Legitimacy of Imprisonment as a Punishment in Sharīa

Throughout known human history, incarceration has been a prevailing practice. Regardless of the nature of the crime, imprisonment is now a widespread phenomenon globally. In Pakistan, as in many other states, detention is employed for a wide range of offenses, including instances where Islamic capital punishments are substituted with imprisonment. The adverse impacts of imprisonment are not limited to the individual offender; rather, they extend to the well-being of the offender's family and the broader society. Furthermore, the efficacy of imprisonment is questioned concerning its purported benefits in terms of reformation, retribution, and deterrence, with an examination revealing potential limitations in achieving these objectives. Considering the aforementioned issues, it is important to explore whether it is according to Islamic law or not? After analyzing all causes and aspects of detention given in the Prophetic time and Rashidun caliphate, it is concluded that in those times, imprisonment was just practiced till the decision taken for the criminal and then, one might set free or granted any hadd or ta‘zīr punishment. Subsequently, the individual could either be released or subjected to specific hadd or ta‘zīr punishments. In Shari'ah, permissible punishments include confining the offender to their residence or banishing them from the locality, with the provision for the latter to be accompanied by their family. Crucially, the absence of a concept of prolonged imprisonment within Sharīa’s code of crimes and penalties underscores the contention that imprisonment is perceived not merely as a punitive measure but as a severe crime against humanity.  This raises questions about the effectiveness of Pakistan's criminal justice system, suggesting that a more tailored and nuanced approach, considering individual circumstances, may be more operative. Keywords: Juristic Approach to Imprisonment, Imprisonment in Islam, detention in Islamic law, incarceration.

Housing Demand in Urban Areas of Pakistan

This dissertation focuses on exploring the determinants of the housing demand in the urban areas of Pakistan. It also delves into the impact of different income groups on the housing demand. The hedonic price model was used for the estimation of analysis. The data pertaining to 14 Pakistani urban areas was borrowed from Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement (PSLM) survey 2004-05 and 2010-11, respectively. Overall, two models were used in the analysis. The first one was to estimate the Hedonic rent model that helped in finding out that in high-income group households the rent was greater than the middle-income group households, which was increased in 2004-05 and decreased in 2010-11. The study was applied on lower income groups as well. Affordability has same effect on low and middle-income groups, but for high-income group it turned out to be positive yet the value of coefficient remained on the lower side. This comparison helps in designing appropriate policies in accordance with the current state of housing market. It was found that different factors contributed differently wards housing demand whereas the economic cycles were contrast during both periods of the study. Furthermore, this study provides a policy framework for addressing the factors related to housing demand. In order to control the selectivity bias between the tenure choice and the quantity of housing services demanded, Heckman‟s two-step selection procedure was used. The Probit model was opted for calculating the margins for the probability of a house‟s ownership. Permanent and Transitory incomes were estimated based on the permanent income hypothesis. Another aspect, uncommonly found in studies from developing countries including Pakistan, was separately determining the effects of permanent and more importantly transitory income on housing demand. The aggregate analysis underlined that income, house price, affordability; demographic factors such as age of the head of household, education, household size, number of earners and marital status are the key factors in determining the housing demand in Pakistan.