Istisnā’- a Realistic Approach to the Concept in Islamic Finance and its Application to the Agricultural Sector in Pakistan

Farmers predominantly belong to lower class of the society, particularly in developing and under developing countries. This actuality really put them on back-foot in every sphere of life, including their various agricultural activities.  For instance, they always face problems to fulfil their agricultural requirement, both for crop and non crop activities, and hence, not in position to get utmost benefits from their efforts. Being citizens of a developing country, Pakistani farmers come across the identical situation. As they are Muslims, therefore, avoid securing interest based loan from the financial institutions. Islamic financial system provides an alternate to such interest based arrangement in the shape of various financing techniques. Among these, Istisnā’ (manufacturing) is the most important one which can be used effectively for the fulfilment of various agricultural requirements. However, its role is more dominant in the satisfaction of non crop agricultural activities that is for example, manufacturing of some heavy agricultural machinery and equipments, installation of tube-wells and channels for appropriate irrigation system, construction of small houses for farmers in their lands etc. The present work discusses the theoretical background of this mode, available in the scholarly work of classical and contemporary Muslim jurists’ work, followed by the description that how it can be used for financing various sectors of agriculture. Study reveals the transaction is equally viable for the development of all sectors of agriculture like local farming, fish farming, dairy farming, poultry farming, horticulture etc. The intended results can be achieved when the financial institutions apply the transaction in its true spirit and philosophies envisaged for it by Islamic commercial law, and not mere a source of earning profit.

Evaluating the Efficacy of Compacted Clay Liner Ccl for Arid/Semiarid Region

Geotechnical applications are useful for environmental protection of surface as well as ground water by liner system. Use of clay soils in constructing low permeability liners that covers waste containment is common and cost effective. In arid and semi-arid regions, desiccation and shrinkage cracking adversely affect the integrity of compacted clay liners. The technique and methodology of combining sand, cement, polyethylene chips with medium plastic soil was used for the first time in Pakistan. A mixture of sand, cement and polyethylene chips in different proportions with medium plastic clay has been proposed to reduce the shrinkage potential of medium plastic clay. The basic purpose of this soil modification is to control the volumetric shrinkage of medium plastic clay. The polyethylene bags from garbage dumps were reused for making polyethylene chips, which will not only reduce environmental hazardous waste but also provide a useful additive for controlling soil shrinkage. It was hypothesized that combined effect of sand, cement and polyethylene chips would control the shrinkage potential of soil. The study entails characterization of soil, interaction with synthetic leachate, soil treatment in two phases and effect of leachate on treated soil. About three hundred specimens through forty five different combinations of sand, cement and recycled polyethylene chips were used to optimize volumetric shrinkage and compressive strength properties of soil. The study also evaluates the effect of synthetic leachate on soil samples. Microstructural analysis including Energy Dispersive X-Ray, X-Ray Diffraction and Scanning Electronic Microscopy were used to evaluate the efficacy of treated soil. The combination of additives with medium plastic soil not only reduced the volumetric shrinkage and permeability but also improved the unconfined compressive strength of treated soil. Regression based statistical analysis results revealed that fair correlation exists between mixture of medium plastic clay, sand, cement, polyethylene chips and volumetric shrinkage.