Fiscal Decentralization in Pakistan: A Case Study of Punjab Provincial Finance Commission

The success of federalism in multiethnic societies greatly depends on fiscal decentralization. It empowers the provincial governments along with the local bodies at the grass root level. In this perspective fiscal decentralization needs structural arrangements in order to ensure revenue generation and appropriate expenditures. It helps to strengthen the national grid to avoid inter-provincial or intra-provincial discrepancies. This study illustrates the relationship between fiscal devolution and symmetrical horizontal economic development. It envisages the devolution plan (2001) introduced by former General Pervez Mushraff in Pakistan under which the Provincial Finance Commissions were established. This research would focus on Punjab as a case study to analyze the working of Provincial Finance Commission. This research tends to address the questions like what have been the patterns of fiscal decentralization in Pakistan? Did National Finance Commission and Provincial Finance Commission promote the principles of equitable devolution of resources in the divisible pool on the basis of need assessment? Could PFC be able to mitigate the intra-provincial disparities in Punjab? Did PFC take efficiency advantage in Punjab through the empowerment of local governments? This study would encompass the analysis of the resource allocation formula opted by the successive governments in the past till present and the counter arguments by the academia and the local body members. Qualitative and quantitative both methods would be used while incorporating primary as well secondary sources. This research concludes with the proposition that empowered local bodies and effective finance commission are the sine qua non of fiscal decentralization in democratic state like Pakistan.

Design & Analysis of Secure Optical Communication System With Advance Modulation Formats

The growth in web traffic has driven the rise in demand for information measure and high data rates. ‘Advance optical modulation formats’ are taken into account as a promising feature to satisfy the enhanced demand for information measure in broadband and other type of services. Lots of modulation formats have been proposed to increase the data rates but security implementation in optical communication system explicit to these modulation formats is still an open area to explore. In this thesis, the performance of some advance modulation formats as applicable to chaotic/secure optical communication is analyzed. The research work includes the generation of high bandwidth optical chaos through semiconductor lasers by controlling different parameters to get the optimum chaos. Initially, the basic chaotic communication system by synchronizing transmitted and received chaos is developed and tested for ordinary modulation schemes like RZ and NRZ to check validity of the scheme. Later, the long haul secure communication models based on Duobinary modulation and QAM format are designed and their performance is tested against various parameters. The Duobinary format is chosen due to its effective bandwidth utilization and robust performance against the intersymbol interference whereas QAM scheme is selected due to its better support against high data rates. In comparison to chaos produced by fiber lasers which are inherited by low bandwidth, semiconductor laser generated chaos is exploited for embedding the message. The performance of modulation schemes is studied for long distance communication models including non-linear and higher order effects. Various simulations experiments are conducted on latest versions of Optisystem 14.0 and MATLAB. This work can be vii considered as a first effort related to security implementation explicit to the advance modulation formats using optical chaos.