In the current era, increased attention is being paid to protect the environment in developing countries. The concern stems primarily from recent advances in information concerning health problems associated with pollution. The extent of the deep-seated dangers present has motivated detailed studies and consequent pollution abatement programmes to be adopted by several countries. However, the evaluation of projects and policy reform for environmental effects in Pakistan has been rare. The task thus is posed to provide credible estimates of the benefits that can be provided by pollution abatement, and the corresponding costs.
KEYWORDS: Pakistan, automobile pollution, air pollution, environmental costs, air pollutants, gasoline, petrol, emissions, health cost estimates.

JEL: N/A.

The debate over the relationship of population and development is now more than 200 years old, starting with the treatise on population by Malthus, in 1798. The increase in population, ever since, has remained a matter of concern for economists and development planners. The most recent high point of the issue was witnessed at Cairo in September, 1994. The conference which was attended by more than 10,000 persons from all over the world ended with an agreement on the issues involved in the growth of population and the economy. The outcome was a Plan of Action for the next twenty years, which would concentrate on Reproductive Health in order to obtain, “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity in all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions and process”. This can be a turn-around in global efforts for human health and welfare, if properly implemented.
KEYWORDS: Population growth, plan of action, poverty, industrialization, development, sustainable development, social development, Pakistan.

JEL: N/A.

Higher Education (HE) in Pakistan presents a case of the "inverted pyramid". The need of the country is to eradicate illiteracy and yet on the eve of the new millenium it stands at a humble 45 per cent. Poverty in the country is on the rise. Given the constraint of the financial resources the downward spiral is evident and yet the masses at the grassroots level could greatly benefit from increased literacy skills. Equipping them with functional literacy skills would clearly improve their quality of life. Given the two opposing trends whereby the country needs to provide massive literacy skills to its populace and the infrastructure of education heavily biased in favour of HE, an innovative approach within the education system and its mode of delivery is needed. This paper focuses on one such possibility and proposes a model to develop a link between the two to place the benefits of HE at the doorstep of the populace where it is desperately needed.
KEYWORDS: Pakistan, higher education, human development indicators, HDIs, national development programmes, community development unit, CDU, BUNYAD Literacy Community Council, BLCC.

JEL: N/A.

In recent years, the sensitive issue of child labour has received world-wide attention and has become the focus of serious discussion in developing as well as developed countries. Any exact information on child labour is usually hard to come by as most of the children work in the unorganised informal sector, which is neither regulated by labour laws nor is monitored by any organisation. These working children are usually illiterate and start working at a very early age, are inexperienced and vulnerable, they usually work long hours in deplorable conditions, have no medical cover, go without sufficient and proper food and clothing, and get little rest and recreation. In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyse the major causes of female child labour in the city of Multan and certain measures and policies have been suggested which could help in bringing an end to this inhumane practice. Legislation against child labour is not an ideal solution in a country such as Pakistan. The child labour phenomena is not as simple as it appears and needs consideration in the context of the microeconomics of the family and population growth and macroeconomics of the social security structure of a country, unemployment, underemployment, opportunity cost and productivity of formal education. There are very few studies on child labour in Pakistan and on female child labour, hardly any study can be found. Data has been collected for 60 female child labourers, employed as maidservants, baby sitters and other household activities etc. Most of these female children work in the houses of educated and well off people who are usually against child labour. This exploitation of child labour cannot be stopped by child labour laws only. In this regard, other measures such as more facilities for education and vocational training are indispensable. A group of social volunteers comprising workers, employers, government officers, media experts, members of non-government organisations and educationists should make earnest and sincere efforts to achieve the objective of minimising child labour and improve their living conditions as much as possible.
KEYWORDS: Child labour, Pakistan, female child labour, legislation, unemployment, formal education, literature, education policy.

JEL: N/A.

The obvious fact of female under-representation in educational management across cultures and nations is mentioned in every relevant study. Interestingly this phenomenon transcends the dichotomies such as developed/under-developed, Eastern/Western, Muslim/non-Muslim, First/ Third World countries. Variations are more often due to situational differences. For example, the percentage of female representation in higher education management for the U.S., Britain and China as given by Lyn Davies is respectively 24, 13, and 26 per cent (1992-6; Also see Coleman: 1996), 20-30 per cent in Pakistan (Ibid:4). These statistics could be misleading for generalisation purposes if it is assumed that a higher percentage means more educated women or less gender discrimination. We know that a comparatively higher percentage of women managers in Pakistan is because of 'women only' institutions. In the contexts where management jobs are open to men and women, women are in extremely low numbers, and the situation is not very different in other countries.
KEYWORDS: female under-representation, female participation, sex-roles, management, Pakistan.

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International economic policy is now more under the sway of orthodox economics than it has ever been. The main international economic institutions, the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, and the major developed economies are unremitting advocates of free trade and impose their views on the developing countries. And the developing countries, whose attempts at economic development through protection have mostly failed, are on the whole inclined to accept these views. Over the last twenty years economic policy in these countries has more and more come to be formulated by orthodox neo-classical economists, often described in the press as “reformers”, who advocate more reliance on markets and less protection against imports.
KEYWORDS: International trade, neo-classical theory, shortcomings, specialisation, models, Heckscher-Ohlin, Haberler, Bensusan-Butt, mechanised production.

JEL: N/A.

Similar to most countries, the objectives of the taxation system in Pakistan are not well-defined. Historically, the primary objective has been resource generation for the government. The taxation system has simultaneously addressed the secondary objectives of promoting area/sectorspecific economic activities, discouraging undesired imports/production, encouraging savings and investment. These objectives were met through a variety of tax concessions and exemptions, rebates and credits, differentiated tax rates and tariffs. The revenue shortfalls/leakages resulting from preferential tax treatment of the desired activities were offset through appropriate changes in various fiscal instruments, e.g. high tax rates and tariffs, regulatory duties, extended withholding and presumptive taxes, excise duties on services, and many more. These measures, in turn, complicated the taxation system and adversely affected the equity, neutrality and progressivity thereof.
KEYWORDS: Tax policy, preferential tax treatment, structural reforms, administration, federal revenue.

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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.

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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.

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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.

The exchange rate poses an awkward problem; if the same goods are produced by and traded between different countries and if international trade is competitive, the prices of such goods in any country will be the same, regardless of the country of origin. The law of one price must hold within each country; exchange rate movements cannot alter the relative prices in the same country of competing goods according to country of origin. There is, then, no general a priori reason why purchasers in a given country should choose the product of one country rather than the competing product of another and the standard argument, that changes in exchange rates alter the volumes of imports and exports through such relative price changes, cannot hold for such goods. The conclusion is that, if most of the imports and exports of a country are goods that have international competition, there is no reason that exchange rate changes will have predictable effects on its balance of trade
KEYWORDS: Exchange rate, balance of goods, unemployment, trade, price comparison, imported and domestic goods.

JEL: N/A.

The state of Pakistan appears to have embarked upon a process of transforming itself. It faces a host of grave socio-political and economic issues which manifestly do not yield to the traditional style of governance. It has also realised that its decayed and outdated administrative system cannot enable it to discharge its social sector obligations even on the limited scale the population has become used to. Thus, on the one hand, it is availing of the opportunities afforded by the rhetoric of globalisation and market economy, and withdrawing from whatever social responsibilities to the people it hitherto recognised - in the areas of education, health, employment, communications, public utilities, etc. On the other hand, it is trying to reinforce its coercive powers through increased reliance on majoritarianism, authoritarian approaches to issues generally reserved for democratic decision-making, and short-circuiting of judicial processes.
KEYWORDS: Comment, Civil society, Pakistan, representative government, institutional safeguards.

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Biplab Dasgupta. Structural Adjustment Global Trade and the New Political Economy of Development. New Delhi. Sage Publications. 1998. Price Indian Rupees 450 (hardback). The author has written a very topical book the relevance of which cannot be understated. At the core of the book the author discusses the concept of the new political economy of development which forms the theoretical underpinnings that lie behind the structural adjustment/ stabilisation programmes of the international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Biplab Dasgupta has very concisely and succinctly analysed the new political economy of development which has, as its centre-piece, a blind faith in the operation of free-market forces. This can be traced back to the Reagan and Thatcher years, which saw a shift away from interventionist policies to allowing the markets to decide.
KEYWORDS: Book review, structural adjustment, Pareto-optimality, political economy of development, developing countries.

JEL: N/A.