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Agricultural Productivity Impact of a Mini-Dam: A Case Study of Ziarat, Balochistan
Get PDFWater is the most important constituent of life without which,
life cannot exist. Water is a natural resource which is also used as an
input for producing different goods in factories for industrial use,
productivity of crops for agriculture use also used in our daily life
for domestic purpose. Despite such an importance, still the World is
experiencing the issue of water scarcity [WCD (2000)]. The supply of
water does not meet its demand [Bengali (2009)]. Pakistan is an agrarian
economy which is also heavily dependent on water. About 45 percent of
the total employment is generated from Agriculture sector [Pakistan
(2011)]. Main sources of water are rivers and rainfall. Balochistan is
the largest province of Pakistan. Land size is 44 percent of the total
land of Pakistan [Balochistan (2010)]. Land is fertile and provides
conducive environment for Agriculture. Agriculture productivity is high
in Balochistan. Many vegetables and crops are grown which results in
many farmers and labours livelihood. It has got varieties of species of
many fruits, particularly Apple. Important fruit crops grown are Apple,
Grapes, Cherry and Peach. Climate is also suitable for crops growth
particularly the deciduous fruits like apple, which requires low
temperature during summer season. As far as quality is concerned, apple
produced in Balochistan, especially at high altitude (1600 meters to
2000 meters) are superior in quality than that produced in the rest of
the country. The main reason is that due to dryness of the climate in
apple producing areas like Ziarat, Killa Abdullah, Pishin, Quetta etc.
Apple is one of the most popular fruit. It is delicious and crunchy and
is mostly liked by health conscious and fitness lovers as it is filled
with rich phyto-nutrients, which is very essential for optimal health.
It also contains antioxidants, which promotes health as well as prevents
several diseases. Thus, apple truly justifies the famous sayings, “An
apple a day keeps the doctor away.” One of the distinguishing features
is that there are no fungal diseases and disease free apple can be
stored for a longer period in cold storage. Also the abundance of
sunshine in the growing season improves the colour of apple which
fetches a good price in the domestic and foreign market
Agricultural Income Taxation: Estimation of the Revenue Potential in Punjab
Get PDFIn May 2011 a senator of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM),
moved a private member’s constitutional amendment bill to remove the
exemption provided to agricultural incomes from federal income taxation.
The proposed amendment mentioned a potential revenue of Rs 200 billion
from Agricultural Income Tax (AIT). This figure, however, differs widely
from some other reported estimates of potential agricultural income
tax.1 The issue of AIT is likely to echo again in the parliament and
outside as Pakistan grapples with the issue of its low tax revenues. It
is, therefore, important to carefully analyse the potential revenue from
AIT to allow more informed discussion and policy decisions on tax
options at the federal and provincial levels. The 1973 Constitution of
Pakistan gives provincial assemblies the exclusive power to make laws
pertaining to taxes on agricultural income.2 Agricultural income could
be interpreted narrowly to include crop farming and rental income from
land, or more broadly to include income from livestock and animal
husbandry. There is no ambiguity that income from the narrower
interpretation falls within the domain of provincial taxation though
there may be room for debate whether the provincial jurisdiction extends
to the broader definition of agricultural income or not [see Nasim
(2012)]. Since 1996-97 all four provinces have instituted some form of
tax on agriculture land or incomes. In its implementation this tax is
largely a land tax (based on acreage) rather than a tax on agricultural
income
Economic Reforms in Pakistan: One Step Forward, Two Steps Backwards (The Quaid-i-Azam Lecture)
No full textIn 1998 I was invited by Dr Sarfraz Qureshi, the then Director
of PIDE to deliver a lecture on “The Political Economy of Reforms: A
Case Study of Pakistan”.1 This lecture was subsequently published by
PIDE as a monograph. A year later, in December 1999, I had the honour of
becoming the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and actually
participated actively in the formulation and implementation of economic
reforms. During the six year period of public policy making I realised
that my knowledge about the political economy as manifested in my PIDE
lecture was incomplete. The narrative was more complex than I had
developed as an outsider. Now, six years later after my retirement from
the State Bank of Pakistan I again reflected upon this topic as an
observer and analyst rather than a participant. I realised that my
learnings have become much richer by applying these different
prisms—those of an international development economist, a public
policy-maker and now an independent analyst. I am grateful to Dr Rashid
Amjad and Dr Musleh ud Din and their colleagues at PIDE for providing me
this opportunity to share these learning with my colleagues, peers and
other scholars present here today. The political economy of economic
reforms and structural adjustment has become focus of growing attention
in the literature drawing at the inter-disciplinary tools of analysis
and cross-country comparative perspectives. Detailed case studies of
country situations do throw useful insights which are not captured
through cross-country studies. The key question that is explored by this
group of researchers is: if policy and institutional reforms are
associated with high economic pay offs, then why are these reform
programmes not sustained and implemented consistently? Why are they
derailed? I would like to focus the discussion on Pakistan only and
address the following questions
Estimating Standard Error of Inflation Rate in Pakistan: A Stochastic Approach
Get PDF“The answer to the question what is the mean of a given set of
magnitudes cannot in general be found, unless there is given also the
object for the sake of which a mean value is required. There are as many
kinds of average as many purposes; and we may almost say in the matter
of prices as many purposes as many writers.” Edgeworth (1888). We
estimate standard errors (S.Es.) of month on month and year on year
inflation in Pakistan based on data for the period of July 2001 to June
2010 using the stochastic approach as well as extended stochastic
approach to index numbers. We develop a mechanism to estimate S.E. of
period average headline inflation (rate) using these approaches. This
mechanism is then applied to estimate S.Es. of 12-month average rate of
inflation in Pakistan for July 2003 to June 2010. The systematic changes
in the relative prices of different groups in the CPI basket for
Pakistan are also estimated. The highest (positive) relative price
inflation occurred in ‘food, beverages and tobacco’ group and the lowest
(negative) for ‘recreation and entertainment’ group, during fiscal years
2001 to 2010. JEL classification: C13, C43, E31 Keywords: Estimation,
Index Numbers, Inflation Rate, Standard Erro
Poverty Consequences of Globalisation in OIC Countries: A Comparative Analysis
Get PDFWilliamson (2002) points out that ‘the world has seen two
globalisation booms over the past two centuries and one bust. The first
global century ended with World War I and the second started at the end
of World War II, while the years in between were ones of anti-global
backlash’. In the first period of globalisation, poverty fell from 84
percent in 1820 to 66 percent in 1910. In the second period of
globalisation poverty fell from 55 percent in 1950 to 24 percent in
1992. In the inter-war period, the world population living in poverty
remains probably stagnant. The historical negative relationship between
globalisation and poverty masks variations within and between countries
in their experiences with globalisation. Many decades of increasing
globalisation have not yet silenced the debate over the benefits of
globalisation. The fierce street protests surrounding the ministerial
meeting of the WTO and similar protests at the World Bank and the IMF
show that anti-globalisation debate is getting strong
Consumption Patterns of Male and Female Headed Households in Pakistan: Evidence from PSLM 2007-08
Get PDFRecent years have witnessed growing interest in analysing the
welfare outcomes of female headed households (FHHs) in the developing
world. The theoretical argument for examining female headship and family
welfare is underpinned by two important considerations. The first
concerns households’ access to resources, while the second pertains to
control over the allocation of resources within the household [DeGraff
and Bilsborrow (1993)]. A priori female headed households are expected
to have access to a lower level of resources than the conventional
male-headed households for a variety of reasons.1 However, this lower
resource envelop experienced by female headed households may be
partially offset by the way resources are allocated within such
households. Several studies have revealed that resources under the
control of women are more likely to be allocated for productive purposes
that promote family welfare as compared to resource allocation under the
control of men. In the context of Pakistan, the present paper aims to
explore how resource allocation within female headed households differs
from male headed households by examining the consumption patterns of
both female and male headed households in the country
Life Satisfaction and Basic Needs among Elderly People in Pakistan: Evidence from the PSES Data
Get PDFAs an outcome of demographic transition the composition of the
world’s population has changed. In turn percent share of population
above 60 years of age will be doubled from 11 percent in 2010 to 22
percent in 2050 worldwide [United Nations (2011)]. Those countries which
encountered demographic transition early are now facing the problem of
ageing societies. In developing countries, demographic transition
started late, and they have not yet encountered the problem of a large
proportion of elderly in the population. However, in the coming years
with the high proportion of elderly, these countries will also have to
face the problems with their poor economic situation and burden of
diseases. Therefore it will be a difficult task for developing countries
to combat the problem of the large proportion of elderly in the
population in the coming years if concrete steps have not been taken at
this time. Pakistan, where demographic transition started in the 90’s,
has almost six percent (more than nine million) of the population above
60 years of age in the year 2005, and it will rise to 16.5 percent (48
million) in the year 2050. If we look at the ageing index, which is the
number of persons 60 years of age or above per hundred persons below 15
years of age, the value was 15.9 in 2005. It will rise to 29 in 2025 and
further to 75.5 in the year 2050 due to decline in fertility and steady
increase in life expectancy. The old-age dependency ratio has also
increased from seven in 2005 to nine in 2025 and will reach 16 in the
year 2050 [UN (2006)]
Emerging Issues in the Implementation of Irrigation and Drainage Sector Reforms in Sindh, Pakistan
Get PDFEver increasing demand for food, electricity and domestic
water use due to rapid growth in population has remained a key challenge
for Pakistan since the 1950s. The country has invested heavily in water
engineering projects to establish the world’s largest gravity-driven
irrigation network on the Indus [Bandaragoda (2006); Bengali (2009)].
Besides fulfilling a significant proportion of the country’s energy
demand from hydro-power installations, the system irrigates about 14
million hectares of farmlands and supports agriculture sector to
contribute about 21 percent of the GDP, 60 percent of the exports and 45
percent of the labour force [Bhutta (2006); Pakistan (2012)]. Amidst its
development, the elaborated irrigation facility has left a deep
footprint on productivity and environment of the basin itself in the
form of the rising levels of water-logging and salinity and the
degradation of deltaic ecology [Briscoe and Qamar (2009); Memon and
Thapa (2011)]. By the 1960s, every year about 40,000 hectares of fertile
farmlands were turning into wastelands because of water-logging and
salinity in the basin [Bhutta (2006); Mulk (2009); Qureshi, et al.
(2008)]. Therefore, the country had no option but to develop a remedial
drainage network of thousands of kilometres of drains and numerous tube
wells parallel to the existing irrigation infrastructure
Remittances from Saudi Arabia: A Community Phenomenon
Get PDFRemittances are increasingly becoming an essential source of
foreign exchange in developing countries, in some cases, even more than
official development assistance. Recent estimates from the World Bank
indicate that global remittances are expected to exceed 2
billion dollars in 1997 to reaching almost 13.186 billion,3
the highest-ever amount received in a year by the country in the last
fiscal year, which ended in June 2012. Interestingly, the almost 1.5
million Pakistani expatriates residing in Saudi Arabia send more
remittances to Pakistan than from expatriates working and residing in
other countrie
Learning versus Working; Factors Affecting Adolescent Time Allocation in Pakistan
Get PDFThis paper explores how family, school and community factors
influence adolescents’ time allocation among market work, domestic work,
learning and leisure. We model adolescents’ time use in a multivariate
framework, using explanatory variables characterising the household as
well as labour demand, school access and school quality at the district
level. This research shows that the amount of time children spend
working, whether at home or in the market, is strongly correlated with
household poverty, as proxied by an asset index. Consistent with the
literature on the predictors of school enrolments of adolescents, the
time spent on learning is also significantly lower among the poor. In
Pakistan the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) census poverty
score database, which includes information on household assets, would be
a very promising tool to target efforts to increase children’s time
allocated to learning. JEL classification: D60, I24, I30 Keywords:
Pakistan, Education, Child Labour