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Published:October 1996
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.
Published:October 1996
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.
Published:October 1996
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.
Published:October 1996
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.
Competition Policy and Democracy in Pakistan
Shahid Amjad Chaudhry
Published:October 1996
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.
Gender and Structural Adjustment in Pakistan
Shahrukh Rafi Khan and Mehnaz Ahmad
Published:October 1996
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.
Published:October 1996
Enthusiasm about finding the magic route to development and
economic emancipation of the deprived masses of the Third World seems to
have yielded place to cynicism, inertia and an air of resignation. No wonder,
the world has gone back to the two hundred years old Adam Smithian
philosophy of market mechanism, and unbridled capitalism ------ a
“systemless system”. The present “back-to-the-market” wave, of course, has
been expertly marketed by donor agencies and governments. But the meek
way in which the developing countries have accepted it is also the product
of frustrations resulting from assorted strategies and programmes
implemented in the last few decades. Rural development, basic needs,
population planning, import substitution, export-led growth, nationalisation,
public sector corporations, agricultural extension, heavy industry ---- the list
of half-backed policies is long. These were supposed to have been delivered
by bureaucracies which lacked imagination, energy and empathy for the
poor. But their appetite for corruption and capacity for inaction and
lethargy were enormous.
KEYWORDS:
Book Review, Developmental issues, Tasneem Ahmed Siddiqui.
JEL: N/A.
Published:October 1996
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.