The Social and Financial Performance of Conventional and Islamic Microfinance Institutions in Pakistan

The financing operations of conventional microfinance institutions are usually based on interest (Usury/Riba) which is strictly prohibited by the Shariah of Islam, therefore, some Islamic microfinance institutions were set up in Pakistan to provide micro credit and other financial help to the deserving people based on Shariah compliant mechanism. The aim of this paper is to evaluate and compare the social and financial performance of these microfinance institutions in Pakistan. Two separate samples containing two microfinance institutions each, representing conventional and Islamic microfinance institutions has been selected for this study. Four stars, Wasil Foundation and Akhuwat from Islamic microfinance institutions while Asasah and Community Support Concern (CSC) from conventional microfinance institutions, rated by Mix market have been selected for this research paper. The social and financial performance based on outreach, profitability, efficiency/productivity, and portfolio quality of both these microfinance institutions were studied and compared. The study revealed that Islamic MFIs were more cost effective compared to conventional MFIs based on cost per borrower (CPB) and operating expenses to assets (OEA), while on the basis of financial efficiency conventional MFIs performed well. Though the financial and social performance of both Islamic and conventional MFIs have improved over the passage of time, still they have to struggle hard on various fronts especially to improve their profitability based on ROA and ROE measures to make the institutions profitable and sustainable. This study reveals that the successful operation of Akhuwat and Wasil Foundation for the last more than a decade latterly proves that Islamic MFIs are viable and sustainable even in the absence of charging interest from their clients. So, the society and the government should encourage and promote these Shariah compliant organizations in order to help the extremely marginalized people of the society.

Diversity of Soil Inhabiting Mites in Different Ecological Zones of Punjab, Pakistan.

Soil is a very complex ecosystem comprising of interaction of different arthropods including mites. Soil mites are a highly diverse group, having important role in agricultural productivity by increasing the soil fertility through the process of decomposition, mineralization and having good potential for biological control of different pests. They have potential to be used as indicators for soil quality and sustainable agriculture. Previously, no work has been done on the diversity of soil inhabiting mites from Pakistan. The project present in hand with the objectives to study diversity of soil inhabiting mites in different ecological zones of Punjab and to study the impact of different soil parameters and soil disturbance for crop production on the soil mite diversity. For this purpose, ten localities from four different ecological zones of Punjab were selected. Collection of soil samples was done on bimonthly interval for a whole year from these localities from two different types of soils i.e. undisturbed/uncultivated (soil type I) and disturbed/cultivated (soil type II) type of soil. Total 8851 specimens were collected with an average of 24.59 specimens/sample which is low as compared to other part of the world. The Cumulative and locality wise individual based rarefaction curves attained asymptotic level, except in case of soil type II of district Faisalabad and T.T Singh. The Shannon diversity (Hꞌ) value represents that the diversity of soil type I (Hꞌ= 2.71) was high as compared to soil type II (Hꞌ=2.51) throughout the study period. Irrigated plain was more diverse as compared to other zones in both types of soils i.e. soil type I (Hꞌ=2.81) and II (Hꞌ=2.65). In Mesostigmata, soil type I was more diverse (Hꞌ=1.67) as compared to soil type II (Hꞌ=1.26) while, in Oribatida, soil type I was reported more diverse (Hꞌ=1.77) as compared to soil type II (Hꞌ=1.47). In case of richness, soil type I has more rich (16.59) as compared to soil type II (12.01). Similarly, in soil type, I, mean abundance (22.70) was higher as compared to soil type II (11.56) while irrigated plain zone has more mean number of specimens (28.59) in soil type I as compared to soil type II (13.03). Oribatida was the most prominent group with 50% followed by Mesostigmata 38%, Prostigmata 8% and Astigmata 4% individuals. Ten families were reported from Mesostigmata, followed by Oribatida with 9 families, Prostigmata 5 and Astigmata with only one family. The cumulative rank abundance curves for soil type I and soil type II suggested that presence of soil mite families and numbers of individual varies from different localities and time in various months. Week correlation of N and pH were reported with soil mites. Other soil parameters had no impact on the abundance of soil mites. Maximum temperature, rainfall and humidity had weak significant correlation with mites’ abundance.