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Fiscal Decentralization and its Impacts on Governance in Pakistan Decentralization has been seen as a process, which normally transfer functions, authority power and responsibility from top government tier to lower government tier. Decentralization is a kind of system which has been implemented by many developed as well as developing countries for better governance at local or provincial level in order to improve the overall financial, administrative and political system of the country. Decentralization system is the ultimate requirement for making democratic process more effective. Delegation of power at the lower level leads to democratic governance. It is the obligation of democratic governments to delegate power at the provincial and local level in order to improve the level of governance. After the 18th amendment the importance of this particular system has significantly increased because of provincial autonomy provided by the constitution of Pakistan for enhancement of decision making process at provincial and local level. The system has been implemented only by the Military Governments. Democratic governments failed to implement local government system in Pakistan. Decentralization has three dimensions including political, administrative and fiscal decentralization. This research emphasizes on fiscal decentralization and its impacts on governance in Pakistan. The main objective of the study is to analyze the impact of fiscal decentralization on governance. However there are other objectives such as identifying the dimensions and indicators of decentralization and governance. Qualitative along with quantitative methodology has been applied to find the impact of fiscal decentralization on governance. Schneider Model has been applied by making minor modification in it for measurement of fiscal decentralization on basis of data taken for governance indicators and fiscal decentralization. The scores of worldwide governance indicators show performance of governance measured at a particular level. One of the conclusions of the study reveal that fiscal decentralization may be the reason for better governance, but in case of Pakistan, fiscal decentralization is not improving governance at local and provincial level by having low revenue and expenditure share to the provinces. Findings of the study also highlight the shifting of power as a problem for the funds to be transferred at large level with rationality. Fiscal decentralization is not being supported provincial autonomy on the basis of NFC award. The six worldwide governance indicators are also showing poor performance of Pakistan in the world by having low scores. However, there are certain measures given in the way forward may be taken for enhancement and improvement of the system such as: Fiscal decentralization policy needs to be implemented by providing the two most important mechanisms by transferring revenue responsibilities to district governments and spending decisions. Keywords: Decentralization, Governance, Fiscal Decentralization, Governance Indicators.
EFFECTIVENESS OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN PAKISTAN: A CROSS PARTY STUDY TO MEASURE, PARTY EFFECTIVENESS AND ITS INTERRELATIONSHIP WITH INTRA-PARTY DEMOCRACY, POLITICAL FINANCE, AND POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AMONG POLITICAL PARTIES OF PAKISTAN Existing theories of political party as effective political organization focus on its delivering functions. The purpose of this research thesis is to explore and analyse effectiveness of political parties, and show relationship among key variables under study like, Political Communication, Political Finance and Intra-Party Democracy on the effectiveness of major political parties in Pakistan. This study is an exploratory study which discusses that these variables create and establish the model of effectiveness of political party which can be best be compared and contrasted on the basis of these significant factors. A theoretically oriented method was established to measure the impact of key factors like Intra Party Democracy, Political Finance and Political Communication and their contribution in ensuring and bringing the effectiveness of Political parties in Pakistan. Primary data was gathered from a sample of 1000 respondents from eight different political parties People were chosen with multiple background and positions from all provinces of Pakistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir. Instrument was developed and its validity and reliability was ensured. For empirical verification, in depth statistical tests were applied including Multiple Regression, Structural Equation Model (SEM), One Sample T-test, correlation, cluster analysis and discriminant analysis, to test various assumptions of the study. Ten unstructured interviews were conducted to add in-depth richer insights into the study and support most conceptual links in the qualitative model and lend support to most of the hypothesized. On the base of these statistical assumptions it can be revealed that factors like intra party democracy, political finance, and political communication have significant impact on party effectiveness. This research revealed that most of the parties are internally less democratic with no defined and structured processes of electing leadership and candidates. Political parties are perceived as organizationally week, personality based, less securely rooted in society, ideologically less pragmatic, and week institutionalized. Political institution like political party can best aggregate the interest and mobilise general public when strong institutional practices of electing leadership and candidates are well anchored in the formal processes of political parties Research also delineates that major contributory factor to the effectiveness, i.e. Political Finance has significant impact on party effectiveness and laid emphasis on imporivng civil society oversight in ensuring transparency and accountability in political finance. The research recommends that parties should ensure more inclusiveness in decision making, build formal process and structure of democratic decision making and strengthen Political Communication and Political Finance mechanisms. Political parties should be more representative, transparent and accountable in decision making and suggests measures to build and enhance party effectiveness. Keywords: Intraparty Democracy; Political Finance; Political Communication; Political Parties Effectiveness
EFFECTIVE CIVIL SOCIETY IN PAKISTAN(COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF CIVIL SOCIETY EFFECTIVENESS: A CASE STUDY OF PAKISTAN The purpose of this study is to analyse the effectiveness of the civil society and examine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Therefore, there are four independent variables (civic engagement, civic participation, civic association, and co-operation/ partnership) and one dependent variable (civil society effectiveness). After going through the extensive literature, the researcher developed the research instrument and its validity and reliability was ensured. A survey questionnaire was distributed to all the seven categories of participants, and in response of 650 questionnaires 600 were received back. For empirical verification, in depth statistical tests were applied, including Standard Regression, Structural Equation Model (SEM), One Sample T-test, and correlation is applied to test various assumptions of the study. Statistical analysis revealed that independent variables significantly contributed to the dependent variable. This study signifies the impact of independent variables (civic engagement, civic participation, civic association, and co-operation/ partnership) to achieve the effectiveness of civil society. Along with this, both (national and international) databases have been used for the qualitative analysis. Therefore, databases and survey results showed similar results. This research revealed that civil society does not hold good history in Pakistan. Both civilian and military dictators did not give free space to the civil society in the country. This showed that civil society organizations had a limited political space in the country. Therefore, CSOs have limited impact on policy making and implementation. Government always imposed draconian laws to suppress the civil society in the country. The study also indicated weak civil society in the country. The research recommends that civil society should move beyond the awareness raising to mitigate the conditions conducive to spread of terrorism and extremism, which include marginalization, injustice, and violation of human rights, lack of rule of law, fragile democratic culture, and poor governance.
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE: A CASE STUDY OF HEALTH AND SANITATION SECTORS IN GUJRANWALA, PAKISTAN Contemporary development discourse confers a protuberant role to Citizen Participation (CP). To comply with this developmental demand, the Government of Pakistan introduced CP reforms and decentralization measures to use local governance system as a platform for localizing development and engaging local citizens. This thesis was designed to explore the level of Citizen Participation in the local governance system of Pakistan. The study explored both the subjective factors that include the role of stakeholders (local administrators, local political representatives, Civil Society Organizations and Citizens) and objective factors such as legal and administrative basis of CP. The thesis presented evidence from a case study of the Health and Sanitation sectors in Gujranwala, Pakistan by employing mixed research methods. The techniques involved a literature review and documentary analysis, a survey conducted with stakeholders in Gujranwala as well as in-depth interviews, Focus Group Discussions and Cross Group Discussions. The findings divulged manifold problems that contributed to the ineptitude of CP in current development lexicon. Firstly, the failure of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Gujranwala local government settings ascertained that Pakistan needs a certain level of political maturity to provide a working space for CSOs to foster CP. Secondly, mechanisms of direct CP is faulty. The legal framework on CP has a very high margin of manipulation. The main policy documents and laws can be easily interpreted and accommodated to different development discourses. In addition, local government administration, the provincial government and political elites are not ready to disseminate their powers. Thirdly, local bureaucrats are more empowered than any other stakeholder which is making CP a distant reality. The local political system is totally inefficient, capacity of union council and CSOs to engage citizens is very limited and intergovernmental system has largely failed to support local government and mechanism of CP adequately. Fourthly, empowerment, accountability and transparency mechanisms in Health and Sanitation sectors of Gujranwala are not functioning properly and hence the efficacy and level of CP are merely at the informing stage. Overall, the findings suggested that it will be difficult to implement participatory governance effectively in Gujranwala due to the low degree of CSOs’ effectiveness, the truncated level of education regarding CP, loopholes in the legal framework and no mechanism for accountability, transparency and empowerment. Based on these findings, this study has proposed a new model for the effectiveness of CP. However, the conclusion drawn is that effective CP mechanism can make local governance system more accountable, responsive and transparent but it will require much time and resources to implement them.
SMARTPHONE USAGE PATTERN OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS Smartphone usage has become trendy among university students of Pakistan. Male and female students belonging to three different academic levels (BA/BSc/BS Hons., MS/MPhil, PhD) show distinction in their use. Gender and grade wise analysis, based on qualitative data gathered through an online survey and in-depth interviews, shows that Smartphone is being used by students to communicate with peers and also to access academic information with the help of applications, search engines, and other useful tools. Interestingly female students, against traditional restrictions to the use of technology, use Smartphone more confidently and purposefully to support their communication and academic needs as compared to male students. Overall Pakistani society as well as individuals has undergone a social change and development due to technology (Smartphone). Now society is more open and modern when it comes to acceptance and usability of technological gadgets, especially for students. This has paved way for effective communication as well as access to academic information. Technology has also helped to minimize the gender gap related to access to technology, as now female students use technology that is widely accepted by their parents, teachers and society
Lack of Adequate Medical Support facilities in Public Sector Hospitals in AJK This study is focussed on problem of lack of adequate medical support facilities at secondary and tertiary levels in public sector hospitals of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK). This also forms the core of the Problem Statement. The hypothesis evolved was that the effective governance of the Health Sector will enhance the quality and quantum of medical support at secondary and tertiary levels in the public sector hospitals of AJK. The objective of this research is to look into major shortcomings in the provision of medical support facilities in Public Sector Hospitals of AJK. An extensive literature review was conducted to identify various factors bearing upon the problem. Many contributory factors lead to this issue such as ineffective planning, lack of monitoring, supervision and control, poor financial management and very limited existence of accountability mechanisms. The crux of the research was based on primary data collected from relevant stakeholders. Descriptive as well as statistical analysis of data was carried out to understand the issue in its entirety and to verify if the data conforms to the desired statistical standards for quality research. It was reinforced by interviews with significant stakeholders to seek their views on aspects not covered in questionnaires and to reinforce the specific aspects of the collected data. The research conducted on the basis of these responses of the stakeholders revealed that there are obvious shortcomings regarding infrastructure, human resource, drugs and supplies and medical equipment. On the basis of analysis of the data, it is concluded that these issues can be resolved through better planning based on closer interaction with the stakeholders and if the government improves the infrastructure of hospitals, fulfils the requirement of human resources and ensures the availability of drugs, supplies and medical equipment.
Corruption and Income inequality in Pakistan Income inequality is often the price developing countries have to pay in taking the strides to catch up with the developed world. Growth, however, does not necessarily skew towards income inequality; one important factor in tilting towards this pattern is corruption. Incase of Pakistan, economy is characterized by rampant income inequality, worsened in no mean measure by poor governance - and corruption stands out as the key cause as well as effect of this process leading to a vicious cycle. Apropos to the above, this study was designed to examine interplay of corruption and income inequality with the objective of investigating the underlying relationship between corruption and income inequality using Time series data for Pakistan ranging from 1984 to 2011. Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test has been applied to examine the unit roots of the variables, while Ordinary Least square (OLS) has also been applied to estimate initial coefficients for the application of ARDL bound testing approach. Further, Hendry’s general to specific methodology is applied to estimate short run as well as long run coefficients of the model. The results show that corruption as measured by ICRG Corruption index has a positive and statistically significant impact on income inequality. Almost 2.2-point increase in income inequality by a 1-point change in corruption is phenomenal. While the control variables also impact on income inequality, the effect on dependent variable is well borne out by this data. The study concludes that corruption and GINI have significant long run relationship. While short run dynamics of the study also conclude that corruption have serious implications for income inequality. Overall model is a good fit as indicated by F-statistic. Finally some recommendations were made to eliminate/ decrease income disparity gap by controlling the ever- burgeoning corruption in the country as well as correcting the other controlling variables impacting on the income inequality.
IMPACT OF TELECOMMUNIACATION ON ECONOMIC GROWTH AND EVELOPEMT: A CASE STUDY OF PAKISTAN Telecom Sector is considered as one of the fastest emerging industries having significant social and economic impact on the society. The increased technology usage in telecom sector has resulted in global business empires, online retailing etc. In telecom sector the advancement of technology is at full pace. 3G and 4G launch has boosted the economies round the globe. Economic development in any country depends upon its technology up-gradation. Consistent economic growth charged with technology adoption results in economic development of the country. This study investigates the impact of development in telecommunication sector on economic development, specifically the case of Pakistan is considered. Mixed method approach is used for data collection and analysis. Quantitative and Qualitative approaches are used to analyze the relationship between the various factors of the two main variables. Economic development is taken as dependent variable. While factors of telecommunication investment and teledensity are taken as independent variables, both comprise up the major part of telecommunication in any country. By using the regression model, results are obtained showing a significant and positive relation between factors of telecommunication investment, teledensity and economic development. Analysis of the primary data and qualitative analysis gives an explanation for these findings. This study serves as a support for the studies conducted previously. It also acts as a start up for the future research in evaluating the impact of 3G/4G spectrum on economic growth and development of Pakistan. Keywords: Economic Growth, Economic Development, Telecom investment,
IMPACT OF PUBLIC RELATIONS ON PUBLIC TRUST BUILDING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BANKING SECTOR The present study was conducted to explore the impact of public relations on public trust building in banking sector of Pakistan. The clients of the three commercial banks National Bank of Pakistan, Habib Bank Limited and Bank Al-Falah from Islamabad, Pakistan were selected for gathering data. Public relations plays vital role in the development of public trust on the banking industry, public relations play encouraging role towards restoring mutual confidence between the banks and their publics and as such justifies the view that the success of the banks is dependents of the trust of bank clients. Based on the above, organizations, especially the banking industry should as much as possible try to recognize and utilize most adequately appropriately, effective/efficiently public relations practices/activities as inevitable and indisputable weapon that determines to a great extent the success and excellence of the banking industry. Keywords: Governance, Public Policy, Public Relations, Public Trust, Banking Sector in Pakistan.
CHALLENGES AND ISSUES TO ELECTED WOMEN PARLIAMENTARIANS TO DELIVER EFFECTIVE PARLIAMENTARY SERVICES: A CASE STUDY OF PUNJAB ASSEMBLY Women have become the part of the legislative processes in national as well as provincial assemblies in Pakistan. Often women parliamentarians were viewed and considered as quota filling seaters. Now the trend has been changing. But the question arises what are the issues and challenges they face during the performance of these roles and responsibilities? The study aims at exploring the answer of this broad question by following the ontological stance of interpretive school of thought. A sample of 11 women parliamentarians of Punjab Assembly, 4 male parliamentarians, 4 Punjab Assembly officials and 2 NGO representatives were selected for inDepth interviews. Thematic analysis technique was used for data analysis. Findings of the study indicate as well as highlight the issues and challenges that women parliamentarian faced i.e. marginalization due to public-private dichotomy, Gender biasness in political preference, extreme party dependency, dual role expectations and lack of political skills and experience a few to mention. This study concludes that the majority of challenges that women parliamentarians face, will be minimized by creating gender responsive culture in parliament. Keywords: Punjab assembly, women parliamentarians, challenges, service delivery
CHALLENGES AND ISSUES TO ELECTED WOMEN PARLIAMENTARIANS TO DELIVER EFFECTIVE PARLIAMENTARY SERVICES: A CASE STUDY OF PUNJAB ASSEMBLY Women have become the part of the legislative processes in national as well as provincial assemblies in Pakistan. Often women parliamentarians were viewed and considered as quota filling seaters. Now the trend has been changing. But the question arises what are the issues and challenges they face during the performance of these roles and responsibilities? The study aims at exploring the answer of this broad question by following the ontological stance of interpretive school of thought. A sample of 11 women parliamentarians of Punjab Assembly, 4 male parliamentarians, 4 Punjab Assembly officials and 2 NGO representatives were selected for inDepth interviews. Thematic analysis technique was used for data analysis. Findings of the study indicate as well as highlight the issues and challenges that women parliamentarian faced i.e. marginalization due to public-private dichotomy, Gender biasness in political preference, extreme party dependency, dual role expectations and lack of political skills and experience a few to mention. This study concludes that the majority of challenges that women parliamentarians face, will be minimized by creating gender responsive culture in parliament. Keywords: Punjab assembly, women parliamentarians, challenges, service delivery
Issues and Challenges of Political Intolerance in Political Parties of Pakistan Political parties by means of democratic institutions are liable to perform the functions of participation, representation, integration and capacity building of political workers etc. In recent years, political intolerance gets boom and reducing the spaces for political leadership up to level that they can’t move and share their ideas openly. With the assumption that political leadership are taking part in promoting of intolerance in political culture, this research aimed to explore and analyse the issues and challenges of intolerance to Pakistani political parties. For this purpose, two parties, main ruling and main opposition party were selected i.e. Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N). To achieve the aims and the objectives of the study, the researcher adopted the qualitative research method to gather the maximum in depth data through semi structured interviews of eleven party leaders and public representatives (MNA, MPA and Senators) of PTI and PML-N. The view point (data) collected was analysed with a thematic analysis and found many overlapping, important and less important themes. The key findings of the study are three main themes or issues i.e. lack of institutionalization, lack of democratic culture and lack of political education, with five sub themes and six sub to sub themes having less saliency. The themes showed that political parties are lacking in introducing and implementing of standardize systems (written laws, rules and regulations) of Accountability, Dispute Resolution, Counter Hate Speech and Participation. Both parties need to define a selection criteria and procedure for nomination of representatives and introduce some decentralization. Parties need to introduce intra party political education/training system for capacity building so that they could promote political tolerance to achieve their role and responsibility effectively.
Antecedants and Outcome of Transfer of Training with moderating role of inclusive engagement ( A Study of Motorway Police) Training programmes are the motivation of the employees and ultimately development of the organization. It has been witnessed in the prior researches that billions of dollars are being spent by the organisations on training with the expectation that it will enhance employee’s performance, maximize quality and productivity, increase profits, minimize staff turnover, improve customer satisfaction and improve motivation. Still it is a grey area where researchers want to research and contribute in the domain of transfer of training and its impact on capacity building. Similarly, with regards to particular implications motorway police has been investing a handsome/reasonable amount/endeavour on the training of employees but outcome of training are not satisfactory. The variables used are identical element, expected utility and motivation to learn which have impact on transfer of training and ultimately on peer capacity building. The results found that the transfer of training is significantly positively correlated with, capacity building, motivation to learn, expected utility and inclusive engagements are positively correlated with the outcome of the organization. Transfer of Training has a positive impact on building the peer’s capacity. It has been proved through application of regression tests and Structural Equation Modelling. Keywords: Transfer of Training, inclusive Engagement, SEM, Employee Performance
ANALYSIS OF INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE AND TEAM PERFORMANCE (A Case Study of Public Sector Organizations in Pakistan) The study is about Teams and their Performance. A main factor causative to team performance is the role of Justice in the Organization. Organizational Justice such as procedural justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice have a significant impact on team performance with the mediating and moderating role of collective humility and leadership humility respectively as all these variables play an active role in achieving better team performance, whereas effect of distributive justice on team performance was found insignificant for this study. This research has revealed the impact these variables have on the team performance, which was earlier unexposed. Regression analysis of the data collected from 458 employees of two public sector organizations (FGEHF and CDA), validates the hypothesized research model. The results recommend that three of organizational justice dimensions namely procedural, interpersonal and informational justices can be used as the determinants of the team performance with the mediating and moderating effect. Although the moderating role was not very highly significant, still the leadership humility moderates the relationship. Further research on moderating effect of leader’s humility is recommended. The application of this study may be from two aspects, first to determine effective team performance and second to help the organizations how they can motivate their employees to meet the desired output through just and equitable practices. The results indicate that above mentioned dimensions of organizational justice are statistically significant predictors of the enhanced team performance. This work is based on a very small sample size and needs further validation by using larger and wider sample size likewise the research area is also so limited (federal capital Islamabad) so more broad area should be selected for future research. Keywords: Organizational Justice, Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice, Interpersonal Justice, Informational Justice, Collective Humility, Leadership Humility, Team Performance.