground for the connected.

But it’s not just about how much we collect—it’s about how we spend. We must flip the budget. Instead of rewarding glossy overpasses, we reward outcomes. Tie provincial transfers to performance on health, literacy, nutrition. Double down on girl-focused........

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