This dissertation explores different dimensions of the relationship between inflation and relative price variability in Pakistan. The period covered for this study is from July 2001 to June 2011, as this is the complete period for which data on new base (2000-01) is available. Incidentally, this period has both the low and high inflation episodes. This is the only study in case of Pakistan, which uses detailed data on prices at city level and commodity group level. The dissertation has analyzed relationship between inflation and relative price variability in three aspects. First, we have examined the behavior of price setting agents as reflected in relative price changes in response to demand and supply factors; second, we studied the effect of relative price variability on inflation by estimating fixed effects regression model using panel data of inflation in different cities of Pakistan; and third, we have examined convergence of prices changes in 35 cities of Pakistan, and also looked at how location of cities affects the convergence. The result of our first study suggests that changes in real income have insignificant impact on relative price variability. The results make sense as changes in income (with given preferences) almost evenly affect demand for all consumer items, which may lead to relatively proportional changes in their prices. It can be a case particularly in a developing economy like Pakistan, having a large informal sector, where response of firms is less constrained by wage contracts; and where capacity issues are less heterogeneous. On the other hand, unanticipated inflation, which usually comes from item-specific supply factors, may affect prices of different items unevenly. From the second study, the results show that inflation, both food and non-food inflation, is significantly and positively affected by relative price variability. The results imply that supply side factors, as exhibited in dispersion of relative price changes, are robust determinant of inflation in a developing economy, like developed economies. From our third study, we found that there is bilateral price-level convergence for only food group with speed of convergence (measured by half-life) is around 3 months. On the other hand, prices of non-food commodities have very low speed of adjustment with 20 month half-life. Consequently, relative prices of overall commodities group have half-life of 8 month – a moderate speed of convergence. We have also identified differences in the behavior of relative prices within and across provinces of Pakistan. The relative prices between two cities located in the same province show lower variability compared with cites pair located in different provinces. However, if at least one of city associated with a relative price series is located in one province, standard deviation of relative prices rises in case of overall and food group. While exploring the impact of distance between cities of a pair, we have found that the standard deviation of relative prices increase significantly with the distance. This result accords well with the findings of some previous studies e.g. Engle and Rogers (1996). The policy implications from my study is; as the supply side factors are found to be dominant in affecting economic activity and inflation rate in Pakistan, therefore, monetary authority needs to be careful while taking decisions on monetary policy instrument. For instance, in 2008 when inflation rate was approximately 20 percent, SBP increased discount rate to give a signal of tight monetary policy stance. This badly affected economic activity at that time and GDP growth rate turned out to be zero. Therefore, cost push inflation should be dealt with much care while taking monetary policy decisions. Another implication of this research is that monetary policy may target a narrow measure of general price level. For instance, core inflation can be targeted. Moreover, an index of general price level can be constructed that is in control of monetary policy with minimum control error.
دھب سے طویل مسافت کے بعد ہم سینٹ کھترائن پہنچے ۔دکتوریحی ٰ نے مجھ سے پوچھاکہ تمھیں اس علاقے کے بارے میں جانکاری ہے ؟میں نے کہا ،مجھے نہیں معلوم ، اس نے کہا بہت اہم مقام ہے ،یہاں جبلِ موسیٰ ہے جہاں حضرت ِموسیٰؑ اور ربِ کریم ہم کلام ہوئے تھے ۔یہاں حضرت موسیٰؑ کو آگ دکھائی گئی اور پیغمبری دلوائی گئی ۔سبزے اور ہریالی سے بے خبر اس تنگ گھاٹی میں نہتے ،بے بس اور جنگی سامان سے ماورا اپنی قوم کو چین و امن اور آرام کی زندگی کے متلاشی موسیٰؑ کو خداوندِ کریم حکم دیتے ہیں کہ (اذہب الافرعون انہ طغیٰ ) فرعون کی طرف جائو ،بہت سرکش ہو گیا ہے ۔
میں تحیر اور وجد کی کیفیت میں تھا ،مجھے اپنے آپ کو بار بار یہ یقین دلانا پڑ رہا تھا کہ میں واقعی اس مقام پر کھڑا تھا جہاں تجلیات الٰہی کا ظہور ہوا تھا ۔میرے لیے یہ مقا م مانوس بھی تھا اور اجنبی بھی،میں یہاں پہلی دفعہ آیاتھا مگر یوں لگ رہا تھا جیسے میں یہاںکے کونے کونے سے واقف ہوں قرآنی آیات کی عملی نشانیاں میری آنکھوں کے سامنے تھیں میں بچپن سے مطالعہ قرآن کی وجہ سے اس علاقے اور یہاں ظہور پذیر ہونے والے واقعات سے با خبر تھا مگر آج با نظر ہو گیا ،پہلے ایک عام انسان تھا مگر آج اس نظارے نے خاص بنا دیا ۔سینا کی گرمی میں مجھے سردی سی محسوس ہو رہی تھی ،میری جسمانی حالت میری روحانی حالت کے ساتھ ایک کیفیت میں رہنے اور ساتھ دینے سے عاری تھی ۔دکتوریحیٰ نے پوچھا کیف الحال یا اخی ؟میں نے کہا قرآن کی بہت ساری آیات کا بصری مطالعہ کر رہا ہوں، جن کا متحمل میرا گناہ گار اور ناتواںجسم ہو نہیں...
Forming Islamic Society, a dutiful, lawful and culturly civilized society; religion of Islam presents many rules and laws. One those beautiful laws are Saddu Zara’i (prevention law from means, leading to prevented things in Islam). It helps stop unlawful activities by using legal means. If a cultural change drives Muslim away from the objectives of Islam, it will alter that person to Islamic law. In betterment of society andmorality and ethics of people, Saddu Zara’i has great influence. If this law of Sharia leads to something good without damaging the objectives of Sharia, it will be accepted. This article discusses concept, meaning and the study of Saddu Zara’i and its importance and influence in reforming social and ethical values of society. It is illustrated by example of various scholars of Islam. It also discusses the different opinions of Islamic Jurisprudential scholars on Saddu Zara’i. The authors of this paper, then, deliberate its use for its applications to solve the new problems being faced by the Muslims across the world related to ethics and reformation of society.
The PhD research study was conducted in two phases i.e. Phase I and Phase II. Phase 1: The first phase of the study aims to design, formulate and evaluate Ciprofloxacin HCl and Diltiazem HCl once daily 200mg Controlled Release (CR) tablets using different polymers and polymers grades and various drug to polymer (D: P) ratios, both in vitro and in vivo. Determination of some of the physical and chemical properties is convincingly well-ordered in the development of effective, reproducible and stable drug delivery systems. Dissolution is the rate limiting step towards the bioavailability of these dosage forms. Thus, our efforts during the pre-formulation studies covered the detailed study of various parameters such as, particle size analysis, solubility and dissolution behavior of Ciprofloxacin and Diltiazem powders. Various characterization and evaluation techniques like Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier Transform Infra-Red Absorption spectroscopy (FTIR) were used. Evaluation of the drug powders and physical mixtures was carried out using several physical methods including bulk density, tapped density, angle of repose, Hausner’s ratio and compressibility index. In order to control the drug release rate and to maintain steady state plasma concentration, various bio- polymeric approaches have been used during the course of treatment. Ethyl cellulose ether derivatives, Carbopol 974 P NF and Eudragit RS 100 polymers were used for the design and formulation of oral controlled release hydrophobic matrix tablets using direct compression method. The prepared matrix tablets were exposed to various physical and quality control tests comprising of thickness, diameter, weight variation, hardness, friability and content uniformity. The in vitro drug release profiles and drug release mechanisms were investigated using dissolution tests and applying kinetic models on the dissolution data. The once daily CR tablets were planned to achieve diffusion controlled pH independent release with the desired zero-order kinetics for both Ciprofloxacin HCl and Diltiazem HCl. For both drugs, stability of the selected tablets was investigated during the short term accelerated stability studies. The optimized test tablets were then subjected to in vivo studies using rabbits and HPLC based simple, authentic and speedy methods. The in vivo drug release mechanism was determined using various pharmacokinetic parameters like, Cmax, Tmax, AUC, MRT, T1/2 and Cl total for both test and the reference standard tablets. Having both Ciprofloxacin and Diltiazem as test drugs, the best approach of particle size distribution was finely dissolved in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) solution and maximum absorbance was achieved at 276 and 237 nm respectively. The physical evaluation of the preliminary materials were found to be in the best satisfactory ranges reported in the literature like, Hausner’s ratio from 1.11±0.13 to 1.29±0.05, angle of repose from 22 to 37 ̊and compressibility index ranged from 11±2 to 20±2%. The results showed that the drug release rate could be significantly altered by the change in polymer concentration and particle size. It was observed that the addition of HPMC as a co-excipient possibly caused slow hydration of the matrix tablets leading to erosion and sequentially drug release, while CMC and Starch based formulations exhibited burst release and were completely disintegrated within a few hours. Microencapsulation of Diltiazem HCL and its in-vitro dissolution study in phosphate buffer pH 7.4 as dissolution medium. The microcapsules were prepared by using polymers Ethocel 7P and Ethocel 7FP at two different drug to polymer (D: P) ratios i.e. 1:1 and 1:2 and the effect of concentration was observed on drug release behavior. While carrying out in vivo studies of both Ciprofloxacin HCl and Diltiazem HCl, simple and rapid HPLC methods were developed which revealed optimum serum concentration (Cmax) levels for both drugs predicting least chances of side or adverse effects. It was revealed that matrix tablets for both of the drugs were having significantly prolonged tmax values indicating smooth and extended absorption phase. A good co-relation between the in-vitro drug release and in-vivo drug absorption of the drugs was observed. It was also investigated that in case of both drugs, the area under the curves (AUC) for test and reference matrix tablets were not significantly different i.e. (p<0.05) from each other. From this study it was concluded that the polymers (Ethocel, Carbopol and Eudragit) could be used to prepare once-a-day controlled release matrix tablets having Ciprofloxacin HCl and Diltiazem HCl as active ingredients. Phase 2: The second part of the study was conducted in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation, University of Bradford, Bradford UK. The aim of the study was to prepare and evaluate Chlorpheniramine Maleate (CPM) solid dispersions using HPMC-Acetate Succinate (HPMC-AS) as rate controlling agent. Nine batches of CPM solid dispersions were prepared at three different drug to polymer (D: P) ratios i.e. 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 using labultima spray dryer and varying the inlet temperature as 40, 50 and 60 oC . The prepared solid dispersions were evaluated for various physic-chemical properties using various instruments like FEI Quanta 400 Scanning Electron Microscope (Cambridge, U.K.), Cary 50 Varian probe UV-visible spectrophotometer (Australia), Bruker D8 Diffractometer (UK), TA Instruments Q2000 differential scanning calorimeter (Crawley, UK), TA Instruments Q 5000 Thermo Gravimetric Analyzer (Crawley, UK), Renishaw Raman microscope analyzer (UK), Digilab FTS 2000 spectrometer (Randolph, USA). The in vitro drug release studies were carried out in analytical grade distilled water using Pharma-Test dissolution apparatus at 37 oC ± 0.1 as constant temperature. It was found that the release rate was retarded more by increasing the polymer concentration and a linear relationship was found. A 2X3 factorial design was applied to the dissolution data to analyze the effect of different process variables i.e. (1) the drug to polymer ratio and (2) inlet temperature. In the end a very good response surface methodology curve was constructed using the collected data.