Pakistani middle class is not playing it's role in Politics- Leading to current issues in Pakistan

[SQ8]

Taxes collected can be direct and indirect. In case of most developing countries, the per capita income is so low that the direct tax collection is equal or lesser than indirect taxes. In India for example, GST collection is 60% of total tax collected by the exchequer. Given that indirect taxes are placed on ALL citizens of a country equally -- can people still claim that only the 'middle class' is paying taxes? This is an insult to the lesser fortunate people.

It is - and I’ll elaborate

The indirect aspect which you speak of in terms of Pakistan is a direct result of the inability of the Federal Revenue folks to collect paycheck/earnings/profit taxes directly from the majority of earners in Pakistan except the salaried(and by that formally salaried class through organizations). We have NO or negligible earnings coming in from larger corporations especially those not recognized MNCs but running immense empires based on real estate or agriculture in Pakistan.

There is no direct taxation as such of a massive cash salaried class of which the less fortunate are a part of but also massive loss due to tax evasion by businesses and land owners.
What that leaves is the directly taxed middle class who incidentally also pay the indirect taxes along with everyone else and have the added burden of(by socioeconomic and religious factors) supporting the impoverished class as well through alms and general support.

This middle class is still expected to create new businesses, keep existing ones running along with the entire functioning of the state as well.
This also bleeds into creating motivation for corruption, regardless of the inclination towards it - today it is next to impossible to keep a couple in the middle class category.. forget children . Just a married couple cannot afford rent on a single bedroom place with a 800cc death trap car along with expenses on a typically expected middle class salary for Pakistan.

So this class is being pushed into poverty or forced to migrate. They can forget about EVER owning a property unless they inherit it and even the most basic of vehicles on a lease(nearly impossible to get approved for now on that middle class salary) is near unaffordable.

So while your taxation example is great for Canada or the US where the middle class still has a livable standard (even though that is under attack too) they can maintain fairly well - it complements fails the litmus tests for fair and proportionate implementation in Pakistan

 

[El Sidd]

Pakistan's most vulnerable spectrum of society is now critically endangered thanks to ongoing global economic crisis post pandemic.

Amidst a gory battle with the most mundane routine of human existence each day, the luxury of time to afford an unsustainable hobby such as politics is a mission impossible.

This task is best left to the spectrums of society which finds this luxury as a commodity that comes as cheap as life itself.

 

[ziaulislam]

Pakistani middle class makes up a good chunk of the country

"Attempts to quantify Pakistan’s middle class, largely based on income and the purchase of consumption goods, show that as many as 42% of Pakistan’s population belong to the upper and middle classes, with 38% counted as “the middle class"
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.th...-middle-class-rising/article17378526.ece/amp/

Pakistani middle class by any metric's is not at all Small, it's was the 18th largest middle class pop in the world in 2015

Shouldn't middle classes be playing a more active role in pakistani politics and future of our country

For such a large demographics - there's no party for the middle class, except for MQM, you see our politicians and they're a mix of fuedals, rent seeking buisnessmen (not the one's who bring in money through exports or productive buisneses )

No one truly represents the middle class
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If anything only Pak army represented the middle class but at this point I don't think they do


In every country middle class is the core demographics in any political movement but pakistani middle class slept through the 90s and 80s,2000s, 70s was for the poor classes and , in 2010s we saw rise of PTI with the help of the urban middle class
But I am not too sure if PTI represents Middle class (IK second in command is literally SMQ)

never have the middle classes shown any initiative throughout our political history, it's only in 2010s they kidna woke up but not really

Why is this the case? And why is our middle class amongst the least politically involved middle classes probably in the world - I mean almost zero representation with this much % makes little sense

Except faults within the psychology of urban middle classes

It is..
It says khata hey tu lagata be hey