جہاں گرد کی واپسی
مسافر قاہرہ کے ہوائی مستقر پر کھڑا اجازت لے رہا تھا ۔وقتِ رخصت ان کی آزردہ دلی مجھ سے دیکھی نہیں جا رہی تھی وطن واپسی کے لیے جہاز کے اڑان بھرنے سے چار گھنٹے پہلے مجھے ائیر پورٹ پہنچنا تھا ۔میں دو گھنٹے مزید پہلے پہنچا تھا ۔دکتورہ بسنت ،احمد صاحب ،، دکتورعلی،دکتورہ شائمہ اور باقی سارے دوستوں کے ساتھ مصر میں چھے دن اس قدر مصروف کہ وقت بیتنے کا احساس ہی نہیں ہوا اور اب رخصتی کے یہ چھے گھنٹے جیسے رک سے گئے ہیں ۔ سب کی محبت اور آنسوئوں سے لبریز آنکھیں میرا راستہ روک رہیں تھیں ۔دکتورہ بسنت کا ’’پھر کب آئو گے ‘‘والے سوال سے میرا پیچھا چھڑانا مشکل تھا۔ دکتورہ شائمہ کا مشورہ کہ ’’نیل کا پانی پی کر جائو جس نے بھی پیا واپس ضرور آیا ‘‘مصر سے میرے تعلق اور مراسم کے ایسے کچے دھاگے ہیں جن کی مضبوط گرفت سے خود کو آزاد کرانا مشکل ہو رہا تھا ۔کہا جاتا ہے کہ اہل مصر بے وفا ہوتے ہیں ،خود غرض ہوتے ہیں، حسب ضرورت و سہولت مراسم رکھتے ہیں مگر میں نے مصر اور اہل مصر کو وفادار انسان دوست اور ملنسار پایا ۔ اگر اہل مصر وفا شعار اور انسان دوست نہ ہوتے تو بازارِ مصر میں فروخت شدہ اور زندانِ زاویرا میں مقید رہنے والے حضرت یوسفؑ اپنے والد حضرت یعقوب ؑ اور اپنے اہل و عیال کو کنعان سے مصر مستقل سکونت کے لیے کیوں بلاتے ۔قاہرہ ائیر پورٹ کی انتظار گاہ کی کھڑکی سے روشن چاند واضح نظر آ رہا تھا یو ں لگ رہا تھا جیسے وادی سینا کے عقب سے چاند نے مصر کو منور کر نے کے لیے اپنے دودھیا اجالے کی پھوار پھینکی ہو ۔میں چشمِ تخیل سے ساحلوں ،ٹیلوں ،وادیوں...
The present study investigates the socio-economic problems of the labors in Brick Kilns which are situated in the vicinities of district Hyderabad (Rural). Eighty three respondents from twenty five brick kilns were selected for interview. It is found that majority of the respondents was illiterate and never visited educational, technical and religious institutions. The economic categorization of the labors revealed that majority was categorized as ‘poorest of poor’ (living below poverty line), having semi-pacca houses, earning less than 10,000 rupees per month to manage their entire family. Due to very low income they spent least amount on education and health while more on food and utilities. The general problems reported by the labors are: poor quality of drinking water, no shelter at work place, child labor, low and late payment of wages, long working hours etc. Besides these, both male and female labors informed about misbehave and use of abusive language by the owner/manager, even few of them also complained about physical abuse. Stomach problem was found as common disease in men followed by Anemia whereas in women Anemia was ranked first followed by Backache.
Risk is an asymmetric position that is related to an adverse situation or loss. It can be measured through severity of loss, not deviation from a well-diversified average. The global financial system faces risk from two dimensions, change in nature due to time (temporal effect) and how different characteristics of quality change (cross-sectional effect). The objective of this research is to find the best-fitting risk and return model in the Pakistani stock market by deploying the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), Value at Risk (VaR), expected shortfall (ES), size, value, investment and profitability. The study proposes that VaR and ES are relevant risk and return measures as they measure the downside risk, which is relevant to the negative bias and risk-averse behaviour of investors in the market. One hundred-and-twenty-four regression models are analyzed to elaborate the significance of various systematic and idiosyncratic risk factors. The study observes the comparison of systematic risk factors i.e. CAPM, VaR, and ES for both cross-sectional and time-series stock returns. VaR and ES estimate the worst losses at some confidence level. Different confidence levels have different effects and implications. This study uses 95% and 99% levels of confidence to estimate VaR and ES relationship with stock excess returns. The significance of ideosyncratic risk factors i.e. size, value, investment and profitability is tested in an emerging market like Pakistan. The study further checks the investor behaviour by analyzing the impact of risk factors on lower end (20th quantile), median (50th quantile) and high end (80th quantile) stocks excess returns using a quantile regression model. Results suggest that ES completely dominated the systematic risk-control mechanism when estimating the cross-sections of stock excess returns. It is also significant in time-series regression analysis. Market beta has mixed effect on stock returns. It has a negative effect on cross-sections of stock returns but has a strong positive time varying effect. The empirical findings elaborate that VaR and ES are the alternate controlling mechanisms of systematic risk. The quantile regression findings are robust to least square regression results but the key finding is the predictability of VaR and ES for low-end stock returns. The CAPM model performs significantly in median and high-return stocks but insignificantly for stocks with low returns. Among idiosyncratic risk factors, value stocks and growth stocks are most relevant in both time-series and cross-sectional stock excess returns in Pakistan. The size factor has a temporal effect but no cross-sectional effect. Investment and profitability factors are not recognized as the diversifiable risk factor in the Pakistani stock market.