Suchergebnisse

Zakat which literally means growth, extension and purification
is a premium (in most cases annual) on all forms of accumulated
productive wealth and on a variety of agricultural produce. It is
calculated at various rates according to the nature of the asset or
product, and is due to 'the needy' (Mustahqueen or Mustahiq for
singular) of the Muslim community.! It is one of the five basic tenets
of Islam and besides being an obligatory act of worship, it is a system
through which a Muslim society can eradicate poverty and inequalities
[Qardhani (1981)]. In Pakistan till recent years people used to pay
their zakat to the needy on self-assessed basis Without involving state
functionaries. However, following the Sunni Muslim view that collection
and disbursement of one of the functions of an Islamic state, a system
to this effect was introduced for the first time in Pakistan in 1980.
Accordingly the collection of zakat on non-agricultural assets started
in June 1980 (Ramdall 1400) and that of ushr (i.e. zakat on agricultural
produce) from Rabi season of 1983. The introduction of the zakat system
in Pakistan is indeed a unique experiment of transforming religious
ideals in practical institutions. Given the experience of one decade
now, it would, therefore, be useful to see as to what extent the system
as practiced in Pakistan has the potential to eradicate poverty from
society. The present paper is an attempt in this 'direction. It is drawn
from an overall study of the zakat system in Pakistan based on primary
data collected through a random sample survey.

This paper is an attempt to throw further light on the
empirical dimensions of the issue of agricultural taxation. 1 It has two
objectives: First, using an alternative methodology it attempts to
measure the effective tax burden (as opposed to the nominal one) in the
agricultural sector (AS) relative to other sectors (NAS): and second, it
tries to examine (empirically) the implications of some of the tax
proposals made in the literature for various farm groups and, in
particular, for tenants. Some of the earlier estimates are either too
aggregate or too outdated to be of immediate relevance? Accordingly
Sections I and II take the above two points in turn, whereas Section III
presents the tentative conclusions of the paper.

It can hardly be denied that since the late Sixties, the
introduction of High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) of a number of
commodities, along with tube well irrigation and chemical fertilizers,
has significantly improved the overall agricultural productivity in
Pakistan [12; 15]. However what is still being debated is the effect of
this phenomenon, generally termed "Green Revolution", on rural income
distribution in a country where ownership and control of productive
resources are far from evenly distributed. I Studies by Khan [13] and
Chaudhry (7] in particular have generated a great deal of interest in
this subject because of their conflicting conclusions. Khan, on the
basis of his study of the Punjab and Sind, concludes that the Green
Revolution, while generally being beneficial, did not benefit the small
farmer as much as it did the large farmer? As a result, it led to a
widening of inter-farm and inter-regional income inequalities. According
to him, new varieties, which were relatively more profitable, were
adopted more widely by large farmers than by the small ones. Similarly,
compared with small farmers, large farmers had greater access to, and
control of, modern inputs, institutional credit and tractorized farm
power; enabling them to gain still more from the new technologies.

Private agricultural marketing systems in developing countries
are sometimes considered incapable of handling rapid growth in farm
produce with adequate reward to the producer. As such, they could
discourage improvements in farm productivity. This paper shows that this
is not necessarily so in Pakistan. During the Green Revolution of the
Sixties, when, owing to cultivation of HYVs, total production of wheat
and (coarse) rice increased significantly, the marketing system
facilitated the farmer's search for a desired price. More traders
entered the trade, and increased competition among them enabled the
farmer to secure better prices for hi' wheat and rice crops. The
trader's margin at different stages of marketing also went down during
the Green Revolution period, signifying an improvement in the
performance of agricultural markets.

The performance of the existing agricultural marketing system
in developing countries has been a subject of considerable debate in the
past many years.' One of the many issues of this debate concerns the
ability of the traditional marketing I)'Stem to adopt new technology and
to accommodate any increase in agricultural productivity without leaving
"harmful" effects on the consumer or on the farmer. Other things being
equal, any agricultural marketing system which enables the farmer to
benefit from the adoption of a new farm technology, at least as much as
other market participants would do, may be regarded as having performed
''well'' [14]

Anyone who likes to analyse the world in terms of comparative
statics would , in Ihe light of this book's contents. find his approach
erroneous as the book leaves no doubt in the reader's mind that only by
unfolding the forces of dynamics can one grasp some reality underlying
any change. The author, who grew up in the walled city of Lahore, has,
with a beautiful combination of his personal experiences and theorising
ability, produced a remarkable study of the intricate processes which
may have shaped the existing physical and socio-economic structures of
the city.

This paper attempts to analyse the effects of changes in
agricultural prices on different segments of the society. Taking the
cases of two major crops; namely wheat and rice, and of agricultural
inputs in general, it works out the 'own-price effects' and 'cross-price
effects' of price changes on producers, consumers, and the government in
Pakistan.1 In this way the paper provides a broad (multimarket)
framework which could be used to evaluate the government's agricultural
price policy.2 The paper is divided into three sections_ Section I
discusses the methodological framework. The empirical analysis is
provided in Section II. Section III deals with some tentative
Conclusions inferable from this study.

The main objective of this paper is to study the rural income
distribution in Pakistan by determining income accruing to farm and
non-farm households from various assets held by them. Most of the
existing literature on income distribution in Pakistan [3; 4; 8; 10; 12;
14; 17] focuses either on aggregate income or only on income from crops
and classifies rural households by their income level. It ignores the
internal structure of income as well as one of the main distinguishing
features of rural households, namely their relation to land. In a
developing country, however, the internal structure of income is likely
to change with changes in the level of income. It is therefore important
to assess the contribution of an individual factor (asset) to the
overall income of a household and its impact on income inequality.
Moreover in the case of Pakistan where land is becoming increasingly
scarce for small farmers [7; II] it should be interesting to know how
these farmers are trying to "fight back" the pressure on their land with
alternative sources of income.

Development process may entail changes in the socio-economic
positions of people from one generation to the other. In Pakistan, no
attempt has so far been made to study the lines on which people gain
upward mobility or the factors which are involved in this process. This
paper is an attempt in this direction. By using data from primary
sources, we aim at .explaining the income and wealth positions of
Pakistanis from different generations in terms of their endowments of
social, human and physical capital and other socio-economic
characteristics. The assessment of incidence and nature of such mobility
would enable us to identify the processes through which different
socio-economic groups attempt to improve their positions in a changing
society.

This article provides violent crime data in Malaysia from 2006 to 2017. The violent crimes include murder, rape, gang robbery, robbery and voluntarily causing hurt cases. A total of 330,395 violent crime cases were reported in this 12 year period and the data were tabulated state by state for all thirteen states of Malaysia, including two states in Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak) and one federal territory (Kuala Lumpur). In general, violent crimes show a decreasing trend from 2006 to 2017 in Malaysia. However, armed gang robbery and armed robbery show a fluctuating pattern from 2008 to 2011. A similar pattern was also recorded for unarmed gang robbery from 2008 to 2010. The violent crime data deposited here are available for further analysis, e.g., for identifying risk factors such as demography, lifestyle, socio-economic status, government policies etc. which may be associated with violent crime incidence and pattern across the country.

In a recent editorial in the journal Nature Sustainability, the editors raised the concern that journal submissions on water studies appear too similar. The gist of the editorial: "too many publications and not enough ideas." In this response, we contest this notion, and point to the numerous new ideas that result from taking a broader view of the water science field. Drawing inspiration from a recently hosted conference geared at transcending traditional disciplinary silos and forging new paradigms for water research, we are, in fact, enthusiastic and optimistic about the ways scientists are investigating political, economic, historical, and cultural intersections toward more just and sustainable human-water relations and ways of knowing.