Growth of Output and Productivity in Pakistan’s Agriculture: Trends, Sources, and Policy Implications

The paper aims to review the growth performance of Pakistan’s agriculture from 1950 to 1995. The long-term growth rate of agriculture, although respectable, has exhibited considerable yearly fluctuations even between decades. The period of the fifties and early seventies lacked any growth. Accelerating and high growth rates marked the decade of the sixties but the performance has not been satisfactory since 1979-80 and average growth rates have barely exceeded the population growth rate, with widespread implications for growth of national economy, food security, and social welfare of the masses. Area, modern inputs, and technology have been the major determinants of growth but prices were equally important because of their incentive and disincentive effects. The agriculture price policies adopted during the 1980s are known to have had a negative effect on the development and use of technology in agriculture. In order to boost agricultural productivity, a change in price policy is needed to ensure incentive prices. This could be done by setting agricultural commodity prices at par with corresponding import and export parity prices. A higher investment in research and development can hardly be overemphasised. There is an urgent need to remove the bottlenecks in agricultural input markets since these markets represent the typical monopoly position. To break up the monopoly of registered dealers and to promote competition, free sales in the open market by interested parties and individuals may be allowed.

An Appraisal of Sheikh abid Sindhi`s Tawali -al- Anwar Sharh Durr –ul- Mukhtar: A Jurisprudential Analysis

Sheikh Abid Sindhi (d. 1252 A.H) was one of the most distinguished Islamic scholars, jurists, and prolific authors of the Hanafī School of jurisprudence in the twelfth-century A.H from Sindh. He was widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on Hadīth and one of the omniscient men of the recent era of Hanafī Jurisprudence. His expertise in various branches of Islamic knowledge is unique. The most monumental and significant work of Sheikh Abid Sindhi is a commentary on Durr -ul- Mukhtar named: Tawali -al- Anwar Sharh -al- Durr -ul- Mukhtar. Though the commentaries on Durr -ul- Mukhtar are many and varied, the most famous and widespread commentary is Radd -al- Muhtar by Muhammad Amin ibn Abidin Shami (d.1252 A.H). This book is very crucial among Islamic scholars, but Tawali -al- Anwar is a comprehensive, extensive, rich, and authoritative commentary from every aspect of research. It was studied from the Qur‘ānic perspective, referenced from the verses of the Holy Qur‘ān, Qurānic exegesis (Tafsīr), Hadīths, Science of Hadīth, and jurisprudential approaches of Hanafī scholars and intellectual evidence. Undoubtedly, it deserves to be acknowledged as the finest and comprehensive and informative commentary on Durr-ul-Mukhtar. This study focuses on the author`s biography, methodology, and its importance in the Hanafī School of jurisprudence. Keywords: Abid Sindhi Tawali-al-Anwar Sharh-al-Durr-ul-Mukhtar, Hanafī School of Jurisprudence, Qurānic exegesis, Tafsīr, Hadīths, Science of Hadīth

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT, MICROFINANCE AND POVERTY NEXUS: AN EMPIRICAL ESTIMATION PERSPECTIVE

Deprivation and poverty are worldwide challenges for poorer countries. Poor people especially women were excluded from financial services until microfinance institutions (MFIs) emerged. During the past few decades microcredit has enjoyed tremendous growth and women continue to be the major beneficiaries. The main objective of this study is to check weather microfinance helped women to attain decent work and strengthen their empowerment or not. This study is based on primary data and respondents were taken from First Microfinance Bank. A sample of 125 respondents was taken through simple random sampling. The study area was Faisalabad.SPSS 22 software was used for analysis. Logit model was applied to get and analyze results. Results showed significant positive relationship between women empowerment and different socio-economic independent variables i.e. income, investment, self-confidence, free movement. All the variables are statistically significant other than education. It is cleared that women enjoy more freedom, self-confidence and learn more skills to enhance their income. By investing in people and empowering individual women and men with education and generation of equal opportunities can create the conditions to allow the poor to break out of the poverty

ResViT: A Framework for Deepfake Videos Detection

Deepfake makes it quite easy to synthesize videos or images using deep learning techniques, which leads to substantial danger and worry for most of the world\u27s renowned people. Spreading false news or synthesizing one\u27s video or image can harm people and their lack of trust on social and electronic media. To efficiently identify deepfake images, we propose ResViT, which uses the ResNet model for feature extraction, while the vision transformer is used for classification. The ResViT architecture uses the feature extractor to extract features from the images of the videos, which are used to classify the input as fake or real. Moreover, the ResViT architectures focus equally on data pre-processing, as it improves performance. We conducted extensive experiments on the five mostly used datasets our results with the baseline model on the following datasets of Celeb-DF, Celeb-DFv2, FaceForensics++, FF-Deepfake Detection, and DFDC2. Our analysis revealed that ResViT performed better than the baseline and achieved the prediction accuracy of 80.48%, 87.23%, 75.62%, 78.45%, and 84.55% on Celeb-DF, Celeb-DFv2, FaceForensics++, FF-Deepfake Detection, and DFDC2 datasets, respectively

Competitive Advantage of Broiler Production in District Mansehra

Poultry is an important sub sector of livestock and is ahead of all other sub sectors in economic growth. Broilers production is a specialized branch of poultry farming. This research was conducted in Mansehra is the region where considerable amount of commercial broiler production takes place. The region of the study has a high concentration of commercial activities, infrastructural facilities like veterinary care as well as climate that favor the production and marketing of poultry meat products. This research was conducted in nine villages of district Mansehra namely Kotli Pain, KotliBala, Kheil, Tanda, Bafa, Chatar Plain, Ahl, Batal and Mongandawraha. The purpose of the research was to analyze the competitive advantage of broiler farming. There were 276 broiler farms in District Mansehra. Simple Random Sampling Technique was used for data collection from 70 respondents. Average total cost of production was found Rs. 738238.11 having average farm size of 3605 broilers. Feed and one day old chick costs constitute 90.01% of the total cost. Average expenditure on production per broiler was Rs. 220.20 having net profit per broiler of Rs. 24.11.Based on Porter study (1990), average variable cost (C) was used as a proxy for competitive advantage. Results of regression analysis show that the main factors that significantly affect competitive advantage of broiler farming in the study area was feed cost, day old chick cost, labor and medication cost while capacity utilization and extension service contacts negatively and significantly affect cost. It means that reducing the above mentioned costs and using installed capacity and extension service contacts will reduce production cost and will promote competitive advantage of broiler production. Broiler production should be encouraged through better feed management practices and also by feeding broilers with nutritious feed. Broiler farmers should be encouraged to fully use their installed capacity of their farm

HOW DO THE STAFFS WORKING IN STEEL FACTORIES IN ARDEKAN CITY DEAL WITH THE RISKS OF MOBILE PHONES?

Nowadays, mobile phone is one of the most important tools required for social and professional life; however, in some circumstances it can threaten the health of individuals. This study was aimed to determine the behaviors of the staffs working in steel factories in Ardekan city toward the risks of mobile phone radiation and microbial contaminations. This cross-sectional study, which was conducted in 2014, was aimed to evaluate the staff behaviors toward the risks caused by mobile phone radiation and microbial contamination. The study population was consisted of the staffs working in Steel Plant of Ardekan city. The participants of the study were selected via using cluster sampling method. A researcher made questionnaire was used to collect the data; it had 15 items which were used to assess the behavior. The validity (face and content validity) and reliability of the questionnaire were first confirmed and then it was used for data collection. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 22 statistical software. In this study, a total of 319 employees working in steel factories were evaluated. The mean age of the subjects was 33.04 ± 8.05 years, the mean work experience of the staff was 8.3 ± 6.05 years, the mean household size was 2.4 ± 1.33 persons, and the mean mobile phone bill at the last two months was 50.25 ± 43.47. The mean score of the staff behavior varied from 0.9 to 2.4. The studied staff had a poor performance in terms of health promoting behaviors. Apparently, to promote staff health it is necessary to utilize educational interventions aimed at increasing staff awareness, changing their attitudes and behavior, and finally changing their lifestyle..5%). Most cases whose reports were unsatisfactory were documented in the first phase of the study (i.e., 9 patients, 90%). Conclusion: Cervical screening with Pap smear enables early diagnosis and management of cervical abnormalities and consequently a decrease in the rate of invasive cervical cancers. It is suggested to conduct studies with larger sample sizes to ensure the beneficial effects of cervical screening

GEOLOGICAL AND PETROGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SORAP MASSIF GABBROS, RAS-KOH OPHIOLITE, BALOCHISTAN, WESTERN PAKISTAN

This study discussed the Sorap Massif which is the ophiolitic fragment composed of the upper mantle and lower crustal section of an ophiolitic sequence. An ophiolitic sequence in Sorap Massif consists of harzburgite, dunite, large distant units of serpentinized wehrlite intrusion and outcrop of confined layered gabbro covered by the Quaternary sand dunes. The basal part of gabbroic intrusion is in contact with mantle rocks and the upper part is juxtaposed with the Kuchakki Volcanic Group. On outcrop-level and in hand specimen, the gabbros exhibit needle-like ferromagnesian minerals including hornblende associated with plagioclase and pyroxene. Petrographically the gabbros are classified into norite, gabbro norite and gabbro. The mineral constituents of norite are plagioclase, orthopyroxene and amphibole, gabbro norite is consists of equal constituents of orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene, plagioclase and amphibole and the gabbro is composed of clinopyroxene, plagioclase and amphibole. The high constituents of minerals such as pyroxene, amphibole and low constituents of olivine in the Sorap gabbros indicates that these gabbros are formed by the immature part of the oceanic plate with dehydration of the oceanic plate subduction

Geology, Petrography, and Mineralization of Sedimentary Hosted Strata-Bounded Barite Deposit at Gunga, Khuzdar District Balochistan, Pakistan

Gunga deposit is a type of sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) deposit located in the northwest of Khuzdar Knot within the Kirthar Fold Belt (KFB) in the south-west of Khuzdar city. This deposit is formed during the late TriassicJurassic period due to rifting of the Gondwana supercontinent. being hosted with the Anjira Member of Jurassic Shirinab Formation, hosted the Strata bounded barite mineralization in these deposits contact with the siliceous and iron-rich gossan zones. The Baritic zone indicates the complex replacement of silica with the continuous silicification which is followed by massive to brecciated type Barite. Petrographically, barite has a very fine to coarse grain texture, anhedral to euhedral crystal shape, and forms dendritic crystal structure In the Back Scattered Electron (BSE) images, the crystal morphology of Barite exhibits well-developed elongated crystal structures with medium to coarse grain texture. Energy Dispersive X-rays (EDX) graphs indicates the high peaks of Ba, S, and O elements associated with sub-peaks rockforming mineral elements (Si, Al, Na, K, and Ca) along with sub-peaks of ore-forming mineral elements (Pb, Zn, Fe, P, and Ni