From Energy Blues to Green Energy: Options Before Pakistan

Energy crisis in Pakistan had been brewing long before it became an important national issue with the potential to significantly affect the outcome of general elections of 2013. The looming crisis of depleting non-renewable energy sources combined with a feeble economy has lent a new urgency to the search for an energy mix which is sustainable, economically viable and environmentally least hazardous. Fossil fuels with their known adverse environmental impacts dominate the current energy mix of Pakistan. The renewable energy sources remain underutilised despite being cost effective and less hazardous for the environment. A substantial amount of literature has highlighted various dimensions of existing energy sources in Pakistan with a particular emphasis on the environmental impact, the sustainability and the efficiency of various energy sources [see Asif (2009); Basir, et al. (2013); Bhutto, et al. (2012); Mirza, et al. (2009, 2008, 2003); Muneer and Asif (2007); Sheikh (2010) for example]. This study analyses the environmental impact, economic feasibility and efficiency of various energy sources subject to various economic and noneconomic constraints. Section 2 discusses energy security by reviewing various tapped and untapped energy sources besides analysing current energy mix and its future prospects. Section 3 highlights the interaction of energy use and environment. Section 4 discusses two approaches to assess the feasibility of an energy mix: disaggregated and aggregated. The latter approach makes a multidimensional comparison of all the energy sources discussed in this study. Section 5 consists of discussion and concluding remarks

Democracy, Inequality and Economic Development: The Case of Pakistan

In this paper, we made an attempt to understand the costs and benefits of democracy for economic growth in Pakistan by analyzing the relationship between democracy and its various measures. Using instrumental variables and RALS (rth-order autoregressive least squares) estimation techniques, it is shown that during the period 1972-2005, there is only a tenuous and uncertain relationship between democracy and fiscal policy variables like expenditures, revenues and deficit; whereas democracy has no impact at all on the income inequality. Moreover, we observed that the political rights had a significant negative impact on fiscal expenditures, suggesting that with an increase in political rights, the governing institutes begin to feel themselves more accountable and as such are more circumspect in expenditures.Democracy; Political Rights; Fiscal Expenditures; Economic Growth; Income Inequality; Well-Being

Protecting the Vulnerable: The Case of IDPs in Pakistan

Vulnerability as a measure of human deprivations is a more comprehensive and value-laden term than poverty. While the poverty analysis provides a profile of the characteristics of the poor people, vulnerability analysis explains, among other factors, the role of risk in creating the dynamics that contribute to the observed poverty level. Social protection is an important concept in the policy dialogue on the vulnerabilities of the people and is aimed at finding ways to help the vulnerable people in managing the risks and becoming less susceptible to the welfare losses. Vulnerability takes a number of forms and requires different types of social protection mechanisms. This paper analyses the vulnerabilities of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan and identifies the social protection delivered by various government and non-government stakeholders. The paper also reviews the literature on the vulnerabilities of the IDPs in different parts of the world to explore the best practices in providing social protection to IDP

Protecting the Vulnerable: The Case of IDPs in Pakistan

Vulnerability as a measure of human deprivations is a more comprehensive and value-laden term than poverty. While the poverty analysis provides a profile of the characteristics of the poor people, vulnerability analysis explains, among other factors, the role of risk in creating the dynamics that contribute to the observed poverty level. Social protection is an important concept in the policy dialogue on the vulnerabilities of the people and is aimed at finding ways to help the vulnerable people in managing the risks and becoming less susceptible to the welfare losses. Vulnerability takes a number of forms and requires different types of social protection mechanisms. This paper analyses the vulnerabilities of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan and identifies the social protection delivered by various government and non-government stakeholders. The paper also reviews the literature on the vulnerabilities of the IDPs in different parts of the world to explore the best practices in providing social protection to IDP

How does quality of governance influence occurrence of crime? A longitudinal analysis of Asian countries

Though the theoretical relationship between governance quality and crime is clear, there is no clear understanding regarding the specific characteristics of governance quality which prevent crime. To be specific, which type of crime is affected by which aspect of the governance quality is not clear. We propose to take a set of Asian countries and analyze the effect of quality of governance on the crime rates in these countries during the period of 1984 to 2014. Quality of governance is proxied by a set of indicators which include government stability, corruption, accountability, socioeconomic conditions and law and order, internal conflict, external conflict, military in politics, investment profile, religious tensions, ethnic tensions and bureaucratic quality. The types of crime analyzed in this study include homicide, burglary, robbery and kidnapping. Some economic variables like poverty, income inequality, unemployment, GDP growth and per capita GDP are used to control for the effects of governance quality on crime. We estimate the relationship by applying fixed effect model and random effects model. We also use System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) method to check the issues of endogeneity. The results showed that socioeconomic conditions, corruption, law and order, external conflict, investment profile and ethnic tensions are significantly related with different categories of crime such as homicides, robbery, kidnapping and burglaries. Among different economic variables, only per capita GDP and income inequality had a significant negative relationship with homicides

Democracy, Inequality and Economic Development: The Case of Pakistan

In this paper, we made an attempt to understand the costs and benefits of democracy for economic growth in Pakistan by analyzing the relationship between democracy and its various measures. Using instrumental variables and RALS (rth-order autoregressive least squares) estimation techniques, it is shown that during the period 1972-2005, there is only a tenuous and uncertain relationship between democracy and fiscal policy variables like expenditures, revenues and deficit; whereas democracy has no impact at all on the income inequality. Moreover, we observed that the political rights had a significant negative impact on fiscal expenditures, suggesting that with an increase in political rights, the governing institutes begin to feel themselves more accountable and as such are more circumspect in expenditures

Hydrogen Storage Materials for Mobile and Stationary Applications: Current State of the Art

One of the limitations to the widespread use of hydrogen as an energy carrier is its storage in a safe and compact form. Herein, recent developments in effective high-capacity hydrogen storage materials are reviewed, with a special emphasis on light compounds, including those based on organic porous structures, boron, nitrogen, and aluminum. These elements and their related compounds hold the promise of high, reversible, and practical hydrogen storage capacity for mobile applications, including vehicles and portable power equipment, but also for the large scale and distributed storage of energy for stationary applications. Current understanding of the fundamental principles that govern the interaction of hydrogen with these light compounds is summarized, as well as basic strategies to meet practical targets of hydrogen uptake and release. The limitation of these strategies and current understanding is also discussed and new directions proposed