The Political System of Islam

The Political System of Islam:

Islamic concept of life is a co-ordination between body and soul, and the Political system prescribed by Islam establishes a relationship between religion and politics. In social conception, Islam is ‘communal’; it encourages social life and collective efforts to maintain the essence of society. Social concept of Islam aims at the development of an individual and hence the development of whole Muslim community. It emphasizes on mutual co-operation, co-ordination among all responsible authorities, collective efforts of the community to develop the society and sharing of knowledge and materialistic objects for the benefit of all. The same law regulates the affairs of the country or state. For a better understanding of the political system of Islam, let’s have a look at its major determinants.

Determinants of Political System of Islam:

# Concept of Nationality

# Form of Government

# Duties of the State

# Foreign Policy

Concept of Nationality:

The term ‘nationality’ represents a race of people sharing, common place of birth, language, and culture. In this context nationality of people of one particular region / territory differs from that of the nationality of another, with reference to variance in language, birth place and culture. In this scenario people of different regions / territories are strangers or aliens for each other. This definition of the term ‘nationality’ is a narrow one, un-acceptable for the inhabitants of entire world. The above mentioned definition of ‘nationality’ keeps the people of various regions away form each other, creates a stage for one race to be alien for others, so here comes the maximum probability of conflicts.

Islam places a broader definition of ‘nationality’. According to this broad definition, A common ideology is the basis of ‘nationality’ among the Muslims, and Islam is this ideology. The Quran (30/22, 49/13) has rejected all the superiority on account of language, colour of skin and other ineluctable incidences of nature, and recognizes the only superiority of individuals as that based on piety.

Form of Government:

A Republic, a monarchy, a joint-rule, among other forms all are valid in the Islamic community.

If at a given time, in a given surrounding, all the requisite qualities of a ‘commander of the faithful’ or Caliph are not found united in the same person, one admits voluntarily the division of power also for the purpose of the better functioning of the government. We may refer to the famous case cited by the Quran (2/ 246-7): A former prophet was solicited by his people to select for them a king besides his own prophetic self, so that they may war under his leadership, against the enemy which has expelled them from their homes and families. The designation of a king in the presence of and in addition to a prophet, and even by the intermediation of latter, shows the length to which one can go in this direction. A division is thus made between the spiritual and temporal functions, yet no arbitrary power is tolerated for either of them: the politics and the king remain as much subject to the divine law as the cults and the prophets. The source of authority and the codes of law remain the same; only the application of the law and the execution of the dispositions relate to different persons. It is more a question of specialization then a divorce between the two aspects of life.

** A glimpse of Caliphate**

As valid forms of government are mentioned earlier, it is, however, a great deal of controversy in opinions regarding a specific form of government prescribed by Islam. This series of controversies date from the death of Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) where by no positive or precise instruction was left regarding his succession. At that time one group was of the opinion that statal power should rest in heirloom, and as Prophet (P.B.U.H) had left no male to succeed so the power should go to his uncle Abbas (RA) or his cousin Ali (R.A). The second group held the demand of an ad hoc individual election. And majority was in favour of election so the form of government incorporated was intermediary between hereditary monarchy and republic:
The caliph was elected for life. Incorporation of election brought it into the category of republic, while the duration of power resembled as monarchy. Initially the dissidents and latterly rival claimants, and after that the dynasty brought Umaiyads, replaced by Abbasids. Well, the successes and the failures of all these will be discussed later in some other thread.

**Some facts Referring Form of Government**

1- This is narration of Ibn-e-Hisham, As for Ibn-e Saad (III/i.p.151) “Abu Said Al Khudri reports: When the prophet breathed his last, the orators of the Ansarites stood up and one of the said Oh muhajirites, whenever the Prophet (P.B.U.H) nominated a person as aamil (Governor), he attached to him some one from amongst usso that we are of the opinion that, this power (Caliphate) should also be exercised by two persons, one from among you and one from among us. ( So at the time of Hazrat Abu Bakr’s nomination for Caliph there was a proposal for joint rule as well. But for the practical reasons the proposal was rejected)

2- A Hadith in Tirimdhi reports that, Prophet (P.B.U.H) predicted that after him the caliphate would continue only for thirty years and that afterwards a biting kingship would follow.

Duties of the State:

According to the political system of Islam, the duties of the state are broadly categorized as:
1- Executive: These duties cover the range of civil, military and administrative responsibilities. By keeping the sovereign powers to almighty Allah, it is the responsibility of the state to maintain

2- Legislative: The legislature in Islam is subjected to the word of God (Quran), which is the source of law in all walks of life, spiritual as well as temporal.

3- Judiciary: Judiciary demands for equality of law for all, in which the head of the state is not exempted even. In case of conflicts between individuals or parties from different communities, a private international law will regulate the cases.

4- Cultural: The cultural duty of the state is not limited only to maintain cultural values with in the territory but also to organize foreign mission to make others know what Islam stands for.

Foreign Policy:

The relations of a country with other countries of the world are based on international law. In the historical context of international politics Muslims were the first to develop the international law under the head of SIYAR (Conduct, i.e. of a ruler).

According to the Islamic International law, the Muslims and the non-Muslims are equal with reference to their sufferings. The foreign policy of Islamic Political System aims to attain positive and pleasant relations with other countries and to promote mutual co-operation to lessen the sufferings.

One of the salient features of Foreign policy of Islamic Political system is that, it insists on the importance of the given word. For instance, a foreigner attains permission to visit an Islamic territory for a particular time period. And a war breaks out before the expiry of his visa, it’s the responsibility of the state to ensure his security during his stay and his secure return to his native land. Moreover, if he wants to take his goods and gains with him, he’ll not be restricted to do so.


It is hard for me to conclude the political system of Islam, but what I came up with after going through the determinants of the political system of Islam is as follows.

Islam aims to maintain peace of mind and soul not only for a particular individual but for everyone. In order to maintain the peace of mind and soul, it is required to have a co-ordination among all world community. This coordination should exclude the distinction of race and country. Islam doesn’t also demand for any compulsion of religious beliefs, as every one is personally responsible to God.

As far as government is concerned, for Islam Government is supposed to serve the people in such a way that a relationship of trust should be maintained. Being the servant of people it’s the duty of the government to make all possible efforts for the welfare of the people.

The writer is a leading essayist of CSS Forum based at Underground.


1- Introduction to Islam by Dr.Hamidullah

2- Understanding Islam by Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi

Jinnah as sole spokesman of the Muslims of South Asia

In his memories Aga Khan has summed up Quaid’s leadership in following words;
“Of all statesmen I’ve known in my life- Clenceau, Llyod George, Churchil, Curzon, Mussolini, Mahatma Gandhi: Jinnah is the most remarkable. None of these men has outshone strength of character, and in that almost uncanny combination of prescience and resolution which is statecraft.”

In fact, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the man of courage and remarkably appreciable qualities. He was a sole spokesman. In words of Iqbal Chagla “He stood alone, and seemed like a man who had done a Columbus with Pakistan.” Jinnah was not purchasable with goodies or compromises. When Mountbatten suggested that he could become the officiating governor-general of Pakistan, the offer was rejected. “Do you realise what this will cost you?” he asked Jinnah, who replied, “It may cost me several crores of rupees in assets.” Mountbatten continued the onslaught. “It may well cost you the whole of your assets and the future of Pakistan.” But Jinnah strongly stayed unmoved.

Doubtlessly, Jinnah was the man of strength with god gifted vision of social and political understanding. Jinnah was the man who brought ashore the drowning ship of Muslims of South East Asia. Making of Pakistan was a team effort and the lead of the team was in Jinnah’s hands. There was a great number of Muslim Scholars in the subcontinent, who felt the pitiable state of the Muslims of the subcontinent, but Quaid was the man who brought the idea into action, He stood alone, gathered a team, leaded it and won. There were several factors which led Quaid to appear as a ‘sole spokesman’ of the Muslims of South East Asia. These factors can be classified as internal and external factors.

Internal factors which made Quaid a ‘sole spokesman’ were Quaid’s inner qualities. He was blessed with a far-vision of political and social understanding. Area of his studies was quite wide and similarly his knowledge. And the most important factor was Quaid’s own interest in the political conditions of the subcontinent. When he came back from London, he joined congress. But it was his far-vision which felt the conspiracy of Hindu’s very early. He understood that rights of Muslims of Indian subcontinent are not safe in the hands of Congress. He bravely opposed their policies and demanded a fair one. But he didn’t find any progress in this regard and compromise was not his nature so he left congress and joined hands with All India Muslim League. It was Quaid’s far-visioning and political understanding which made him know the exact line of actions of Congress, and it was his strength of character which made him inquire for the same.

Many other Muslims were the members of congress and they also felt the insecure future of Muslims but none of them could protest against it, instead they silently left the congress and joined Muslim league. But Quaid’s case was different. Actually , in the beginning Quaid was also in favour of United India, but when he came to know the motive of the Hindu leaders that, after getting independence from Britain all the major ministries (from Prime minister to foreign minister) would be under Hindu control and none of the Muslims will have access over them. Jinnah was so annoyed, that he fearlessly inquired the matter, but Nehru and others couldn’t satisfy him with any authentic answer.

Another thing that Jinnah felt was the Gandhi’s duel attitude towards muslims. For instance Gandhi’s attitude with Muslim leaders was at its supreme, personally, but publicly it was totally opposite. This made Quaid confused for the secure future of Muslims in the subcontinent. Climax came when Gandhi started opposing Quaid’s personal life and in response Quaid stood up with his all strengths. Actually Gandhi felt the leadership qualities in Quaid and he was in fact a little afraid also and many times he attempted to hit Quaid on some irrational grounds also. Once in congress meeting at Gujrat (where the audience was purely Gujrati and no one could understand English) Gandhi announced, “Mr. Jinnah can’t speak in your native language as he doesn’t know any language other than English”. At that time Quaid addressed the audience in pure Gujrati in an exact accent, which shocked Mr. Gandhi and pleased the audience.

Whenever any of the opponent tried to exhibit any weakness of Quaid, in response he not only overcame the weakness but left no leak. These were only those factors which distinguish Quaid from other leaders. The actual internal factor of being ‘sole spokesman’ was that, all the above mentioned qualities of Quaid made him so popular that Muslims of India started perceiving him a “Messiah”. Initially he was unknown of his popularity so his strengths were not in a particular direction, his strengths were divergent. He had a ‘handicapped combat’ with congress (he was the only opposing their policies). His fourteen points are the sound example in this regard. But when he realized that people have kept all their hopes with him, his all strengths became convergent and he found the direction. It was ‘peoples’ expectation’ which he realised internally and became the “SOLE SPOKESMAN OF THE MUSLIMS OF SOUTH EAST ASIA”.

Now come external factors or those external forces which led Quaid to appear as a sole spokesman. Quaid during his studentship (in Britain), worked as a political secretary of a very well known member of British Parliament Mr. Dadabhoy Noorjai. It won’t be wrong to say that, “Dadabhoy Noorjai was the first political training institution for Mr Jinnah”. He had spent a long time with Mr. Noorjai and hence he had a thorough knowledge of BRITISH POLITICAL THINKING. When he came back to India, he applied his working experience here. His BRITISH WAY OF POLITICAL THINKING made him prominent among all other leaders. It doesn’t mean that other Muslim leaders were not great leaders. They were also great but none of them have better understanding of British rulers and the political demands as Quaid had. Actually all other leaders got political training in India so their style and approach was different then British. And Jinnah had a start with British political system so he was fully aware of the ‘games’ played by them. Or in other words before Quaid’s entrance in Indian Politics, British and some Hindus were on the screen of Indian politics, but when Jinnah stepped into, they found a man of their competition, and from here the actual spokesman ship of Muslims got a start.

Dadabhoy Noorjai’s fellowship and British political training were the prominent elements of Quaid’s ‘sole spokesman ship’ but he couldn’t have ever won the hearts of Muslims of South East Asia without following Allama Shabbir Ahmed Usmani’s teachings. Quaid met Allama Usmani when Gandhi criticized him that “what kind of Muslim he is who doesn’t know Kalma”. Allama didn’t only teach him Kalma but also provided him with detailed and unbiased concepts of Islam. Jinnah was so fond of Allama’s that he wished his ‘Namaz-e-Jinaza Prayer” to be offered by Allama Usmani. Undoubtedly Allama’s teachings supported Quaid’s personality as a ‘sole spokesman’.

Inspiration of Allama’s teachings revealed during the struggle for Pakistan, when there were two groups of Muslims of India, i.e. Sunni and Shia. Initially it was not clear that either Pakistan will be a shia state or a sunni state. And no one felt the need of such declaration. But when the time of Partition came , Rajasab Memmood Abad and Rajasab Ahmed Abbas asked Quaid about the national religion of Pakistan and Quaid firmly declared it will be Islam, irrespective of any group differentiation. There arouse the conflict between Shia and Sunni community but Quaid remained unmoved. He refused to have his say on any individual group, instead he maintained MUSLIM UNITY. This was the reason that both Rajasabs didn’t migrate to Pakistan instead they went to Britain. Here Quaid’s role as ‘sole spokesman’ was at its supreme level. There were some Sunni spokesmen and some Shia spokesmen, but Quaid was one who worked for united Muslims’ interests.

Precisely Quaid was the man of character with god gifted vision and strength. Quaid’s own interest, vision, abilities, courage, thinking power and fighting spirit combined with the fellowship of Dadabhoy Noorjai and practice on Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani’s teachings brought him on the screen of Indian Politics as a ‘sole spokesman’ of Muslims of South East Asia.

Jinnah’s strategies to run Pakistan in Post Partition Era

On august 14 1947 mount batten flew to Karachi and addressed the Pakistan constituent Assembly, a simple ceremony marked the formal transfer of power from Britain to the people of Pakistan.[1]
Pakistan from its very inception faced a large number of problems like; Demarcation of boundaries, Uprooting of Muslims in Punjab, Refugees’ resettlement, The accession of Hyderabad, Jonagadh, and Kashmir, Division of Indian Assets, Administration Problems, Language Controversy, and Population Problems. Many challenges in setting up new economic, judicial, and political structures, organizing the bureaucracy and the armed forces, resettle the Mohajirs (Muslim refugees from India), and establish the distribution and balance of power in the provincial and central governments were standing ahead. Pakistan in such hard-pressed situation, although Quaid was in ill health, he tried hard to keep the end up. He strongly took the hold of the national and international affairs. His strategies to run Pakistan in post partition era had a close connection to that of the strategies to establish Pakistan. Quaid’s strategies can be classified as follows:

1- The Post of Governor General:

According to the Indian Act 1935 the post of the Governor General in the British Commonwealth officially meant simply being the British Monarch’s representative, a ceremonial head of the state and cipher of the executive Government. Before the partition Mountbatten was keenly interested in the post of Governor General of Pakistan, he proposed his idea to Mr. Jinnah and wished to have a positive reply, but Jinnah denied and remained firm on his decision even Mountbatten threaten him of the gloomy future of Pakistan. And in fact the uneven distribution of Indian assets was the consequence of Jinnah Mountbatten clash. After the emergence of Pakistan Jinnah himself hold the post of Governor General. The wit in this act of Jinnah was that, he had a deep and thorough knowledge of British Diplomacy and British Politics. As a representative of British Monarch, any British would have done no favour to the people of Pakistan so Jinnah being the leader of his people and having a sound influence in British government, was the most appropriate person for the post of Governor General of Pakistan. Jinnah’s strategy behind being Governor General was to maintain nation’s trust on “Governor General” as well as British Government’s.

2- Constitutional Requirements:

Constitution is the basic requirement of a country as it prescribes the rules and regulations according to which a state or government has to be organized. In this regard under section 8 of the Independence Act, The Indian Act of 1935, became with certain adaptations, the working constitution of Pakistan. But there was the need of a constitution, so a Constituent Assembly was arranged in order to frame the constitution for the country and to act as a legislative Assembly or Parliament until that constitution came into effect. In the inaugural session of the Constituent Assembly (10—14 August 1947 in Karachi ) Mr. N.J Mandal was elected as temporary chairman of the Assembly. And in the Quaid being the only candidate proposed for the presidency was elected as the president of the Constituent Assembly. Quaid’s strategy regarding constitutional development can be better analyzed by his saying in his speech, opening the Constituent Assembly.
Actually Quaid didn’t want people of Pakistan to scatter around on the basis of religious grounds. His approach to maintain the national integration and to remove the national disharmony among the people. He favoured to develop a constitution acceptable for all people living in Pakistan, in order to preserve the rights of minorities.

3- Peace Keeping And Resettlement of Refugees:

The fact that about a half million people died, about 5.5 million muslims and about 3 million Hindus and Sikhs had to leave their ancestral homes has made the partition intensely emotional. The history of bloodshed and human slaughter didn’t end at the partition, instead it was at its utmost with the announcement of partition. On September 18 1947, London Times wrote, “More Indian people have been killed during the short space of the past months than in all the civil broils of the past fifty years. And Millions have been rendered homeless.[2 ]
Quaid outshone the great determination at this desperate situation and ordered immediately to provide relief to the refuges. He also attempted to protect the religious minorities and convince them to remain in Pakistan. Quaid’s this act was basically an endeavour to maintain peace in those hard times. Some critics and give another title to this act of Quaid, as Ayesha Jalal wrote, “Jinnah was after partition seen as the “protector general of the Hindus” for his role in protecting them. He also appointed a Hindu as the first law minister of Pakistan and the first national anthem of Pakistan was written by a Hindu poet, Jagganath Azad, on Jinnah’s behest which was later replaced by the current version written by a Muslim poet Abu-Al-Asar Hafeez Jullandhuri.”
But in fact there was nothing like that, as Quaid attempted to maintain peace and protection of minorities’ rights, it was necessary to give appropriate participation to them in national affairs. Secondly how could he deny the rights of minorities in his own state, which he had got just because of the unjust and improper attitude of the leaders of United India? “Rights of minorities” was the base on which Jinnah has made Pakistan.

4- Maintainance of National Harmony:

Born Agha Khani Ismaili Shia Muslim, Jinnah was once asked whether he was a shia or a sunni and he said if Prophet Muhammad was a shia, then he (Jinnah) was a shia and if the Prophet was a sunni then he was a sunni, but as the Prophet was neither of the two and was but a Muslim then so is he.
On October 24, 1947 on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha Quaid’s message to the nation was, “My message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation.”
Quaid believed on unity of Muslims so that it was his strategy to keep all the groups of Muslims united so that they may get stronger. So he applied the same for his own state.

5- Establishment of Military:

At the time of the Division of Indian Assets, the Joint Defence Council was abolished and the Supreme Commander incharge of dividing the assets was expelled. Mountbatten had not interest in Pakistan getting its share, so whatever Pakistan received was nothing but scrap and out of order machines, broken weapons rust eaten artillery unserviceable aircrafts and a limited number of army. Quaid decided to proceed with the limited resources. He was of the opinion that the success totally depends on one’s hard work and strength of mind and character. Here he opted to motivate the limited number of armed forces instead of increasing their number.
Addressing to Civil, Naval, Military and Air Force Officers of Pakistan Government, Karachi on October 11, 1947 Quaid said, “We should have a State in which we could live and breathe as free men and which we could develop according to our own lights and culture and where principles of Islamic social justice could find free play.”
On February 21, 1948 he motivated the officers and men of the 5th Heavy Ack Ack and 6th Light Ack Ack Regiments in Malir, Karachi in following words;

6- Economic Policy:

At the time of partition Pakistan had to receive a sum of Rs.750 million as its share of hard money in the banks of India. At first India didn’t show any inclination to transfer this money to Pakistan; but later saner elements prevailed and it gave Rs.200 million to Pakistan; while Rs.500 million were to be transferred to Pakistan later on which didn’t come to happen till now. Again Quaid strategy was to work with limited resources. Fulfilling the national requirements was given the priority on exports, but great emphasize was on developing good trade terms with other countries of the world. To develop the economy there was a crucial need of currency and in this regard need of a central bank was must. So to meet the economic requisites State Bank of Pakistan was developed. Quaid inaugurated the bank and addressing the inaugural ceremony he said, “We must work our destiny in our own way and present to the world an economic system based on true Islamic concept of equality of manhood and social justice. We will thereby be fulfilling our mission as Muslims and giving to humanity the message of peace which alone can save it and secure the welfare, happiness and prosperity of mankind”

7- Foreign Policy:

Initial foreign policy of Pakistan was of nonalignment, with no formal commitment to either the United States or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the two major adversaries in the Cold War. It was because; Pakistan was a new born state with limited resources. The basic emphasize was on economic development, resettlement of refugees and setting a peaceful atmosphere. In fact Jinnah didn’t emphasize much on foreign policy.

8- Kashmir Issue:

When the Indian Army entered the Himalayan princely state of Kashmir in October 1947 in response to an invasion of Pakistani tribesmen and soldiers, Jinnah responded by increasing military aid for the invaders while strongly criticizing the Hindu Maharaja of Kashmir’s accession to India despite a majority of his subjects being Muslim. Afterwards India took the issue to the UN Security council where by it was decide that the future of Kashmiri’s will be determined according to their own choice, which is a dream till yet. But in fact act of sending the Pakistani Army in Kashmir at that time was thwarted by British commanders.

9- Educational affairs:

Quid didn’t take any big step for educational affairs at that time. (Curriculum and Syllabus) but informally, he did much. He ordered to establish a learning and educational environment for the children in refugees camps. Quaid had a great love for students, for him they were the future of Pakistan. He wanted students’ participation in national affairs but advised them to finish their studies first. On October 30, 1947 Speech at a Mammoth Rally at the University Stadium, Lahore he said,” That freedom can never be attained by a nation without suffering and sacrifice has been amply borne out by the recent tragic happenings in this subcontinent. We are in the midst of unparalleled difficulties and untold sufferings; we have been through dark days of apprehension and anguish; but I can say with confidence that with courage and self-reliance and by the Grace of God we shall emerge triumphant.”


After partition Quaid lived for only one year and twenty eight days in his Pakistan. During this period he was in ill health. According to some historians Quaid’s disease (tuberculosis) was diagnosed in 1944, but he kept it secret just because he didn’t want any delay in the partition. He worked day and night and made untired efforts for the establishment of a separate Muslim state. And after partition he was not in the position to work further hard but he was supported by a hard core of love of his people that he didn’t rest for a short while. And in spite of his inability to work due to his illness, he kept his hand in formulating strategies to achieve the projected goals. His strategies were going good but he lost the combat of life on September 11 1948. Many of his strategies couldn’t get into action but the first year of Pakistan went according to the projections.


[1-A Aziz ,discovery of Pakistan pg 357,358]
[2 Ch. Muhammad Ali, Emergence of Pakistan pg 258]
Gul Shehzad Sarwar, Pakistan Studies.

Literacy and Economic Development

Economic prosperity of a country entirely depends on the economic resources it has. These economic resources are classified as Natural resources, financial resources and Human resources. Natural resources comprise of fertile land, ideal topography, abundant forests, sufficient mineral resources and excess water supply. Financial resources include the capital needed for the economic activities. Human resources include the population, its growth rate, skills, standard of living and working capacity of the labour force. According to modern economists a country leading in natural resources has more opportunities to develop than that of a country lacking in such resources. But only abundant availability of natural resources does not make sure the economic development of a country, these resources need to be utilized at their optimum. And this is only possible when efficient manpower utilizes these resources. The developed economy of Japan is the open example in this regard whereby Japan had overcome the deficiency of Natural resources by excelling in Human resources. In other words it can be said that economic development only occurs when Natural and Financial resources are maintained properly by efficient Human resources.

On the other hand if Human resources fail to maintain Natural and Financial resources, these resources may be misutilized, underutilized or unutilized and cause economic inefficiency, for instance underdeveloped countries of the world like Afghanistan has excess of mineral resources but the economy is not developed due to lack of Human resources. Another example is Pakistan, where we have sufficient mineral resources but due to lack of skilled manpower we cannot utilize all those resources, and as a result of such we are not in the queue of developed countries.

Literacy is the key tool to make the workforce efficient. The word literacy means “a state of being able to read and write”. In a broader sense literacy is a phenomenon by which one can enhance his communication, professional and social skills. The impact of literacy on economic development is positive and can be easily determined by comparing the standard of living, per capita income, GDP, industrialization and development of infrastructure within a country. Literacy enhances the working capabilities of people by providing them with skill development.

Literacy and economic development have endless companionship, but the role played by literacy on economic development is quite dominant. Literacy has the positive influence on the economics development in the following ways.
1. It helps to enhance the skills of workforce, which result as a positive influence on work behaviour. By enhancing his skills one can earn more which brings economic prosperity at both Micro (individual) level and Macro level (rise in real GDP).
2. Literacy develops a sense of responsibility among the common man, by which one can become a good citizen.
3. Increasing rate of literacy brings about a state of competition among different firms, industries and sectors of production, which helps an economy to grow on strong bases of competition.
4. Increasing rate of literacy also helps to control and maintain population growth. Hence qualitative population is found with increased standard of living and more access over basic needs.
5. Increased technical education helps to develop new and sophisticated methods of production and distribution, which can reduce the cost of production and increase the rate of return.
7. If literate people come to run the government along with economy, country will have a great benefit in such a way these people will allocate the resources at their best and hence the chances of misallocation and misutilization of resources will diminish.
8. Proper and planned allocation of resources brings increased and qualitative production. Increased production leads to more employment opportunities. Thus the level of unemployment reduces from the country.
9. Inflation is one of the major problems of today’s economics. According to the research reduction in inflation is directly related to the reduction in unemployment level. As literacy and skill development helps to reduce the unemployment it leads towards the control over inflation. And hence economy rides on the strong horse of development.
10. Literacy also helps to enhance the communication skills among the people. Developed communication skills help an individual to contact with more and more employers in order to get better job opportunities. Developed communication skills also help to maintain pleasant relationship between the employer and employees, which reduces the conflicts among them and by this way the productivity of the firm extends.
11. Along with the development of professional and communication skills, literacy and education develop social skills by which an individual learns to move in the society and he realizes the importance of society, as no one can live in isolation.
12. By enhancing the skills among the workers, the organization can get maximum productivity.

Concisely literacy has great importance in the economic development of a country. Literacy brings all the positive changes in variable factors of production as well as in infrastructure development; it also minimizes or may wipe out negativities. No one can deny the importance of literacy. It can be said that literacy is a pillar on which the major part of an economy stands, if the pillar is strong enough to hold the economy, the anomalies can be reduced very easily and the economy will multiply. And if the pillar of literacy is weak and fragile the anomalies may push the economy downward and the economy may fall down on all four.

For the better economic development it is more important to strengthen the pillar of literacy. It requires strategic planning and financial resources to facilitate the literacy programs. The financial resources required for the development of literacy programs may not be considered as expense, in fact it is an investment which gives fruitful results in future.
The strategic planning required for the development of literacy programs is the part of economic planning. The strong the economic planning is the better the result will be.

From an analytical point of view the economic prosperity and literacy are the two directly proportional procedures which have a great influence on each other. As a country’s workforce is educated, skilled, organized, competitive and wanting to go ahead, no one can stop such an economy from being prosperous.

Concisely economic development depends on the qualitative workforce and this qualitative workforce can be acquired by developing professional, social and communication skills through literacy and education.
As the people of a country are literate they will work much better for their own and as they will work to satisfy their needs, simultaneously country’s economy will grow and develop.

Men are from Mars Women are from Venus

Men are from Mars Women are From Venus…..They can’t live with them, they can’t live without them! (John Gray)

Life on Mars

Martians value power, professionalism, competency, efficiency and achievement. They believe in ‘things’ and ‘objects’ rather then ‘feelings. They do things to prove their efficiency. Every thing on Mars reflects their competence, i.e. engineers, cab-drivers, police officers, soldiers, businessman, scientist.

They do not read magazines like ‘Psychology’, ‘Today’, ‘Self’ etc, instead they are more interested in outdoor activities like hunting, fishing, business, racing cars etc. They are careless about romance, novels and self-help books. 

An important way of life on Mars is that, they do not ask for help, and do not share what they feel. Instead they try to solve their matters themselves. If a Martian asks for help, at that time he’s considered to be the weakest person. In other words asking for help is not in Martians’ nature. Here no one renders her services(help) until he’s asked for that.

Life on Venus

Life on Venus is totally opposite of that of life on Mars. The most influencing element of Venusians’ life is ‘feelings’. For them professionalism, competency and achievement are of secondary importance, first importance goes to feelings. They are very conscious about their dress, even they express their feelings by their colourful dresses.

They are much concerned about indoor activities and spend most of their time in reading magazines, novels and books to improve their selves.

Unlike Martians, Venusians believe in sharing of feelings. Even if no one can help them out, they feel better by sharing their matter. On Venus if a woman is upset, all others leave their work and go to share her problem and give her suggestions. For a woman, her problem is half solved if it is shared.

How did they meet?

One day Martians were looking at Venus through their telescopes. Suddenly they saw remarkably beautiful creatures there; they immediately fell in love with them. So they decided to go to Venus . They prepared a space craft and took off towards Venus. Finally they landed on Venus. When women on Venus saw them they also fell in love with them, they spent a long time there trying to understand each other’s way of living, needs, thinking, and they succeeded. They learnt empathy, care, love, and understanding each others point of view. They also learnt that they are from different planets and hence they have different life styles, so one must not interfere the others way of thinking and behaving.

Why they have conflicts?

One thing which was common in both the creatures was their restless nature. After spending a long time on Venus, both Martians and Venusians felt bore, so they decided to go to another planet named ‘Earth’. They used the same space craft to travel. Their journey was very pleasant until they were away from the Earth’s atmosphere. When they entered into Earth’s atmosphere, there came a sudden change in them. Their memory erased and they forgot everything that they have understood about each other.

When they landed on Earth they forgot that they are from different planets, and they have different way of thinking and behaving. Men demanded women to behave professionally. For men women should behave in a competitive manner and think in men’s style. On the contrary women demanded men to behave in their style, to understand feelings and to leave competency.

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The history of terrorism is very old. The first known act of terrorism was held about 2,000 years ago, perpetrated by a radical offshoot of the Zealots, a Jewish sect active in Judea during the 1st century ad. The Zealots resisted the Roman Empire’s rule of what is today Israel through a determined campaign primarily involving assassination. Zealot fighters used the ’sica’, a primitive dagger, to attack their enemies in broad daylight, often in crowded market places or on feast days essentially wherever there were people to witness the violence. But the word terrorism was first used in France to describe a new system of government adopted during the French Revolution. The word, however, did not gain wider popularity until the late 19th century when it was adopted by a group of Russian revolutionaries to describe their violent struggle against tsarist rule, and now this term has gained a terrific popularity. The term ‘Terrorism’ may be defined as a deliberate intent along with prior planning and involves the killing of innocent people. Or it is a deliberate creation and exploitation of fear for bringing about political change. It includes murders, and killings, kidnapping, hijacking, bomb blasts and other activities creating violence or threatening to create violence.

Terrorism has occurred throughout history for a variety of reasons. Its causes can be historical, cultural, political, social, psychological, economic, or religious or any combination of these. In broad terms the causes that have commonly compelled people to engage in terrorism are grievances borne of political oppression, cultural domination, economic exploitation, ethnic discrimination, and religious persecution, perceived inequities in the distribution of wealth and political power.

The act of terrorism can be grouped into three categories; Individual’s act, group’s pursuit and state policy. Individual’s act is invariable the product of injustices, frustrations or denial of legitimate rights etc. A group’s attack is often the outcome of carefully calculated strategies, it may be aimed to highlight a particular point or gimmick people’s attention towards a particular demand of the group. The third one is state’s policy which is sometimes termed as ‘State Terrorism’. One thing which is common in all three categories is that, all terrorist acts involve violence or equally important the threat of violence.

The individual act of terrorism is mostly observed within a local area, while the group pursuit and the state policy acts of terrorism have broad area of influence, i.e. national and international level. Group terrorist attacks have some characteristics in common. First of all they never commit an attack randomly or senselessly. The act of terrorism is carefully planned; even some acts take decades to get planned. This planning includes collection of list of activities of the victim, patterns of daily activities, communication systems, bomb makers, specialists to ensure strategies, mapping of escaping routes, safe houses etc. another common characteristic is secrecy. For this purpose terrorists follow the narrowed pyramid organizational structure, according to which senior command structure and leadership lies at the top.

The most important aspect of terrorist attacks is the ‘target’. Most of the time innocent citizens are the victims of these attacks. Terrorists target innocent citizens to create fear. By generating such an atmosphere of fear they claim ‘power’. Sometimes, some specific people like government officials, business men, transport and vehicle facilities (air craft or train), building etc are also the victims of terrorist attacks. Second type of victims is targeted to draw more attention, some times this type of victims are freed after negotiations but many times the attack results as killings. The most common examples of these ilk of terrorist attacks are attacks of 9/11, hijacking of the air-craft of Indian Airlines in 1999, demolition of Babri Masjid, a recent bomb blast in NishtarPark.

Terrorists’ attacks not only sow panic but also undermine confidence in the government and political leadership of their target. Terrorism is therefore designed to have psychological effects that reach far beyond its impact on the immediate victims or object of an attack. Terrorism is by nature political because it involves the acquisition and use of power for the purpose of forcing others to submit, or agree, to terrorist demands. A terrorist attack, by generating publicity and focusing attention on the organization behind the attack, is designed to create this power.

Now comes the ‘state terrorism’, as I mentioned earlier that, it is state’s policy which is sometimes known as state terrorism. This type of terrorism is used a s a tool to maintain a country/ state’s influence on a particular area. Well known examples in this regard are the Indian occupation on Kashmir and Israel’s policy for Philistine. In both the cases hundred thousands of people have been killed, women have been raped, the basic rights of the natives have been denied. Regarding state terrorism we can’t forget US policy for Afghanistan and Iraq. But in case of Afghanistan and Iraq, the objective of the act is a little different, i.e. the natural resources found in these regions. Well whatever the objective is, it killed innocent people, so it is terrorism.

How to stop terrorism? The most crucial question, many attempts have been made through out the world to lessen the acts of terrorism, but its increasing day by day. New techniques and innovations are being brought in action. Terrorism has existed for at least 2,000 years and is likely to remain a fixture on political agendas, both domestic and international, for years to come. Terrorism provides a means by which the weak can confront much stronger opponents. It therefore has an enduring appeal to the alienated and the disenfranchised, the aggrieved and vengeful, the powerless and the would-be powerful. In addition, it is relatively inexpensive to conduct while offering a vast potential payoff: the ability to evoke fear and alarm and inflict pain and suffering in the hope of compelling agreement to demands made.

Concisely, terrorism is evolving constantly to overcome governmental countermeasures designed to defeat it. It also involves an ongoing search for new targets and unidentified vulnerabilities in its opponents. This quest also raises the possibility that terrorists may pursue unconventional means of attack, such as chemical, biological, or radiological weapons, or nuclear weapons. The latest terrorist tactics include cyber-terrorism, using computers to destroy computer networks or systems, in future it may be electronic warfare that targets critical infrastructure, such as communications and power facilities, or societies in general.

Throughout the world, terrorism reinvents itself in new and more dangerous forms. As older groups are defeated or exhausted, more radical and more violent successors often take their place. Although terrorism likely can never be completely eradicated, countering its threat requires continuing vigilance. The highly individual nature of terrorism’s causes, the diversity of its perpetrators, and the complexity of its fundamental characteristics present enormous challenges to those who must effectively counter this menace.


Inflation means a sustained rise in prices. A situation is said to be an inflationary situation when, either the prices of goods and services or money supply rise. Friedman mentioned inflation as ‘always a monetary phenomenon’. But most of the economists today (including me), do not agree that money supply alone is the cause of inflation. Commonly Inflation is termed as continuing rise in prices as measured by an index such as consumer price index (CPI) or by the implicit price deflator for Gross National Product (GNP).
Generally Inflation can be divided into nine major types according to its intensity and nature. These types are as follows:

1- Creeping Inflation: When prices rise at very slow rate, i.e. creeper’s speed, it is called ‘creeping inflation. Generally 3% annual rise in prices is considered as ‘creeping inflation’.

2- Walking or Trotting Inflation: When inflation is in between 3% to 7%, it’s regarded as ‘walking or trotting inflation’. Some economists have extended the boundary of this type of inflation up to 10% per annum. This type of inflation is considered as a warning signal for the government to take some measures to control the situation.

3- Running Inflation: This type of inflation comes into action when there’s a rapid rise in prices and the range of this type lies in between 10% to 20% per annum. This type of inflation is controllable only by strong monetary and fiscal measures, lest it will be turned into ‘hyper inflation’.

4- Hyper Inflation or Galloping Inflation: The rise of prices from 20% to 100 % per annum is regarded as ‘hyper inflation’ or ‘galloping inflation’. This case of inflation is un controllable.

5- Demand Pull Inflation: This type of inflation is results as an excess demand. In this case supply remains constant (couldn’t be upgraded as per demand). So consequently, the prices go up.

6- Cost Push Inflation: When there’s increase in money-wages at speedier rate than that of the rise in the productivity of labour, it results as increased cost of production which furthers the increase in prices. This type of inflation is regarded as cost push inflation.

7- Mixed Inflation: Majority of the economists hold that, inflation is neither completely ‘demand pull’ nor completely ‘cost push’, the actual inflationary process contains the elements of both. Excess demand and increase in money wages operate at the same time, but it’s not necessary that they start at the same time.

8- Markup inflation: Garner Akley put forward the theory of ‘mark up inflation’. In simple words it is an advanced explaination of ‘Mixed inflation’. According to Akley First comes demand pull inflation, and it is led by cost push inflation. Markup inflation comes to happen when excess demand increases the prices, which stimulates the production. The increasing production creates excessive demand for the factors of production, and the excessive demand for the factors of production further raises the prices.

9- Stagflation: Stagflation is a situation, whereby economy faces stagnation of output and unemployment along with a high rate of inflation. This situation is also known as ‘inflationary recession’.


Inflation comes to happen when the aggregate demand exceeds the aggregate supply. The major factors causing inflation can be classified as under.

A- Demand side factors:

1- Increase in nominal money supply: Increase in nominal money supply without corresponding increase in output increases the aggregate demand. The higher the money supply the higher will be the inflation.

2- Increase in disposable income: When the disposable income of the people increases, their demand for goods and services also increases.

3- Expansion of Credit: When there’s expansion in credit beyond the safe limits, it creates increase in money supply, which causes the increased demand for goods and services in the economy. This phenomenon is also known as ‘credit-induced inflation’.

4- Deficit Financing Policy: Deficit financing raises aggregate demand in relation to the aggregate supply. This phenomenon is known as ‘deficit financing-induced inflation’.

5- Black money spending: People having black money spend money lavishly, which increases the demand un-necessarily, while supply remains unchanged and prices go up.

6- Repayment of Public Debts: When government repays the internal debts it increases the money supply which pushes the aggregate demand.

7- Expansion of the Private Sector: Private sector comes with huge capitals and creates employment opportunities, resulting in increased income which furthers the increase in demand for goods and services.

8- Increasing Public Expenditures: Non developmental expenditures of government lead to raise aggregate demand which results as increased demand for factors of production and then increased prices.

B- Supply side factors

1- Shortage of factors of production or inputs: Shortage of factors of production, i.e. raw material, labour capital etc causes the reduced production, which causes the increase in prices.

2- Industrial Disputes: When industrial disputes come to happen, i.e. trade unions resort strikes or employers decide lock outs etc the industrial production reduces. And as a short supply of goods in the market the prices go up.

3- Natural Calamities: Natural disasters, invasions, diseases etc effect the agricultural production, and shortage of supply which furthers the rise in prices.

4- Artificial Scarcities: Hoarders, black marketers and speculators etc create artificial shortage to earn more profits by keeping the prices high. (in Pakistan bird flu dilemma and sugar crises are the major examples in this regard)

5- Increase in exports (excess exports): When the country has tends to earn maximum foreign exchange and exports more and more without considering the domestic use of the commodities, it creates a shortage of commodities at home which increases the prices. (With reference to Pakistan, the failure of export bonus scheme during 1950’s is the most common example of this type of cause of inflation)

6- Global factors: This factor includes the changing global environment. Most common example is the rise in oil prices. This factor of inflation may vary in nature, i.e. it can be political, strategic, economic or logistic in nature.

7- Neglecting the production of consumer goods: When the production of consumer goods is neglected with reference to the increased production of luxuries, it also creates inflation. For example in Pakistan, in last couple of years our services sector has grown with the highest rate of 8.8% (mainly telecom sector), while basic necessities have been ignored which created increase in the prices of consumer goods.

8- Application of law of diminishing returns: this law applies when the industries use old machines and methods and, which increase in cost by increasing the scale of production. This furthers the increase in prices and hence inflation bursts out.

Effects of Inflation:

A- Effects on different sectors of the economy:

1- Effects on the distribution of income and wealth: Inflation causes the un-even distribution of wealth, which makes some people to have a luxurious life while others to spend their lives hand to mouth. Poor and middle class people are major targets of inflation. While businessmen, speculators etc earn maximum gains. Thus inflation creates un justified transfer of wealth and income from poor to rich.

2- Effects on production: Increasing prices make the producers to invest more in the production, it’s useful up to the full employment level, but investment beyond this level adversely effects the production.

3- Effects on the Government: During inflation government can impose more taxes on producers and hence it can earn more revenues during the period of inflation.

4- Effects on the Balance of Payment: Balance of trade is also adversely effected by inflation, when the domestic products are costlier than that of products made in foreign countries, people prefer imported products, whish increases the imports and decreases the exports.

5- Effects on Monetary Policy: Inflation causes the decline in the value of money, and ultimately the monetary system collapses.

6- Effects on Social Sector: As inflation widens the gap between the poor and the rich, it causes social disorders in the society.

7- Effects on Political environment: Hyper inflation also encourages the opposition parties to agitate and protest against the government which makes disturbance on the political stage of the country.

B- Effects on Different classes of the people:

1- Debtors & Creditors: During inflation debtors gain while creditors have to face the losses. This is because the debtors repay the less amount than that of the amount they have borrowed (because of the decline in the value of money).

2- Salaried Class: Salaried persons face a situation of loss because their salaries don’t increase at the same rate with which the prices are increasing.

3- Wages earners: Wage earners also face loss because the wage rate is adjusted with the rate of inflation. If the unions are strong they can be protected, lest they have to face a tough time.

4- Fixed income group: Fixed income group (pension, social securities earners etc) also face loss because they have to be content at their fix income.

5- Investors and shareholders: Share holders of joint stock companies earn good profits during inflation while those who invest in the bonds, debentures and securities etc earn losses.

6- Businessmen: Business class earns gains during inflation.
7- Agriculturists: Agriculturists both land lords and farmers have to undergo losses, because former get fix rents while later gets fix wages.

Remedies to control Inflation:

A- Monetary Measures

1- Credit Control: Central bank can adopt various methods to control the credit. It can raise the bank rate. Demand pull inflation can be easily controlled by the central bank by following a strong monetary policy.

2- Demonetization of the currency: Under this method the currency of higher denomination can be withdrawn. This measure is effective to control the black money circulation.

3- Issue of new currency: The issue of new currency is the extreme measure of monetary policy. Under this method new currency is issued to replace the old one and the value of deposits is fixed accordingly. However, this measure is taken when there’s hyperinflation.

B- Fiscal Measures

1- Curtailment in unnecessary expenditures: Under this measure the government lessens its some non developmental expenditure. It is, however, not an easy task for the government to reduce its expenditures. Then it is therefore better to be supplemented by taxation measures.

2- Increase in rate of taxes: In order to maintain the flow of money government can impose increased taxes over corporate and high income groups.

3- Increase in volume of savings: Savings also play an important role in the reduction of the effects of inflation. Saving either it is voluntary or in voluntary plays a major role in this regard.

4- Anti inflationary budgetary policy: This measure suggests relying more on surplus budget and avoiding deficit budget. This can happen only when government will reduce the unnecessary expenditures.

5- Increasing public debt policy: Under this measure government should postpone the repayment of public debts until the inflationary pressure lessens.

C- Non-Monetary and Non Fiscal Measures

1- Increase in volume of production: This measure can work as follows:

a- Production of consumer goods
b- Import of raw material rather than the finished goods
c- Rational labour policy
d- Rational industrial policy (long term)
e- Use of latest technology

2- Price control and rationing policy: Price controlling and rationing are two very important measures to reduce the inflation. Under price control the prices of essential goods can be fixed while rationing allows efficient distribution of commodities in all the areas at reliable prices.


1- K.K.Dewett (Modern Economic Theory)

2- P.A.Samuelson (Economics)

3- Micheal PArkin (Economics)