E/C.12/PAK/CO/1 Poverty 65. While recognizing the reduction in the levels of poverty during the past 15 years, the Committee is concerned that a very high proportion of persons continue to live in poverty in the State party, especially in certain regions, for example in Sindh, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and in Balochistan. While welcoming the adoption of the Benazir Income Support Programme and the gradual increase in its coverage, it remains concerned that over 1 million eligible people are still not covered, that the cut-off score used to identify beneficiaries does not reflect the poverty line but is based, rather, on the fiscal capacity of the State party and that the amount awarded is not sufficient to ensure an adequate standard of living for beneficiaries (arts. 9 and 11). 66. The Committee urges the State party to make every effort to combat poverty and improve the Benazir Income Support Programme, in particular by: (a) Ensuring that the Programme is rights-based, clearly informing potential beneficiaries about their right to claim benefits and to challenge any decision resulting in their exclusion from the Programme; (b) Covering all persons living in poverty, including by aligning the level at which people are eligible for benefits under the scheme with an objective poverty line; (c) Continuing to increase the number of beneficiaries and make special efforts in regions with a higher incidence of poverty; (d) Increase the amount of the benefits to ensure an adequate standard of living for the beneficiaries. Land rights 67. The Committee is concerned that, despite the reform efforts of the State party, there is an increasing trend of landownership concentration, which results in a large number of landless farmers and small-scale landholders living in poverty. It also exposes landless farmers to being severely exploited through feudal tenancy arrangements, such as sharecropping, in Sindh and Balochistan (arts. 7 and 11). 68. The Committee recommends that the State party strengthen its agrarian reform programme with a view to benefiting landless farmers and small-scale landholders and that it promote their security of tenure and access to land, including by adopting the necessary normative reforms. It urges the State party to immediately take measures to address the situation of landless farmers, particularly those under the sharecropping tenancy arrangement and to prohibit tenancy arrangements of an exploitative nature. Right to adequate food and nutrition 69. The Committee is concerned that around 58 per cent of households are food insecure and nearly 30 per cent of the population is suffering from hunger. While welcoming the adoption of an infant and young child feeding strategy, it remains concerned at the insufficient implementation of the strategy owing to a lack of funding. It is particularly concerned about the fact that 44 per cent of children are stunted and 35 per cent of child deaths are related to malnutrition. 70. The Committee recommends that the State party take all steps necessary to address persisting acute hunger and malnutrition and, in particular, the critical nutritional needs of infants and children. It also recommends that the State party allocate sufficient resources for the full implementation of the infant and young child feeding strategy and that it adopt a legislative framework protecting the right to adequate food and nutrition and a national action plan on food security and nutrition that is in line with the Committee’s general comment No. 12 (1999) on the right to adequate food and the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security. 10