The socio-legal implications of women’s work in the informal sector: A case study of women domestic workers in Pakistan

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website. Copyright @ 2009 The Author.The informal sector of economy is a major source of employment in Developing countries such as Pakistan.1Work opportunities in the informal sector play an important role in providing lively-hood to the poor, unskilled or semi-skilled, less educated and illiterate men and women workers in the society. There has been a significant change in the informal labour market with more women working for wages. However women remain amongst th lower earners of society, as despite performing the same tasks they are paid less compared to their male counterparts and are mostly engaged in part time jobs. Domestic service is one such category in the informal employment sector which provides jobs to women in large numbers. Yet of the eleven labour policies framed by various governments since the creation of Pakistan in 1947 none has addressed the issue of domestic workers, nor are domestic workers covered under the general labour laws of the country.2In the light of this situation thepaper attempts todeconstruct the role of law in empowering women domestic workers by exploring the relationship between law, gender and empowerment in a plural legal society

Colonialism and Industrialization: Empirical Results

This paper presents theory and evidence to show that imperialism was a major factor impeding the spread of the industrial revolution during the century ending in the 1950s. Two empirical results stand out. First, analysis of historical evidence shows that most sovereign countries were implementing active industrial policies during the nineteenth century, while policies in dependent countries were biased in the opposite direction. Second, when allowance is made for economic determinants, industrialization in dependent countries in 1960 is found to be significantly lower than in sovereign countries. This result is shown to be quite robust to changes in data, sample size, functional forms, and specifications of the estimating equations. In particular, the basic results are not affected by the inclusion of a dummy for Sub-Saharan Africa

Post-divorce maintenance for Muslim women in Pakistan and Bangladesh: A comparative perspective

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website. Copyright @ The Author 2013.Islamic family law, more often referred to as Muslim personal law in the South Asian context, is influenced by formal and informal plural normative orders, as secular, religious, customary, and patriarchal norms (Menski, 1998; Ali, 2002; Mehdi, 2005; Shah, 2005).The presence of such plural normative orders has given rise to tensions and conflict between these norms, including various publicly stated commitments and goals of the states to promote gender equality. Islamic family law has thus become a highly contested and politicized issue making change in this area of law difficult. Post-divorce maintenance (Mata’a) for women is one such area where classical interpretation of Islamic law, restricting such maintenance to the Iddat only, continues to apply. Engaging with plural sources of the Islamic legal tradition, this article discusses the potential of employing these to make the case for awarding post-divorce maintenance to Muslim women

From creativity to innovation

Talent is the bedrock of a creative society. Augmenting talent involves mobilizing culture and tradition, building institutions to increase the stock of human capital, enhance its quality, and instill values favoring achievements and initiative. The productivity of this talent in the form of ideas can be raised by nurturing wikicapital-the capital arising from networks. Translating creativity into innovation is a function of multiple incentives and sustaining innovation is inseparable from heavy investment in research. Finally, the transition from innovation to commercially viable products requires the midwifery of many service providers and the entrepreneurship skills of firms small and large.Education for Development (superceded),ICT Policy and Strategies,Tertiary Education,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Cultural Policy

SMEDA SME Policy paper 2007- A Critical Review (An analytical commentary upon SME policy proposed by SMEDA Pakistan)

SMEs and sound financing of SMEs are latest trends in Pakistani educational and banking scenario. Although, the concept got importance during Bhutto regime of 70s, but never gained much strength especially to financial sector, until SMEDA and SME bank had not emerged during last decade. Pakistan, as we know it today, is a developing country with a GDP per capita ranking, recently shifted from Low income countries to Middle income countries, contains a lot to SMEs. Furthermore, SMEs existing in Pakistan are contributing a 30% of national GDP, 25% in export earnings, & employing about 78% of non-agricultural labor force. So, it is right time to develop and implement a sound, comprehensive, and coherent policy for all SMEs working in the country. While also right time for government, to develop a practical solution to problems and difficulties of this important, but neglected sector of the past. I want to tell you when I started analyzing this policy; I worked on following main lines, to have a critical analysis for this policy paper of SMEDA, given below: 1. I made a basic research, & studied some basic theories about global emergence/background of SMEs. 2. Then, I moved to discuss the basic introduction of SMEDA policy, my analysis of Pakistani SME sector and need for this policy, in form of quick review. 3. Then I made a critical analysis of policy objectives/scope/ principles, recommendations, implementation, & monitoring mechanisms. 4. Finally, I made a final conclusion of all above mentioned working of mine with some additional informative links, as well for my report's reader. Conclusion: After analyzing this policy paper, I think that this policy paper is not sufficient towards very complex needs and changing requirements of Pakistani SMEs, especially in its implementation part. Recently, in Pakistan we heard that hundreds of businesses have been closed due to shortage of Electricity, water, Sui gas (natural gas), or due to law and order situation (like assassination of Ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi). It is also heard that every day million of assets are being transferred to Gulf countries by existing business community, in such a scenario no SME can prevail and grow with reasonable level of certainty. Moreover, economically, this policy is viable but not focused for some excellence sectors in future, like a widely acclaimed adopted one village, one product model for microfinance and SMEs, this policy shall be focused on some specific businesses and product lines, instead of forming a mass of unplanned and less cost-effective SMEs, in today world of globalization and specialization.