Poverty in Pakistan: Increasing Incidence, Chronic Gender Preponderance, and the Plausibility of Grameen-type Intermediation

Pakistan is a large country with a population estimated at 130.580 million.1 The economy has a low-income of US$490 per capita, with an estimated Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) of US$ 2230.2 It has managed to achieve substantial economic growth in the past thirty years until the dawn of 1990s. The growth rate has averaged 6.8 percent, 4.8 percent and 6.5 percent in 1960s, 70s and 80s, respectively.3 Evidence from the National Income Accounts, Household Surveys and time series data on the real wages of unskilled workers shows that economic growth has contributed to reduce consumption poverty4 in Pakistan. The table placed as Appendix A at the end shows that GDP per capita has increased in real terms by about 63 percent between 1972-73 and 1990-91. Private consumption per capita also increased in real terms by about 36 percent. Despite the fact that the population has nearly doubled during the period, there have been gains in income and consumption in per capita terms.5 Further evidence of the decline in consumption poverty comes from various research studies in the past. These studies have generally used Household Integrated Economic Surveys (HIES) and estimated the incidence of poverty by using various definitions.

Poverty in Pakistan: Increasing Incidence, Chronic Gender Preponderance, and the Plausibility of Grameen-type Intermediation

Pakistan is a large country with a population estimated at 130.580 million.1 The economy has a low-income of US$490 per capita, with an estimated Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) of US$ 2230.2 It has managed to achieve substantial economic growth in the past thirty years until the dawn of 1990s. The growth rate has averaged 6.8 percent, 4.8 percent and 6.5 percent in 1960s, 70s and 80s, respectively.3 Evidence from the National Income Accounts, Household Surveys and time series data on the real wages of unskilled workers shows that economic growth has contributed to reduce consumption poverty4 in Pakistan. The table placed as Appendix A at the end shows that GDP per capita has increased in real terms by about 63 percent between 1972-73 and 1990-91. Private consumption per capita also increased in real terms by about 36 percent. Despite the fact that the population has nearly doubled during the period, there have been gains in income and consumption in per capita terms

The Unilateral Creation of International Law During the War on Terror : Murder by an Unprivileged Belligerent is not a War Crime

Murder by an unprivileged belligerent is a war crime created by the United States Department of Defense for singular use in military commissions. The charge is unprecedented under the law of war, law of armed combat, international humanitarian law, and customary international law. War crimes are defined through these particular instruments, and the international system does not allow for the unilateral creation of war crimes by a single nation

Impact of Religiosity and Level of Acculturation on Cultural Alignment: An Exploration of Terror Management Mechanisms among Muslim American Women

ABSTRACT Impact of Religiosity and Level of Acculturation on Cultural Alignment: An Exploration of Terror Management Mechanisms among Muslim American Women by Farah Taha Goheer, M.A. Advisor: Joel Sneed, Ph.D. Background: Terror management theory (TMT) is based upon the notion that human beings require ongoing psychological protection from the unyielding, existential threat of death. A large body of evidence has shown that human beings manage death-related terror by aligning with and endorsing the dominant views of their cultural worldviews. Notably, as immigrants experience a new culture, worldviews become rearticulated to incorporate elements of host and heritage cultures. However, it is unclear how individuals with prolonged bicultural exposure effectively buffer death-related fears. Few studies in the vast TMT literature have been conducted with immigrant populations and the terror management defenses of Muslim American women, in particular, have yet to be investigated. As such, the purpose of this dissertation was to extend TMT research by examining the ways in which Muslim American women negotiate diverse aspects of their cultural worldviews to secure terror management benefits. Objectives: The current investigation examined the terror management defenses employed by Muslim American women in the context of elevated death anxiety and tested the potential moderating effects of acculturation and religiosity. In accordance with the mortality salience (MS) hypothesis of TMT, heightened death awareness was predicted to intensify support of the cultural worldview, such that participants would produce more positive evaluations of a worldview-supporting essay and more negative evaluations of a worldview-threatening essay. The association between increased death salience and worldview defense was also predicted to vary as a function of level of acculturation to U.S. society and religious commitment to Islam. Participants and Methods: The sample included 53 Muslim American female undergraduate students. Following random assignment to the MS prime condition or control group, participants read and evaluated two essays that were ostensibly written by Muslim American women in response to an image of a Muslim woman wearing an American flag hijab. The essays were designed to activate either secular or religious defensive responses to messages that challenged American and Islamic values, respectively. Measures of affect, death-thought accessibility, religiosity, acculturation, discrimination-related stress, and collective and personal self-esteem were also included. Results: Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to test the main effect of MS and the moderating effects of acculturation and religiosity on worldview defense (i.e., composite essay score). Contrary to expectations, the study’s predictor hypotheses were not supported. Heightened death anxiety did not result in the typical increase in worldview defense. Furthermore, the relationship between MS and worldview defense was not moderated by acculturation or religiosity. Conclusions: Taken together, the results of the present study did not support our hypotheses. In light of strong empirical support for the effects of heightened death awareness on worldview defense in prior studies, our findings were interpreted with caution. Alternative explanations for our results, limitations of our study design and sample, and avenues for future research with Muslim American women were discussed

1+1 Dimensional Compactifications of String Theory

We argue that stable, maximally symmetric compactifications of string theory to 1+1 dimensions are in conflict with holography. In particular, the finite horizon entropies of the Rindler wedge in 1+1 dimensional Minkowski and anti de Sitter space, and of the de Sitter horizon in any dimension, are inconsistent with the symmetries of these spaces. The argument parallels one made recently by the same authors, in which we demonstrated the incompatibility of the finiteness of the entropy and the symmetries of de Sitter space in any dimension. If the horizon entropy is either infinite or zero the conflict is resolved.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures v2: added discussion of AdS_2 and comment

Irrigation Water Quality Assessment and Salinity Management Strategies in Bahawalpur Division, Pakistan

Economy of Pakistan is agricultural based and it mainly dependent on canal supplies. Due to rapid population growth, there has been a dramatic increase in the intensity of ground water exploitation leading to decline water table and deteriorate ground water quality. Tube well water is one of the most common resources to support the irrigation in situation of canal water scarcity. Considering the importance of tube well water, present study was conducted for the quality assessment of tube well water to provide guidelines to farmer and researches for better crop production by adopting water management strategies. Total 1400 water samples were collected from Bahawalpur division during the year 2017. These samples were analyzed and categorized according to suitability criteria of water quality evaluation. 38.64 percent water samples were found fit, 7.65 percent were marginally fit and 53.7 percent water samples were found unfit for irrigation purpose. Majority of water samples were found hazardous for irrigation purpose. There is need to analyze the existing water resources and recommending comprehensive conservation and management strategies in view of catering the planning requirements for the future. Keywords: Salinity, Sodicity, Ground water, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

Are braneworlds born isotropic?

It has recently been suggested that an isotropic singularity may be a generic feature of brane cosmologies, even in the inhomogeneous case. Using the covariant and gauge-invariant approach we present a detailed analysis of linear perturbations of the isotropic model ${\cal F}_b$ which is a past attractor in the phase space of homogeneous Bianchi models on the brane. We find that for matter with an equation of state parameter $\gamma > 1$, the dimensionless variables representing generic anisotropic and inhomogeneous perturbations decay as $t\to 0$, showing that the model ${\cal F}_b$ is asymptotically stable in the past. We conclude that brane universes are born with isotropy naturally built-in, contrary to standard cosmology. The observed large-scale homogeneity and isotropy of the universe can therefore be explained as a consequence of the initial conditions if the brane-world paradigm represents a description of the very early universe.Comment: Changed to match published versio

Distribution and Indexation of Plant Available Nutrients of Soils in the District Bahawalpur, Pakistan

A total of 2600 soil samples collected from all tehsils of Bahawalpur district (590 samples from tehsil Bahawalpur, 227 samples from Khair Pur Tamewali, 594 samples from Ahmed Pur East, 439 samples from Hasilpur and 750 soil samples from Yazman) were tested in Soil and Water Testing Laboratory, Bahawalpur, Pakistan during 2011-2013. Soil characteristics of Bahawalpur district were evaluated through physical and chemical analyses. Representative soil samples received/collected from farmers fields were analyzed for texture, electrical conductivity (EC), pH, organic matter (OM), available phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) contents. Texture of the soils varied from sandy loam to loam. About 75% soils had EC values within the normal range (< 4 dS m-1). The pH values of 94% soils ranged from 7.5 to 8.5 with an average of 8.09 and 5% soils had pH > 8.5. About 96% soils were poor (< 0.86%) in organic matter and only 4% samples had satisfactory level of organic matter (0.86-1.29%). About 63% soils were poor(< 7 ppm) in available phosphorus, 30 % samples had satisfactory level of available phosphorus (7-14 ppm) and only 7% samples had adequate level of available phosphorus (>14 ppm) contents. The K status of most of soils was in satisfactory (63%) and adequate range (23%). The nutrient index values of Bahawalpur soils in respect of SOM and P were poor, whereas satisfactory for potassium. Depending upon the soil analysis, farmers were guided and fertilizer recommendations were served according to crop, soil and water/rainfall conditions for harvesting higher yield of different crops. Keywords: Soil Analysis, EC, pH, SOM, P, K, Bahawalpur, Nutrient inde