Poverty ranged from ~3.5% in Islamabad to 76.9% in Tharparkar in World Bank spatial analysis.
Source
World Bank — https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2025/10/17/fragile-gains-enduring-challenges-charting-pakistan-s-path-out-of-poverty. Verified in source set / retroactive normalization pending.
What it proves
Pakistan's inequality has a powerful geographical dimension.
What it does not prove: 3.5% and 76.9% are the two endpoints of a district distribution, not typical values — most districts sit far from both, and Islamabad is a small federal enclave whose profile no ordinary district can replicate. District-level figures in spatial analysis are small-area estimates built from survey and geographic data, not direct district censuses of the poor.
Memory hook: 3.5% to 76.9% → a twenty-two-fold poverty gap inside one country
Rebuts the claim: 'A uniform national cash-transfer benefit set at one level will reach Pakistan's poor' — one national parameter cannot fit Islamabad and Tharparkar.