ONE of the most remarkable narrative shifts of recent times is the almost complete disappearance of the ‘global middle class’ from public discourse. It was only a few years ago that Pakistan was being celebrated, alongside other non-Western societies, as home to a rapidly growing and highly prosperous middle class with globalised tastes and aspiration. What seemed like an irresistible historical force has turned out largely to be a myth. The rather more familiar tale of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is back. Many who might still self-identify as middle class have, in fact, fallen rapidly back down the class ladder.

Let us recount the original claim about the global middle class. It was birthed in the early 2000s, when the Musharraf dictatorship was at its zenith. Its primary drivers were a cheap credit boom fuelled by recently privatised commercial banks, and a wave of remittances in the post 9/11 period. The result was a consumption boom that suggested significant social mobility.

For the lucky — or what neoliberal ideologues would call the more enterprising — enhanced class and status position were consolidated through investment in land or other financial assets, success in upgrading small businesses, or........

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