Unethical Practices in Pakistani Construction Industry

Construction Industry plays a substantial role in a country’s national economy, regardless of the level of economic development. It is beyond any doubt that this sector is an important employer of a nation’s workforce as it employs between 2 to 10 percent of the total workforce in most of countries. Same is the case with Pakistani Construction Industry. The industry has never been explored and exploited to its fullest capacity. Unfortunately the industry is seriously infected with corrupt and unethical practices which lay major obstacles towards growth and productivity of the industry. This research has been undertaken with a view to find out the most occurring unethical practices in Pakistan. To achieve this objective, a survey questionnaire was designed and disseminated to the respondents. A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed, out of which total 125 responses were received, which is a good response for this study. The data was analyzed by using Statpro software. The major findings are; lack of training in ethics, corruption and bribery, bid shopping, and fraud and unfair conduct. These can be addressed by evolving codes of ethics, imparting high quality training in ethics and above all setting personal examples by the top management. Keywords: Unethical, Construction, Practices, Pakista

Life at risk

The issue of child labor and hazardous work is a reality in many developing countries including Pakistan. With its high population density, mostly in the rural areas, a majority of the households engage in activities that are geared towards survival without considering the negative implications. Children who are usually of school going age and on whose shoulders the future depend are forced to work, often in hazardous conditions. The reasons for child labor are many; the most salient factors are poverty, lack of education and the lack of implementation of the laws of Pakistan. This study was conducted in the Union Council Dhilum Ballagun, Sialkot district in the Punjab Province of Pakistan; where many forms of child labour on farms is widespread. Child labor in agriculture demonstrates a high recruitment rate of young people; the conditions are often dangerous to many hazards that really harm their health. This study primarily discusses the agriculture child labor in district Sialkot with a particular focus on their working and health condition

Trends of Safety Performance in Construction and Civil Engineering Projects in Pakistan

The major construction and  civil engineering projects are sponsored by public sector in Pakistan. The users contracting and bidding procedures do not offer a significant space to the aspect of safety performance in construction and engineering projects. The prevalent measures of safety are after- the- fact measures - that means safety is given importance once casualties have actually been occurred. Such practices or measures are termed as inductive, reactive, trailing, down stream or lagging indicators. This is so because they are based upon retrospective data. As the country has undergone through massive development in engineering, construction and infrastructure sectors, safety aspect has been transformed from lagging indicators to leading indicator. Companies and organizations have started focusing on good safety performance under safety climate and culture. In this paper, a sincere research effort has been made to assess and analyze the health and safety performance of various constructions firms as well as overall construction engineering industry of Pakistan. In order to achieve this objective, various structured interviews and survey questionnaire were designed. The data collected from industry specific respondents has been analyzed using statpro   software. The salient findings of this study are as follows; the majority of the casualties are Fall of Individuals from Heights, Electric Shocks, Caught in between the Plants, Machinery and Confined Spaces and Struck by an Object or Machinery. Similarly there is no positive mindset from top down, non application of safety laws, lack of safety management plan, lack of safety and health of workplace, inadequate arrangement of first aid, lack of personnel’s protective equipment and absence of accident reporting mechanism. The major recommendations of the study are as follows; At industry level, safety rules should be  as regulated and re-defined, documented and enforced. Moreover  provision of personnel protective equipment, training of entire organization, safety management plan under safety officer, adequate first aid at sites, efficient reporting mechanism and safety awareness of employees and workforce will also improve the existing situation. It is also recommended that more research should be carried out in order to evolve a comprehensive safety management policies. Keywords: Construction, civil engineering, Pakistan, safet

Cost Performance in Construction Industry of Pakistan

Construction industry is notorious and infamous as far as cost base lines and project budgets are concerned. More than 90 percent of projects delay gets over budgeted or completely abandoned due to either paucity of funds or mismanagement at different levels. Despite a major contributor in the Gross Domestic Product of a country, its full potential has never been exploited. Perhaps this retrogressive atmosphere has been cultivated by callous, careless and unprofessional attitudes of all stakeholders of construction industry. The primary stakeholders which affect the projects positively or negatively in cost dimension are; the government, the contractors, the consultants and the clients or owners. The authors conducted interviews as well as surveys with construction professionals, contractors, architects, design engineers, suppliers and sub contractors in order identify the most occurring causes of cost overruns in construction projects. In addition to this contemporary literature was studied and reviewed with a purpose to assess the current and ongoing issues in the construction industry. A questionnaire was distributed among respondents on cost performance of various completed and under construction projects, with a view to highlight the concrete reasons which push the projects out of approved budgets. The major conclusions from this research paper which have been drawn are; corruption and bribery, political interests, poor site management, delay in site mobilization, rigid attitude by consultants, extra work without approvals, frequent changes during execution, gold platting, safety and health and limited access to job sites. In order to avoid, eliminate or mitigate effects of these causes viable recommendations have been recommended. Keywords: Cost Performance, Construction Industry, Pakista

Wild Soybeans: An Opportunistic Resource for Soybean Improvement

Reduced genetic diversity in cultivated soybean coupled with changing dietary expectations, climate change, and increase in population demands expansion of current gene pool. Wild soybeans are an opportunistic resource and a rational choice to discover novel genes and gene families for alternative crop production systems and to improve soybean. Multiple agronomic traits, lineage-specific genes, and domestication-related traits have been studied in wild soybeans in contrast to cultivated soybeans, and it has been proved that wild soybeans are an essential genomic resource containing unique and useful genetic resources that have been lost during domestication to expand the gene pool in order to improve soybean. Wild soybean is very often a plant of disturbed habitats of Southeast Asia. The vulnerability of these habitats to agriculture systems and urban expansion causes a reduction in the area of distribution and hence the diversity. To capture the wild soybean genetic diversity in its main distribution areas, a unique and comprehensive germplasm collection, characterization, and conservation platform is direly needed. Chung’s Wild Legume Germplasm Collection is preserving and maintaining a representative wild soybean germplasm collection guided by the principles of conservation genetics. These wild legumes and particularly wild soybean is a promising genetic resource for soybean breeders

The Investigation of Nonavailability of Passive Safety Systems Effects on Small Break LOCA Sequence in AP1000 Using RELAP5 MOD 4.0

The passive safety systems of AP1000 are designed to operate automatically at desired set-points. However, the unavailability or failure to operate of any of the passive safety systems will change the accident sequence and may affect reactor safety. The analysis in this study is based on some hypothetical scenarios, in which the passive safety system failure is considered during the loss of coolant accidents. Four different cases are assumed, that is, with all passive systems, without actuation of one of the accumulators, without actuation of ADS stages 1–3, and without actuation of ADS stage 4. The actuation of all safety systems at their actuation set-points provides adequate core cooling by injecting sufficient water inventory into reactor core. The LOCA with actuation of one of the accumulators cause early actuation of ADS and IRWST. In case of LOCA without ADS stages 1–3, the primary system depressurization is relatively slow and mixture level above core active region drops much earlier than IRWST actuation. The accident without ADS stage 4 actuation results in slow depressurization and mixture level above core active region drops earlier than IRWST injection. Moreover, the comparison of cladding surface temperature is performed in all cases considered in this work

Participation of NGOs for development of Socio-Economic status of Employees in Pakistan

This study investigates the development phenomena launched by local and international NGOs in the context of Pakistan especially in the field of education, health, saving, living standard, socio-economic, environment, micro-finance, good governance and social justice etc. Notwithstanding, this study examines the effect of NGOs’ policies on socio-economic development of their employees in Southern Punjab. Data were collected through questionnaires which have been analyzed with E-Views. For this study, total number of 300 respondents was selected from 12 districts of Southern Punjab. The districts included in this study are (Bahawalpur, Bhakkar, Dera Ghazi Khan, Jhang, Khanewal, Layyah, Lodhran, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Vehari). The number of respondents included in this survey varies from organization to organization and district to district. The non-probability (purposive sampling) method was used for the selection of employees of organization and for data collection. Hence NGOs in Pakistan play the important role of catalyst in the attainment of sustainable living standard, prosperity, attitude, per capita income, saving, right decision for family matter, level of eternal satisfaction, social status among colleagues of same level

Modelling the gender inequality in Pakistan: A macroeconomic perspective

The paper takes up the case of gender build inequality and its potential repercussions on economic growth of Pakistan. Using cointegration and causality analysis, we explore the relationship between gender inequality and its macroeconomic determinants i.e. economic growth, financial development, trade openness and foreign direct investment. For the this purpose, we have applied the Bayer-Hanck combined cointegration approach to test the long-run relationship and Granger causality for causal links amid the variables on the most recent and extended time period data (1972-2013). The cointegration test results validate the long-run association among the underlying variables. We found economic growth and financial development ignite gender driven disparity. Whereas, trade openness and foreign direct investment found to reduce gender gap. The positive bidirectional causal link between economic growth and gender inequality portrays unhealthy socio-economic environment to reduce gender inequality in the country. The feedback effect exists between financial development and gender inequality

Stability of Capsaicinoids and Antioxidants in Dry Hot Peppers under Different Packaging and Storage Temperatures

The maintenance of the quality and storage life of perishable fruits and vegetables is a major challenge for the food industry. In this study, the effects of different temperatures, packaging materials and storage time on the stability of capsaicinoids and antioxidants, such as total carotenoids, ascorbic acid and total phenolic compounds, were studied in three commercially cultivated hot pepper hybrids, namely Sky Red, Maha and Wonder King. For this purpose, dry whole pods were packed in jute bags and low-density polyethylene bags (LDPE), stored for five months under controlled conditions at 20, 25 or 30 ¿C and analyzed on Day 0 and at 50-day intervals until Day 150. The three hot pepper hybrids differed significantly with respect to their capsaicinoids and antioxidant concentrations, but the results indicated that with the increase in storage temperature and time, a gradual and steady decrease in these levels was equally observed for all hybrids. Overall, mean concentrations after five months were significantly reduced by 22.6% for ascorbic acid, 19.0% for phenolic compounds, 17% for carotenoids and 12.7% for capsaicinoids. The trends of capsaicinoids and antioxidants evolution were decreasing gradually during storage until Day 150, this effect being more pronounced at higher temperature. Furthermore, the disappearance rates of capsaicinoids and antioxidants were higher in peppers packed in jute bags than in those wrapped with LDPE. In conclusion, despite the sensitivity of capsaicinoids and antioxidants to oxygen, light and moisture, the packaging in natural jute or synthetic LDPE plastic bags, as well as the storage at ambient temperature preserved between 77.4% and 87.3% of the initial amounts of these health- and nutrition-promoting compounds during five months’ storage