In Pakistan, historically, regional economic disparity has been an important political issue. During the 1960’s the economic disparity between East and West Pakistan fueled the movement for provincial autonomy in East Pakistan and subsequently the movement for national independence in what became Bangladesh in 1971. During the late 1970’s and 1980’s the issue of regional disparity between the provinces of what remains of Pakistan has acquired an explosive potential. However, this is an issue that has been charged by emotion, and it may be time now to begin a serious analysis to enable effective policy formulation to overcome the problem.
KEYWORDS: regional disparity, regional economic disparity, Pakistan, Punjab.
JEL: N/A.

For those trying to find answers to the large number of unresolved and pressing issues resulting from international labour migration, the economies of APEC and their future development provide an area of very special interest. APEC2 includes amongst its member economies the world’s two largest exporters of labour, namely Mexico and the Philippines, as well as the world’s three largest destinations for permanent migration, namely, the United States, Canada and Australia. It includes economies, which both import as well as export labour and economies which have passed through the “turning point” or transition from a labour exporting to a labour importing country. It also includes the world’s most populous economy, the People’s Republic of China, which still exercises strict controls on labour migration, a situation, which could change dramatically in the foreseeable future. APEC, including as it does all the major economies in the fastest growing dynamic economic region in the world, is also ideally placed to provide an answer to the growing debate on whether globalisation will accelerate or slow down the present labour migratory pressures.
KEYWORDS: Labour, APEC, International migration, human development.
JEL: N/A.

An essential component of a programme for structural readjustment is a reform of the taxation system so that it supports the basic thrust of the reform package. Although the system of taxation in Pakistan is supposedly based on the principles of equity and has a progressive character it has not actually functioned in this manner. This is so because the system has evolved as a result of changes made at different moments in time in response to the exigencies of the government’s revenue needs and the pressures exerted by different lobbies. The attempt to use the taxation system to serve a variety of social and economic objectives has created distortions and made the structure rather complex and non-transparent, thereby weakening its potency as a revenue generation instrument, while adding unnecessarily to costs. The structure is, therefore, characterised by direct taxes not being paid by those who should be paying them, indirect taxes being largely paid by those who are otherwise considered too poor to pay taxes and subsidies and exemptions being cornered by those who should not get them.
KEYWORDS: Taxation, Pakistan, Taxation System, government, revenue.
JEL: N/A.

No greater disappointment for Pakistan’s foreign policy since the break up of the Soviet Union has been the inability to benefit from increased trade and traffic with five Central Asian Republics (CARs). The continuing civil war in Afghanistan has blocked land routes while neighboring countries such as Iran and Turkey have surged ahead with strengthening economic links with Central Asia.
KEYWORDS: Central Asia, Pakistan, CAR, Central Asian Republics, Soviet Union, US, Nazarbayev.
JEL: N/A.

This paper argues that competition policy has focused exclusively on the productive and financial sectors which has consequently seen periods of extreme concentration of assets by the private sector, nationalisation and subsequent privatisation and de-regulation. However, the political momentum generated from the nationalisation moves in industry and finance has resulted in complete government control through nationalisation of the education sector which has had adverse consequences for human resource development. Public administration has also deteriorated as a result of expansion of the nationalised sector and consequent diversion of economic rents to public administrators. The challenges facing the economy are to increase competitiveness and reduce rent seeking through eliminating trade barriers, privatisation and de-regulation in the production, finance and education sectors which are only possible in democratic environments and which reinforce the democratic process itself particularly through human resource development. An important dilemma relates to the infrastructure and energy sectors where issues of privatising natural monopolies and cartels raise questions of institutional capacity in regulating these sectors.
KEYWORDS: Competition, Democracy, Pakistan, development, human development.
JEL: N/A.

We review the change in the socio-economic condition of women during the intensive period of structural adjustment (1987/88 onwards) in their role as producers, as home managers and as mothers. In their role as producers, overall female labour force participation increased such that their share in the labour force virtually tripled. However, over this period there has also been a dramatic decline in female self-employment and a more dramatic rise in the female unemployment rate. In their role as home managers, women confronted a more than doubling of the sensitive price index and a cut in consumption subsidies as a percent of the budget by about two-thirds. The price of wheat, from which the poor derive almost three-fifths of their caloric intake and three-fourths, also more than doubled. In their role as mothers, data show that compared to 1987-88, education expenditure as a percent of GNP has been constant while that of health has actually declined.
KEYWORDS: Women, Gender, labour, labour force, household economics, economics.
JEL: N/A.

The book essentially revolves around a discussion on the implications and meaning of the word ‘paradigm’ seeking an alternative paradigm for development economics. It is amply apparent that development economics is not an academic discipline and its usefulness is on its way out to all intents and purposes. The author attempts to make a brave effort to rescue it by highlighting its relevance and importance in the current corpus of economic theory.
KEYWORDS: DEVELOPMENT, PARADIGM, DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS.
JEL: N/A.