Pakistan's trade competitiveness & complementarities in South Asia

Over the past decade Pakistan remained involved in two major trade agreements with in the South Asia (Pakistan & Sri-Lanka FTA and SAFTA). It is meaningful from an operational and policy perspective to evaluate Pakistan's trade performance in South Asia against its objectives of greater trade integration and suggest policy interventions to improve its effectiveness. In order to achieve this objective, current study evaluates the Pakistan’s overall and chapter-wise trade performance with SAARC major SAARC economies for the last seven years (2003-09). This study has been disaggregated into two parts: In the first part of the study, an assessment of trade performance of SAARC members is carried out with respect to the rest of the world. Pakistan's trade performance vis-à-vis other SAARC members is the focus of this part. In the second part Pakistan’s trade performance in South Asia has been analyzed and policy interventions have been suggested to improve its effectiveness. Certain trade indicators like Trade Complementarity Index (TCI), Trade Specialization Index (TSI), Grubel Lloyd Index (GLI), Revealed Comparative Analysis (RCA), Bilateral Revealed Comparative Analysis BRCAs and Revealed Market Access (RMA) have been employed to achieve the above objectives.International Trade, Regionalism

Mediating Role of Death Anxiety between Supernatural Beliefs and Life Satisfaction among Muslim Adults

The belief in supernatural forces is so pervasive in Pakistani society that it is nearly universal among illiterate and semi-literate people. Few literate individuals also subscribe to the idea of supernatural beings and entities. Such beliefs may invoke anxieties resulting in reduced satisfaction with life. In the current study, a cross-sectional survey of Muslim people was used to examine the potential mediation effect of death anxiety between supernatural beliefs and life satisfaction. A purposive sample (N = 220; with equal representation of both genders) of adults was recruited from different areas of district Sargodha. The supernatural Belief Scale, Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety, and Satisfaction with Life Scale were employed for assessing supernatural belief, death anxiety, and life satisfaction, respectively. Path analysis in Amos revealed the positive direct effect of supernatural belief on death anxiety and the negative direct effect of death anxiety on life satisfaction. Supernatural beliefs also demonstrated a negative indirect effect on life satisfaction through death anxiety. Overall, we found that individuals with supernatural beliefs were more likely to feel death anxiety, which might make them less satisfied with their life. Clinicians and mental health practitioners must envisage such therapeutic strategies as could counter the supernatural beliefs of the clients so that they might enjoy a more fulfilling and satisfying life

Enhancing Waterborne Diseases in Pakistan & Their Possible Control

In Waterborne disease, water is a carrier of either infectious entities or of chemicals. Recently reported Pakistani data highlights that conditions of both drinking water supply and sanitation are still not satisfactory in urban and rural areas. Aquatic reservoirs of Pakistan are also contaminated so indirectly cause broad spectrum waterborne ailments e.g. gastroenteritis, diarrhea, vomiting, renal and dermal ailments. Leading causes of water linked disorders are unsafe domestic water usage, unprotected water sources, unawareness of sanitation practice, poor management of water treatment, monsoon season and flooding and global warming. It is need of the time that the government of Pakistan should organize new waste water treatment plants and repair of existing ones to provide safer water for consumption. Although currently, reverse osmosis membranes are in use but they are costly and also not fully effective and it is better to plan their replacement by carbon nanotubes. Moreover, waterborne diseases can be minimized in three ways in Pakistan and in other developing countries by improving quality and quantity of drinking water and by safer sewage disposal along with provision of low cost and proper sanitation facilities.

Extending Transit Facility to India: Implications for Pakistan’s Bilateral Trade with Afghanistan

The paper examines patterns of bilateral trade between Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and CARs. It also investigates whether providing India transit route to Afghanistan has opportunity costs for Pakistan’s trade potential with Afghanistan and CARs. In 2009, Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan amount to US$ 1.3 billion which make up for 7.8 % of Pakistan’s total exports. For the same year, India’s exports to Afghanistan stand at 471 million dollars which make 0.3 % of India’s total exports. Looking at the product wise composition of Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan, mineral fuels, oils, distillation products are on the top with share of around 29%. Salt, sulpher, earth, plaster, lime and cement and cereals have a share of around 11 %. While animal, vegetable fats and oils, cleavage products and articles of iron and steel have the share of around 7%. On the other hand, the top five exports of India to Afghanistan are man-made filaments with 42 % share, pharmaceutical products with 11 % share, electric and electronic equipment with 7% share and rubber and articles with 6% share. Clearly there is no overlap between exports of Pakistan and India to Afghanistan. Nonetheless Pakistan has already lost its market share to India in pharmaceuticals. The tariff applied to Pakistan by Afghanistan on pharmaceuticals is 2.50 % while India which enjoys Preferential Trade Agreement with Afghanistan only faces an average tariff of 0.60% on pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals are Pakistan’s top performing exports to CARs with 42.5 % share of total exports to CARs. India also exports pharmaceuticals to CARs but its share in total exports to CARs is only 25.5 %. In Afghanistan, Pakistan has clearly lost its market share to India due to presence of preferential tariffs for India in Afghanistan. If Pakistan provides transit route to India for its exports to Afghanistan, cheaper pharmaceuticals of Indian origin can then be re-exported to CARs capturing Pakistan’s market share in CARs. Much like pharmaceuticals there are other Pakistani products which are likely to lose out to India in Afghanistan and CARs if India is provided transit route to Afghanistan. The Wagah-Peshawar-Torkham route which roughly extends up to 800 km is probably the shortest possible one between India and Afghanistan; which would greatly reduce the logistics cost of shipping goods from India to Afghanistan and beyond. In addition to that, the preferential treatment currently enjoyed by Indian products in Afghanistan under the PTA would further cost Pakistani goods by eroding their competitiveness in the Afghan market. In the absence of a robust mechanism to contain the informal trade, allowing Indian goods a passage through Pakistan’s territory would, in all likelihood, worsen the smuggling situation, something Pakistan can ill afford to accept. Therefore, under the circumstances, there are clear economic disadvantages to Pakistan in extending the transit facility to India without adequate safeguards and preferably a quid pro quo, be it political or economic.International Trade, Transit Trade Agreements, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Sectoral Analysis

Regional trade in south Asia-impediments and the way forward

The paper sets out to suggest that regional trade between South Asia is quite low when compared to other regional blocks like NAFTA, EU 15, ASEAN, and MERCOUSER. The paper identifies non cooperation between India and Pakistan to be the main reason behind low trade in South Asia. The paper focuses on the pending trade issues between both countries that are preventing India and Pakistan to increase bilateral trade and economic cooperation. The first issue discussed in the paper is granting of MFN status to India by Pakistan. The paper finds that it is in the benefit of both countries if Pakistan gives MFN status to India. But before such a step is taken, it is essential that Pakistan moves from a positive list approach to a negative list approach. Pakistan can include industries like textiles in the negative list to prevent the flood of cheap Indian textiles. Once MFN status is granted to India, Pakistan would be able to raise more substantive issues, notably Indian NTBs, subsidies, and protective tariffs. Currently India practices various forms of NTBs against Pakistan. The visa restrictions and absence of financial services are the major NTBs. Such NTBs have prevented Pakistan to export more to India. Another trade issue highlighted in the paper is that of transit facility. India does not provide Pakistan a transit route to Nepal and Bhuttan. In contrast Pakistan has provided Afghanistan transit route to India, though Pakistan does not allow India a transit route to Afghanistan or beyond. The paper finds that there is a high risk of informal trade in case Pakistan provides India with the land route to Afghanistan through its territory. It is anticipated that most Indian exports to Afghanistan would be smuggled back into Pakistan affecting Pakistan’s local industry. The transit facility is by far the most complicated trade issue of the three. Though the paper concludes in favor of granting India MFN and against the imposition of NTBs, It only gives a conditional recommendation in favor of granting India transit route to Afghanistan in case India provides Pakistan transit route to Nepal and Bhuttan.Regional Trade Agreements, Barriers to Trade, WTO

Pakistan's trade competitiveness & complementarities in South Asia

Over the past decade Pakistan remained involved in two major trade agreements with in the South Asia (Pakistan & Sri-Lanka FTA and SAFTA). It is meaningful from an operational and policy perspective to evaluate Pakistan's trade performance in South Asia against its objectives of greater trade integration and suggest policy interventions to improve its effectiveness. In order to achieve this objective, current study evaluates the Pakistan’s overall and chapter-wise trade performance with SAARC major SAARC economies for the last seven years (2003-09). This study has been disaggregated into two parts: In the first part of the study, an assessment of trade performance of SAARC members is carried out with respect to the rest of the world. Pakistan's trade performance vis-à-vis other SAARC members is the focus of this part. In the second part Pakistan’s trade performance in South Asia has been analyzed and policy interventions have been suggested to improve its effectiveness. Certain trade indicators like Trade Complementarity Index (TCI), Trade Specialization Index (TSI), Grubel Lloyd Index (GLI), Revealed Comparative Analysis (RCA), Bilateral Revealed Comparative Analysis BRCAs and Revealed Market Access (RMA) have been employed to achieve the above objectives

Evaluation of quality of warfarin therapy by assessing patient\u27s time in therapeutic range at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan

Objective: To assess the time in therapeutic range in patients on warfarin anti-coagulation therapy. Methods: The retrospective chart review was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised data of patients having undergone anti-coagulation with warfarin from January 2013 to April 2015. To determine the mean time in therapeutic range, Rosendaal method was used. Association of time in therapeutic range with the composite outcome, bleeding and thromboembolic events was also assessed. Percentage of patients with time in therapeutic range \u3c60% was calculated. Results: There were 92 patients whose median time in therapeutic range was 34.9% (interquartile range: 20.0- 55.7). Overall, 71(77.2%) patients had time in therapeutic range below 60% which had statistically significant correlation with the composite outcome (p\u3c0.05). Number of comorbids was significant in predicting time in therapeutic range and patients with time in therapeutic range\u3c 60% (p\u3c0.05). Conclusion: Subjects had poor anti-coagulation quality. It might be prudent to move towards novel oral anticoagulant drugsas the first choice for therapeutic anti-coagulation

Model-based in silico analysis of the PI3K/Akt pathway: the elucidation of cross-talk between diabetes and breast cancer

Background A positive association between diabetes and breast cancer has been identified by various epidemiological and clinical studies. However, the possible molecular interactions between the two heterogeneous diseases have not been fully determined yet. There are several underlying mechanisms which may increase the risk of breast cancer in diabetic patients. Introduction In this study, we focused on the role of O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) enzyme in the regulation of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) pathway through activation/deactivation of Akt protein. The efficiency of insulin signaling in adipocytes is reduced as a result of OGT overexpression which further attenuates Akt signaling; as a result, the efficiency of insulin signaling is reduced by downregulation of insulin-responsive genes. On the other hand, increased expression of OGT results in Akt activation in breast cancer cells, leading to enhanced cell proliferation and inhibition of the apoptosis. However, the interplay amongst these signaling pathways is still under investigation. Methods In this study, we used Petri nets (PNs) to model and investigate the role of PI3K and OGT pathways, acting as key players in crosstalk between diabetes and breast cancer, resulting in progression of these chronic diseases. Moreover, in silico perturbation experiments were applied on the model to analyze the effects of anti-cancer agents (shRNA and BZX) and anti-diabetic drug (Metformin) on the system. Results Our PN model reflects the alterations in protein expression and behavior and the correlation between breast cancer and diabetes. The analysis proposed two combination therapies to combat breast cancer progression in diabetic patients including combination of OGTmRNA silencing and OGT inhibitor (BZX) as first combination and BZX and Metformin as the second. Conclusion The PN model verified that alterations in O-GlcNAc signaling affect both insulin resistance and breast cancer. Moreover, the combination therapy for breast cancer patients consisting of anti-diabetic drugs such as Metformin along with OGT inhibitors, for example BZX, can produce better treatment regimens

Extending Transit Facility to India: Implications for Pakistan’s Bilateral Trade with Afghanistan

The paper examines patterns of bilateral trade between Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and CARs. It also investigates whether providing India transit route to Afghanistan has opportunity costs for Pakistan’s trade potential with Afghanistan and CARs. In 2009, Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan amount to US$ 1.3 billion which make up for 7.8 % of Pakistan’s total exports. For the same year, India’s exports to Afghanistan stand at 471 million dollars which make 0.3 % of India’s total exports. Looking at the product wise composition of Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan, mineral fuels, oils, distillation products are on the top with share of around 29%. Salt, sulpher, earth, plaster, lime and cement and cereals have a share of around 11 %. While animal, vegetable fats and oils, cleavage products and articles of iron and steel have the share of around 7%. On the other hand, the top five exports of India to Afghanistan are man-made filaments with 42 % share, pharmaceutical products with 11 % share, electric and electronic equipment with 7% share and rubber and articles with 6% share. Clearly there is no overlap between exports of Pakistan and India to Afghanistan. Nonetheless Pakistan has already lost its market share to India in pharmaceuticals. The tariff applied to Pakistan by Afghanistan on pharmaceuticals is 2.50 % while India which enjoys Preferential Trade Agreement with Afghanistan only faces an average tariff of 0.60% on pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals are Pakistan’s top performing exports to CARs with 42.5 % share of total exports to CARs. India also exports pharmaceuticals to CARs but its share in total exports to CARs is only 25.5 %. In Afghanistan, Pakistan has clearly lost its market share to India due to presence of preferential tariffs for India in Afghanistan. If Pakistan provides transit route to India for its exports to Afghanistan, cheaper pharmaceuticals of Indian origin can then be re-exported to CARs capturing Pakistan’s market share in CARs. Much like pharmaceuticals there are other Pakistani products which are likely to lose out to India in Afghanistan and CARs if India is provided transit route to Afghanistan. The Wagah-Peshawar-Torkham route which roughly extends up to 800 km is probably the shortest possible one between India and Afghanistan; which would greatly reduce the logistics cost of shipping goods from India to Afghanistan and beyond. In addition to that, the preferential treatment currently enjoyed by Indian products in Afghanistan under the PTA would further cost Pakistani goods by eroding their competitiveness in the Afghan market. In the absence of a robust mechanism to contain the informal trade, allowing Indian goods a passage through Pakistan’s territory would, in all likelihood, worsen the smuggling situation, something Pakistan can ill afford to accept. Therefore, under the circumstances, there are clear economic disadvantages to Pakistan in extending the transit facility to India without adequate safeguards and preferably a quid pro quo, be it political or economic

Extending Transit Facility to India: Implications for Pakistan’s Bilateral Trade with Afghanistan

The paper examines patterns of bilateral trade between Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and CARs. It also investigates whether providing India transit route to Afghanistan has opportunity costs for Pakistan’s trade potential with Afghanistan and CARs. In 2009, Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan amount to US$ 1.3 billion which make up for 7.8 % of Pakistan’s total exports. For the same year, India’s exports to Afghanistan stand at 471 million dollars which make 0.3 % of India’s total exports. Looking at the product wise composition of Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan, mineral fuels, oils, distillation products are on the top with share of around 29%. Salt, sulpher, earth, plaster, lime and cement and cereals have a share of around 11 %. While animal, vegetable fats and oils, cleavage products and articles of iron and steel have the share of around 7%. On the other hand, the top five exports of India to Afghanistan are man-made filaments with 42 % share, pharmaceutical products with 11 % share, electric and electronic equipment with 7% share and rubber and articles with 6% share. Clearly there is no overlap between exports of Pakistan and India to Afghanistan. Nonetheless Pakistan has already lost its market share to India in pharmaceuticals. The tariff applied to Pakistan by Afghanistan on pharmaceuticals is 2.50 % while India which enjoys Preferential Trade Agreement with Afghanistan only faces an average tariff of 0.60% on pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals are Pakistan’s top performing exports to CARs with 42.5 % share of total exports to CARs. India also exports pharmaceuticals to CARs but its share in total exports to CARs is only 25.5 %. In Afghanistan, Pakistan has clearly lost its market share to India due to presence of preferential tariffs for India in Afghanistan. If Pakistan provides transit route to India for its exports to Afghanistan, cheaper pharmaceuticals of Indian origin can then be re-exported to CARs capturing Pakistan’s market share in CARs. Much like pharmaceuticals there are other Pakistani products which are likely to lose out to India in Afghanistan and CARs if India is provided transit route to Afghanistan. The Wagah-Peshawar-Torkham route which roughly extends up to 800 km is probably the shortest possible one between India and Afghanistan; which would greatly reduce the logistics cost of shipping goods from India to Afghanistan and beyond. In addition to that, the preferential treatment currently enjoyed by Indian products in Afghanistan under the PTA would further cost Pakistani goods by eroding their competitiveness in the Afghan market. In the absence of a robust mechanism to contain the informal trade, allowing Indian goods a passage through Pakistan’s territory would, in all likelihood, worsen the smuggling situation, something Pakistan can ill afford to accept. Therefore, under the circumstances, there are clear economic disadvantages to Pakistan in extending the transit facility to India without adequate safeguards and preferably a quid pro quo, be it political or economic