Psychology in Pakistan

Written by Abdullah Qureshi

“If money is the bond binding me to human life, binding society to me, connecting me with nature and man, is not money the bond of all bonds? Can it not dissolve and bind all ties? Is it not, therefore, also the universal agent of separation?”
Karl Marx

Pakistan has entered its 5^th unofficial year of economic turmoil. While the steep decline seems to have become lesser so, the decline still continues.

An Introduction to Pakistan’s Economic Woes

The National Accounts Committee (NAC) said that the average income per person went up a little from $1,551 in fiscal year 2023 to $1,680 in 2024. For reference, it was $1,766 in 2022 and $1,677 in fiscal year 2021.

On top of that, the Pakistani government is planning to raise direct taxes by 48% and secondary taxes by 35%.

This indicates an overall level of decline in the per capita income and a stark increase in taxes. To top it off, this decline is also in the midst of economic and political turmoil.

As a response to the proposed budget, many salaried people have resorted to protests. Banners are held high of #taxkumkaro (lower the taxes). These protests are still not as rage-filled as the table talk in Pakistani households.

What brews at the domestic and psychological level is far more debilitating than one can imagine.

These are the bare figures of the problem.

In this essay, I will attempt to assess how income and taxes impact mental health. I will also discuss what this means in the context of Pakistan.

Income and Mental Health

‘Tax Kum Karo’ is not just about taxes.

It is also about the shockingly low income of the salaried class that has to now pay additional taxes.

Low-income populations usually live under stressful situations. These chronic stressors ratchet up the risk of worsening mental health problems. Economic turmoil has long been linked to dissatisfaction with life. Poverty is associated with greater risk of common mental disorders (Adler et al., 2016).

According to the World Bank, 40% of Pakistanis are already living below the poverty line, with another 10 million hovering just above it.

This is a colossal figure. I argue here that it is far more pernicious than just a matter of sustenance.

It is a matter of psychological and philosophical devastation of an entire nation.

First, let us do a bit of groundwork and understand how the economy interacts with psychology.

How does Income Affect Mental Health?

Shields-Zeeman (2021) conducted a study on the linkage between income and mental health. They found that income is associated with reduced psychological distress and improved health.

So, combing this research with the fact that poverty exacerbates psychological issues, this presents us with an ugly cocktail.

How does Mental Health Affect Income?

A decline in mental health has a significant cost in the productivity of a country.

A decline in physical health also has a substantial cost on the economy.

In fact, Poverty is thought to lower people’s ‘cognitive bandwidth,’ which can change how they make decisions and lead to dangerous health behaviors (Schilbach et al., 2016). Knapp and Wong (2020) wrote an entire essay detailing where economics and mental health meet. They cited productivity costs and the cost of illness (COI) as coming through both direct and indirect means.

Moreover, Marcotte & Wilcox-Gök (2001) conclude that 5–6 million workers in the US between the ages of 16 and 54 lose their jobs, don’t look for work, or can’t find work every year because of mental illness. Researchers think that people with mental illness make between $3,500 and $6,000 less a year compared to those who don’t have mental illness.

However, this relationship is even more complex when both directions are considered.

The Complexity

A review by Shields-Zeeman and Smit (2022) found that increases in income were associated with a small improvement in mental health. However, a drop in income had a larger negative influence on psychological well-being.

These findings suggest that the effect of income loss is more detrimental to mental health than an increase in income is for improving mental health.

This has important implications for those living just above or below the poverty line.

Why?

Because a very short drop in income can present these people a substantial risk to income security and mental health.

In Pakistan’s context, these findings have serious implications. This is because a significant amount of people were pushed to a lower socioeconomic class in the last 5 years (Ali, 2022). In fact, many of these crises featured political turmoil and polarization.

Link to Suicide

Another crucial bit of information is that domestic and financial problems are the two most significant reasons for suicide (Naveed et al., 2023). This, in some ways, solidifies a link between financial problems and severe psychological issues.

In fact, it is even more illuminating as the political polarization effects family leadership (Rashid & Rashid, 2024). This in turn could cause many domestic issues. Thus, the economic crisis and the political polarization have both a direct and indirect effect on mental health in Pakistan.

Taxation and Mental Health

Rawls’ (1971/1999) theory of justice says that countries with more progressive taxation had higher ratings of well-being. Meanwhile, countries with less progressive taxation had more negative daily experiences.

This was corroborated by a study conducted by Oishi et al. (2012).

However, in Pakistan, the current taxation is not progressive. This is because, according to the proposed budget, the people who fall inside the ‘middle class’ are also slapped with very similar tax bracket of the more affluent class.

Moreover, many of the taxes actually target the classes which are underprivileged.

The Pakistani Finance Bill was recently changed to raise taxes on business dairy farms and fuel. Builders and investors’ earnings are also taxed at a rate of 10% to 12%. Besides that, there is now a 10% sales tax on office supplies such as notebooks, pencils, pens, ink, staplers, and more.

MNAs’ trip allowances, on the other hand, has gone up from Rs10/km to Rs25/km.

There are also some seemingly ‘soft’ attempts to recover money from those who d o not pay their taxes.

These policies can be seen as pernicious for the people who they do not benefit.

The problem is that the people who do not benefit from this are also the people who no longer possess financial stability.

Another very important finding indicated by Oishi et al. (2012) was that in low income countries, even progressive taxation does not improve well-being.

Trust

It is no secret, however, that these tax demands are not the government’s own policy.

Most of the tax demands arise from the International Monetary Fund’s camp.

The IMF’s key demands include an increase in the tax revenue target, withdrawal of subsidies, taxes on the agriculture sector, increase in levy and taxes on power, gas and oil sectors, privatisation of sick government organisations and units and improving administration, a ministry official was quoted as saying.

The problem here is that this reduces the utility of government action. Once the utility is lowered, so is the level of trust in the population.

Nations are built on philosophical principles. A nation-state that cannot protect its citizens fails to justify its utility.

This can have an even more grievous impact on the national perception of the government. Rothstein and Uslaner (2005) argue that the social trust of a government is in itself a different dimension.

If social trust is lower, many people in the population reject even the better policies. Thus, if the current party in power has any interest in continuing its service in this fragile democracy, their way of handling the economic crisis is failing.

Conclusion

It appears as if the government of Pakistan has yet to understand basic principles of building trust. This trust is not built by documentation on social media about the work trips of chief ministers. Rather, trust is built based on policies which positively affect the people. One could argue that higher taxation is the way to go.

However, when allowances of government officials are increased at the same time, one can question:

Who is the state protecting?

So far, the tentative budget favors the people who are privileged. It allows room for tax evaders. But unfortunately, it strangles those who are already living below reasonable means.

But the protests of ‘tax kum karo’ rage on. One can only hope that at some point, the middle class could find a way into the power corridors of Pakistan. Perhaps, the people who are suffering the most deserve a chance at ruling.

References

Adler, N. E., Glymour, M. M., & Fielding, J. (2016). Addressing social determinants of health and health inequalities. Jama, 316(16), 1641-1642.
Knapp, M., & Wong, G. (2020). Economics and mental health: the current scenario. World Psychiatry, 19(1), 3-14.
Marcotte, D. E., & Wilcox-Gök, V. (2001). Estimating the employment and earnings costs of mental illness: recent developments in the United States. Social Science & Medicine, 53(1), 21-27.
Naveed, S., Tahir, S. M., Imran, N., Rafiq, B., Ayub, M., Haider, I. I., & Khan, M. M. (2023). Sociodemographic characteristics and patterns of suicide in Pakistan: an analysis of current trends. Community mental health journal, 59(6), 1064-1070
Oishi, Shigehiro & Schimmack, Ulrich & Diener, Ed. (2011). Progressive Taxation and the Subjective Well-Being of Nations. Psychological science. 23. 86-92. 10.1177/0956797611420882.
Rashid, Z., & Rashid, S. (2024). Political Instability Causes & Affects. Pakistan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 12(1), 294-303.
Rawls, J. (1999). A theory of justice (Rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1971)
Rothstein, B., & Uslaner, E. M. (2005). All for All: Equality, Corruption, and Social Trust. World Politics, 58(1), 41–72. doi:10.1353/wp.2006.0022
Schilbach, F., Schofield, H., & Mullainathan, S. (2016). The psychological lives of the poor. American Economic Review, 106(5), 435-440.
Shields-Zeeman, L., Collin, D. F., Batra, A., & Hamad, R. (2021). How does income affect mental health and health behaviours? A quasi-experimental study of the earned income tax credit. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 75(10), 929–935. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-214841
Shields-Zeeman, L., & Smit, F. (2022). The impact of income on mental health. The Lancet Public Health, 7(6), e486-e487.

Written by Najwa Bashir

The formal history of psychology in Pakistan dates back to the 1960’s. In Pakistan, psychology was recognized as a distinct academic discipline over 59 years ago (Zadeh, 2017). According to Michal J. Stevens, Wedding Danny, Dr. Nosheen Khan Rehman, and Taylor and Francis (2004), Pakistan had two universities in 1947. The psychology department was first set up in 1887 at the University of Punjab in Lahore (West Pakistan) and again in 1921 at Dhaka (East Pakistan; now Bangladesh). The University of Karachi, Sindh was founded in 1946, and the psychology school has been running since 1951.

Further psychology departments were set up in Peshawar in 1950 and in Rajshahi (East Pakistan) in 1953. Pakistan’s oldest psychology labs can be found at University of the Punjab, Government College University Lahore, and Dhaka University, which is now in Bangladesh but used to be in East Pakistan. In the 1960s, only the academic and theory parts of psychology were up and running. Experimentation was not a big focus.

In 1964, there were only 250 teachers working, no national psychological association, and no study magazine. However, later on, a psychological laboratory was set up at Punjab University in Lahore to study applied psychology. Universities were also encouraged to do experiments and research in psychology, and more journals for psychological research were published by Michal J. Stevens, Wedding Danny, Dr. Nosheen Khan Rehman, and Taylor and Francis (2004) (Firdous, 2010).

Up until 1960, one of the places where psychology was taught as part of the philosophy curriculum was the Government College in Lahore (Rafiq et al., 2022). GC Lahore used to teach psychology as part of the philosophy curriculum up until the 1960s. Psychology became its department at GC Lahore in 1962, thanks to the strong direction of Dr. Muhammad Ajmal. He became the department’s founder and head (Zadeh, 2017).

Forman Christian College, Lahore, was the second school that taught psychology. At Karachi University, the first separate school of psychology was set up. It was led by Qazi Muhammad Aslam, whose main area of study was philosophy. While Sindh University became its own thing in 1960. Syed Muhammad Hafeez Zaidi was seen in Frontiers of Psychological Research in Pakistan in 1975.

The main goal was for philosophy teachers to become involved in the field of psychology. Due to this, traditional indigenous people started studying psychology, which was mostly based on theory. There were early works in Pakistani psychology written by Hafeez Zaidi and a few others.

After 1960, many psychology schools sprung up. But at first, these departments couldn’t get many students, usually only three to seven. The reason was an opening in the job market. Before 1991, there were more than 10 universities in Pakistan that mostly offered M.A. and M.Sc. degrees in Psychology. Today, in 2018, about 12 universities have started to offer BS (Hons), MS, and Ph.D. studies in clinical psychology.

From the start until now, psychologists have needed a governing group, but the idea hasn’t fully grown yet. The University of Punjab and the University of Karachi both set up the Center for Clinical Psychology because President Zia Ul Haq was very interested in the field (Rafiq et al., 2022).

From 1960 to the present day, the field of psychology in Pakistan has been progressing slowly, but steadily. The growth can be seen in the fact that full-fledged psychology schools have been set up at the universities in Karachi, Sind, and Peshawar. Several associated schools began offering M.A. programs in psychology, and it became a separate subject to study at the Inter, B.A., and BSc levels. In 2007, HEC started a four-year BS Psychology program, which changed the way psychologists are trained at the college level in a big way.

In 1983, two schools of clinical psychology opened in Karachi and Lahore, two of Pakistan’s biggest metropolises. This was a big step forward for clinical psychology. At first, both schools gave people with a Master’s degree a one-year diploma in clinical psychology. After a while, both schools added graduate programs in clinical psychology. Dr. FarrukhZahor Ahmad started the Institute of Clinical Psychology in Karachi. He is a clinical psychologist who first learned his craft at the University of Stanford in Pakistan(Zadeh, 2017).

When the National Institute of Psychology, Islamabad opened in 1976, it added another important milestone to the history of psychology (Zaman, 1991). In 2000, Bahria University in Karachi opened the Institute of Professional Psychology. Several universities in Pakistan offer bachelor, graduate, and postgraduate programs in psychology and clinical psychology. These include the International Islamic University in Islamabad, NUST in Islamabad, and Beacon House in Lahore. The Pakistan Psychological Association (PPA) was founded in 1968, and the Pakistan Association of Clinical Psychologist (PACP) was founded in 1988. Both of these events were major turning points in the field. These are two national groups for psychologists, with the third one being just for professional psychologists(Zadeh, 2017).

Psychological journals can also be used to see how psychology has changed over time. The first psychology magazine came out in 1965, and there were five more until 1991 (Zaman, 1991). The Government College, Lahore’s Journal of Psychology, now called the Psychology Quarterly, has been out since 1962. In 1978, an Urdu journal called “Zehan” started coming out. From 1992 to 1995, the Institute of Clinical Psychology at the University of Karachi put out the Pakistan Journal of Clinical Psychology every other year. Journal printing stopped from 1995 to 2005, but it started up again in 2006 and has been going strong ever since (Zadeh, 2017).

The eleven years from 1995 to 2006 marks the time when the field of psychology grew incredibly in Pakistan and a huge number of people got PhDs in psychology. During this time, a culture of research grew, and as a result of rules set by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), research papers were required for academic job openings and raises (HEC, 2019). These requirements led to a rush of research papers being published in Pakistan, and many new research magazines were also set up. Back then, from 1995 to 2006, the internet wasn’t very common, and even where it was, there weren’t many places where you could get free papers. Many researchers in Pakistan relied on the research magazines that were available in their university libraries. Due to this, these studies were mentioned hundreds of times and were the easiest to find examples of published studies. Also, most of the people who wrote these studies were professors working at both public and private colleges. These professors also oversee MPhil and PhD studies, and most of the research done at that time was for MPhil or PhD theses (Kamrani et al., 2022).

References

Firdous, N. (2010). Historical Perspective of Psychology in Balochistan: Depiction, Dynamics and Development. Bi-Annual Research Journal “Balochistan Review”,23(2), 93-111. Available at: http://www.uob.edu.pk/Journals/Balochistan-Review/data/BR%2002%202010/93-111%20HISTORICAL%20PERSPECTIVE%20OF%20PSYCHOLOGY%20IN%20BALOCHISTAN%20DEPICTION,%20DYNAMICS%20AND%20DEVELOPMENT,%20Neelam%20Firdous.pdf
Higher Education Commission (2019). Quality Assurance. https://hec.gov.pk/english/services/universities/QA/Pages/faculty-appointment-criteria.aspx
Kamrani, F., Kamrani, N., &Kamrani, F. (2022). Eleven Years of Psychological Researches in Pakistan (1995-2006): What Titles Reveal About Pakistani Research. Journal of Professional & Applied Psychology, 3(2), 319-326. https://doi.org/10.52053/jpap.v3i2.117
Rafiq, M., Zareen, G., Khalid, A., Chahal, F. M., Maqbool, T., &Hadi, F. (2022). Clinical and neuropsychology in pakistan: challenges and wayforward. Pak-Euro Journal of Medical and Life Sciences, 5(1), 119-128. Available at:https://readersinsight.net/PJMLS/article/view/2442
Zadeh, Z. F. (2017). Clinical Psychology in Pakistan: Past, Present and Future. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 7(11), 26-28. Available at: https://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_7_No_11_November_2017/4.pdf Zaman,R.M. (1991). Clinical Psychology in Pakistan. Psychology and Developing Societies. Sage Publication. Available at: http://www.sagepublication.com?content/3/2/221.