Suchergebnisse

Climate extreme events, during 1994 to 2014, have witnessed high vulnerability index for Pakistan. Droughts (particularly 1998-2002) had drastic impacts on agriculture and livestock production and forced people to migrate. Pakistan is fundamentally an agricultural economy and its Framework for Implementation of Climate Change Policy (FICCP), 2014-2030 is obviously on adaptation actions to address current and future anticipated climate change threats to Pakistan's various sectors. South Asia has generally been vulnerable to climate change and transboundary water issues are taking serious shape. This paper addresses the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of Pakistan's current climate governance in the context of institutional arrangements at federal, provincial and diplomatic levels in relation to implementation of water sector adaptation strategies as outlined in FICCP. Standard SWOT analysis highlights key challenges and shortcomings towards climate response strategies and actions. In this attempt, the nexus of water and agriculture, post 18th amendment provincial coordination, various aspects of recently promulgated Climate Change Act, transboundary and riparian issues, and the obligations of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction have been taken in to account. Based on overall assessment of existing gaps, this paper suggests way forward for good and sustainable climate governance in Pakistan to implement water sector adaptation strategies.

The rule of law is one of the most important, if not the most important, constitutional principles. It has been a philosophical concept since the time of the Greek philosophers or even before. For the English jurists, the rule of law encompasses two central principles, which are the supremacy of law and equality before law. However, the British showed no concern for upholding it during the era of colonization. In Pakistan, the principles of supremacy of law and equality before law were incorporated into the Constitution. The Pakistani Superior Courts have widened the scope of these two principles in their decisions. However, in reality, such principles as enunciated by the Judiciary are not actually implemented in true letter and spirit.

Child marriage is still widespread in countries across the Indian Subcontinent. The practice has important consequences for the health and well‐being of the woman and the child. In this study, we examine the incidence of child marriage in Pakistan and the changes that have taken place over time in the profile of the women who marry before turning 18. We use data from all the four rounds of the representative Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS), namely, 1990–1991, 2006–2007, 2012–2013, and 2017–2018. With the help of these data, we observe the evolution of the individual and household characteristics of early‐marrying women over a span of three decades. We find that the practice of child marriage has become much less generalized over the past three decades. In 2017–2018, 39% of married women of child‐bearing age (i.e., those between the age of 15 and 49) had got married before the age of 18. Though still high, it is nonetheless lower than the 54% incidence found in 1990–1991. The decrease is particularly significant among women from wealthy and urban households. The incidence of child marriage is increasingly concentrated among women who are older and less educated and those belonging to poor, rural households. Elimination of the harmful practice of child marriage is crucial for achieving the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) which deals with gender equality. The findings of the study highlight the close links present between child marriage, poverty, and urbanization.

Amid changing geopolitical and geostrategic milieu along with the evolving inter-regional economic prospects and emerging threats to the regional stability, high-level bilateral engagements bring Russia and Pakistan to begin a new era of relationship. The institutional framework between the two countries facilitates them adequately to collaborate in the fields of defence, trade, investment, economy, science, technology, agriculture, education and culture. In the backdrop of situation in Afghanistan, the Indian tilt towards the West and other regional developments led to renewed bilateral relations between Russia and Pakistan. It is imperative that this renewed relationship between both the countries must be viewed on the strategic and regional canvas. Apparently, no major obstacles restrict them to improve their multi-dimensional relations but certain factors may lead to slow down their pace of growth, which needs to be unearthed through critical lens. This paper intends to analyse the recent improvements in Pak-Russia relations in terms of its viability, the prospects of cooperation, current and discernible challenges for trade and investment and other key factors involved in this relation in a descriptive mannaer.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between structural arrangements of public agencies of Pakistan and their autonomy.


Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a questionnaire using the key informant approach from 70 public agencies of Pakistan. Hypotheses were drawn from the structural instrumental perspective to examine the relation between structure and autonomy. In order to test the hypotheses, multivariate regression analysis was performed on the data.


Findings
The research highlights that out of the three major structural dimensions, horizontal specialization, vertical specialization and governing board, only governing board is seen to affect the human resource management dimension of autonomy while vertical specialization is related to financial management autonomy. None of the three hypotheses were completely supported. The divergence of the results from the structural instrumental perspective points to other factors related to agencies including administrative culture and context of state that matter in delegation of autonomy to the agencies by the government.


Originality/value
This paper contributes to an on-going debate on globalization of public management reforms with emphasis on structural instrumental explanation of the agencification in developing countries.

Terrorism is one of the menaces that inflicted huge human losses to the state and society of Pakistan. On December 16, 2014, the brazen attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar killed 141, including 132 children and nine members of the school staff. In reaction, on January 7, 2015, the government adopted the 21st amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, which entailed the establishment of military courts to punish the terrorists and their facilitators. This study gauges the opinion of young students towards this new counter-terrorism policy. The results suggest two outcomes: firstly, the public admits that terrorism is one of their main problems and secondly, there is an ethnically diverse view on the military-led public policy to curb terrorism.

The popular contention that foreign, military, & religious forces are responsible for Pakistan's poor economic & political development is refined. It is asserted that the rapid modernization of the national army during the 1950s, facilitated by assistance from the US & motivated by competition with India's armed forces, resulted in the creation of an army that has become independent from the Pakistani state. It is subsequently argued that the explosion of militant religious organizations in Pakistan, particularly during the 1970s as Pakistan struggled to repel Soviet-supported Afghani forces from its borders, & the US's reaction to Pakistan's impending acquisition of nuclear weapons also affected its economic & political development. Moreover, it is stressed that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency's redirection of military activities toward Kashmir & involvement in domestic politics throughout the 1990s hampered Pakistan's growth. Three recommendations for reversing Pakistan's meager development are offered, eg, rallying domestic & international support for true democratic transition in present-day Pakistan. J. W. Parker

Most of the distributive politics literature focuses on how incumbent politicians allocate development resources in the absence of spending rules, and on the politicization of rules when they do determine distribution. What is less clear is whether politically neutral spending rules lead to neutral spending. Using new data on a long-running federal development fund and elections from Pakistan in a regression discontinuity design, the author presents strong evidence that the ruling party manipulated fund distribution to disproportionately benefit its co-partisans and punish the weakest opposition. Considering various factors, partisan bias is the most plausible explanation. These findings are important not only because the purpose of rules-based funds is to prevent politicized distribution but also because they have implications for development patterns and for using such funds to address questions about legislator effort and patronage patterns within constituencies, which requires assuming that legislators do receive their share of funds in the first place.

Se analiza la delicada situación interna que atraviesa Pakistán, agravada por las fuertes inundaciones que sufrió el país a partir de julio de 2010. Este ARI aborda el complejo escenario político y social interno de Pakistán, que ha padecido unas fuertes inundaciones con dramáticas consecuencias. Además, esta vez la comunidad internacional ha sido poco generosa con la petición de ayuda humanitaria lanzada por el país y ha reaccionado tarde. Las inundaciones han complicado la situación política interna. Tras repasar la relativa estabilidad del sistema político creado tras la transición democrática, se analizan los principales actores: gobierno central, fuerzas armadas y sociedad civil. Se concluye que el futuro político de Pakistán dependerá mucho de la capacidad de esos actores para afrontar cuestiones económicas y sociales que continúan siendo un lastre para el desarrollo del país.

Employment and manpower development (E&MD) considerations
are appearing in Pakisan's development plans since the Fifth Five-Year
Plan. These considerations, though improving upon earlier neglect and at
times indifference, however, did not go beyond mere projection
exercises-themselves point of considerable debate 1 - and calculations
of employment impact of investment plans and targeted sectoral growth
rates.2 These plans (manpower plans) besides being devoid of education
and training programmes also have no integration with the development
plans, a prerequisite for a meaningful development exercise. A general
lack of awareness amongst the planners and policy-makers about the vital
links between the E&MD and the development only partly explains the
existing scenario. Absence of a reliable and adequate data base on
E&MD related variables appear to be an important constraint for
undertaking any meaningful exercise of employment and manpower planning.
Existing institutional mechanism of the Labour Market Information System
(LMIS) in Pakistan is not responding adequately in addressing its three
functions, namely (i) Labour Market Information, (ii) Labour Market
Diagnosis, and (iii) Labour Market Intermediation.3 The first two
functions are required to provide detailed information on
E&MD-related variables a subject of discussion of this paper. This
non-responsiveness is mainly attributable to low E&MD considerations
in earlier policy formulations.