Logo

Synopsis This is a book of essays, dedicated to Omar Asghar Khan, based on research conducted between 1999-2002 while the author was at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute. Given that a military government had assumed power during this period, it was inevitable that many of the public policy issues addressed are key reforms discussed and instituted by this government. The first section is about land reform that one can refer to as “the mother of all reforms” in the country. This represents a recurring and connecting theme of this book. the second section is on devolution that was the first, most fundamental, and most talked about reform of the military government. Like land reform, but not at the same level, devolution can interface with all other reforms, particularly the key social sector reforms such as that pertaining to education. The author explains how this is the case while the third section is devoted entirely to education. One important way of making a success of rural basic education, the most lagging building block for education improvement in Pakistan, is to involve parents and communities. This participatory model has a broader application to rural development as explained in the context of activating social capital in section four. Activating and formalizing social capital is also central to the concept of sustainable development as explained in section five. Sustainable development and the environment have an interface with trade and this is addressed in section six. Trade and other liberalizations that have part been part of the structural adjustment reform policies Pakistan has undergone, both before and during the military government tenure, and this is the subject of section seven. Finally, some other important policy issues including Islamic finance, NGO registration, child labor, and peace are discussed in section eight.