Ishrat Hussain, a former Pakistani civil servant and currently a World Bank official, has been writing on Pakistan's economy for the national print media. Much like the professional economist that he is, his views reflect an objective approach to a vast range of economic issues. It was now time for him to correlate his analysis of individual problems and sectors to a macroeconomic framework and make some sense out of Pakistan's baffling styles of economic management. How could a compact economy with a rich resource endowment be reduced to the position of a basket case? Hussain's hypothesis: a small group of elites managed to "hijack the state" and "rig the market" for its own exclusive benefit. The "Elitist State" now controls both the private and public sector. No matter which way the economy turns ___ market mechanism or state control ___, the goodies will inevitably land, and are actually landing, in the hands of the controlling elites
KEYWORDS: Book review, elite, Pakistan, privatisation, nationalisation, illiberalism, market mechanisms.
JEL: N/A.

The development of rural areas is now becoming one of the major objectives of government policy in less developed countries. It has become part of policy simply because governments in developing countries are beginning to realise that to tackle poverty effectively, and to reduce the pressure on urban centres, income levels, as well as the quality of life in rural areas has to be made significantly attractive to prevent people from migrating to the relatively higher income urban areas. Rapid urbanisation in many developing countries has resulted in increased social stress which is reflected in high crime rates, and a substantial decline in social services such as education and health, water supply and sanitation, electricity and housing, etc. The developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are afflicted with both problems - rural poverty/environmental degradation and a rapidly urbanising sector that is estimated to double every twelve to fifteen years.
KEYWORDS: Book review, rural development, urbanisation, rural poverty.
JEL: N/A.

This is undoubtedly a most useful, updated collection of articles on various aspects of the Pakistani canvas. It is a valuable contribution given the relative paucity of material and literature on such topics. Aside from the somewhat tedious chapter on foreign policy, tiresome by virtue mainly of its bulk (stretching over a total of about a hundred pages in its entirety), the articles make for interesting and refreshing reading for not merely the specialist but the layperson as well. If length is any indication of importance, then surely it is a case of misplaced priorities to have given so much space to a subject such as foreign policy and, in comparison, the pieces on such vitally crucial issues as population planning and human rights are allocated, for whatever reason, a considerably less quantum of space in the book.
KEYWORDS: Book review, Pakistan, economic development, human rights.
JEL: N/A.

This is the second edition of Dr. Saeed Shafqat's popular and well received book, the first edition of which came out in 1995. Pakistan studies has been an integral part of the country's educational syllabi and competitive examinations for many years now. Unfortunately the syllabi for our school, college and university students reflect a narrow definition of the subject. Not much attention has been paid to historical authenticity and accuracy of facts. The approach in general is simplistic and one is sorry to note, jingoistic. No wonder this discipline, whose importance cannot be overemphasised, fails to capture the minds and imagination of the young students and the level of perceptions manifested by its study are abysmally low. There is need to raise the tone and level of debate and to move beyond the Pakistan Movement to which this subject has largely been confined. Even here the treatment is by and large narrow and simplistic.
KEYWORDS: Book Review, Pakistan studies, Pakistan Movement, syllabi, Pakistan.
JEL: N/A.

Government health expenditures as a percentage of GDP have declined in Pakistan, though not in absolute real terms, over the structural adjustment period. Progress over this period is evident on a number of health indicators. However, Pakistan still lags far behind the means of low income countries and South Asian countries in all child survival statistics. In view of this, and since the evidence shows a significant and sizeable association of public sector health expenditures and the decline in infant mortality rates, there seems little justification in cutting public sector expenditures.
KEYWORDS: Government, Pakistan, government health expenditures, public sector expenditures, basic health unites, rural health centres, Social Action Plan, SAP, service delivery.
JEL: N/A.

The assumption that people were to be given theatre was of course in keeping with the government fiction that people were to be given development particularly if they behaved themselves. (Wa Thiong’o, 1986:41) Despite our short history, the norms of scholarship in Pakistan have already become well entrenched: the grooves already seem so deep that digging ourselves out of them may present some difficulties. (One example of that in the social sciences generally, and political science and history in particular, is the retelling of the major historical events and noting major trends without offering any remarkably new interpretations). The need, in other words, of newer and different understanding of where we are and how we got there is considerable. One purpose of introducing Escobar’s (1997) Encountering Development and related materials is to offer an opportunity to get out of these academic ruts. Specifically, two exits are simultaneously provided by Escobar; one lets us interrogate the dominant narrative of development, and the other enables us to consider the possibilities that postmodernism opens up. He applies the latter to the former, which is an uncomplicated way to make what is valuable in postmodernism clear and accessible. (In what follows, the numbers in parenthesis refer to pages in Escobar’s work).
KEYWORDS: Development, postmodernism, international organisations, Third World, colonialism.
JEL: N/A.

Of all mankind’s adventures in search of peace and justice, arbitration is amongst the earliest. Long before law was established, or courts were organised, or judges had formulated principles of law, man had resorted to arbitration for the resolution of discord, the adjustment of differences and the settlement of disputes. One of the recurring themes in International Business Arbitration is the tension between the will of the parties and the ability of states of regulate the conduct of arbitration proceedings. The general trend in international commercial arbitration is to respect, within limits, the will of the parties regarding the choice of law and the procedure for carrying out their arbitration. Thus, party autonomy is recognised as one of the cardinal elements of international business arbitration.
KEYWORDS: International business arbitration, proceedings, arbitration international, arbitration, disputes.
JEL: N/A.

This study raises policy issues arising from the fact that the present tax-expenditure policies and institutional set-up at both the provincial and local government levels of the Province of the Punjab are dated and need revision. There is now an active awareness within the Punjab Province that substantial changes are necessary. The broad outlines of these required changes which have been identified in this study, as follows: i) The Provincial Government needs to recognise that the 1997 National Finance Commission (NFC) Award’s projected high level of Federal Divisible Pool Revenues are unlikely to materialise in the light of the substantial changes made in tax policies by the post 1997- Award Federal Government as well as by the depressed state of the economy. As a result the historical pattern of Federal Transfers covering more than 85 per cent of consolidated Punjab Provincial and Local Government expenditures is unlikely to be ever repeated. In fact the 1997-98 coverage of 75 per cent is likely to go down even further and this gap needs to be filled by active resource mobilisation and expenditure curtailment measures.
KEYWORDS: Fiscal resources, tax collection, local governments, provincial governments, income tax, provincial excises, finances, provincial revenues.
JEL: N/A.

A conference on Science and Economic Development was held at Hotel Pearl Continental, Lahore on 1-2 December, 1997. The event was sponsored and organised by the Lahore School of Economics. The World Bank provided a grant to help meet the cost of participant travel and subsistence. The conference brought together Pakistan’s leading businessmen, scientists, engineers, and economists to discuss and develop ideas on how to improve Pakistan’s state of science and technology (S&T) capabilities with a view to accelerating the country’s pace of economic development, strengthening its competitive position in the global economy, and preparing it for the challenges of the 21st century. The conference calendar and the list of participants can be found in the Annex.
KEYWORDS: Conference report, science, Pakistan, economic development, promotion of science and technology, national system of innovation.
JEL: N/A.

The Annual Confidential Report is a government document and is used by all government departments. The document is used for all employees of Grade 16 and above. The same document is used for the teaching staff as well. The inefficiency of the document to present an appropriate appraisal of scholarship characteristics of the higher education academic staff is evident. This study will focus on identifying various factors that ought to be assessed to provide information about the performance of the teaching staff and help formulate an effective format to achieve the objectives of appraisal.
KEYWORDS: Higher Education, Pakistan, Higher Education Academic Staff, HEAS.
JEL: N/A.