No abstract

Since overseas workers' remittances are the most important source of foreign exchange earnings in Pakistan, their contribution to economic growth has not been rigorously analysed. In this study, we attempt to investigate whether a country's absorption capacity affects remittances' response to economic growth or not. The absorption capacity is confined to the development of local financial sector that comprises three different components of financial development. The index of financial sector development is constructed through principal components analysis. To test our hypothesis, we used the autoregressive distributed lag-bound testing approach of cointegration, which is based on time-series data over the period from 1972 to 2011. Our empirical findings validate the hypothesis that the local financial sector development enhances the contribution of overseas workers' remittances to economic growth in Pakistan.

Three epidemics of acute viral hepatitis which occurred in different areas of Pakistan, namely Quetta, Mardan and Rawalpindi were studied. All the cases presented with jaundice, anorexia and nausea. The liver function tests showed raised serum bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase and ALT levels. In all the patients except one, the serology was consistent with non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis, which was most likely waterborne. This study shows that, as in some other parts of Asia and North Africa, epidemics of waterborne NANB hepatitis, clinically resembling hepatitis A, also occur in Pakistan. These epidemics are probably due to faecal contamination of the water supply systems in some areas of Pakistan.

The main aim of this paper is to review and evaluate the performance of Pakistani basmati to international markets and to estimate the impact of different factors on basmati export from Pakistan. For this purpose, panel data of eleven markets are collected from 2003 to 2016. Independent macroeconomics variables used in the study are exchange rate of Pakistan, exchange rates of trading partner, inflation in Pakistan, inflation in trading partner and dummy variables joint border and religion by application of Park's Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS). Result of this study showed that exchange rate of Pakistan has negative and significant effect on basmati export but exchange rate of trading partner has positive and significant effect on basmati export of Pakistan to its trading partner. The inflation in Pakistan has negative and significant effect on basmati exports from Pakistan to its trading partner. If Pakistan wants to improve its export value of basmati rice, there must be an effective strategy to control the inflation in Pakistan or at least need to make policy for minimizing the impact of inflation for the rice producers. If it is very difficult to control the inflation there must be subsidies for rice growers for inputs used in the basmati production. The high rates of inflation in trading partners have positive and significant impact on the demand of Pakistani basmati is an indication for Pakistani exporters to mark extra motivation on those international markets where inflation is comparatively high. Dummy variables for Muslims and joint boarders have positive and significant impact on basmati export flow from Pakistan to its trading partner. The results of dummy variables showed that there must be more emphasis on the neighbor and Muslim countries for improving the export value of Pakistani basmati.

No abstract