Sir: According to a report published by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, poverty has increased manifold in the country. In the last decade 30 to 40 percent people have gone down below the poverty line. This means that close to half of the population has no access to the basic facilities of life such as a balanced diet, safe drinking water, and health and education services. Some might well be deprived of shelter. Previously seeing people sleeping on pavements used to be a rare sight, now it has become a normal thing. Naveed ahmed wassanKarachi