The Vice Chancellor, University of Sindh Professor Dr Nazir A. Mughal has urged upon the scholars to work hard for strengthening economic conditions of the country and for betterment of its image in the world.
He was presiding over the final Ph.D seminar of research scholar Khalil Rehman Shaikh on the topic of Pakistan-Japan Political and Economic Relations in Post-Cold War Era: Challenges and Responses, under supervision of Dr Lutfullah Mangi at Area Study Centre, Far East and South East Asia, University of Sindh.
The final Ph.D seminar was arranged at the Multimedia Centre of the Institute of Information and Communication Technology (IICT) which was attended by a large number scholars, deans of the faculties, senior professors, faculty members and students. The VC congratulated the scholar and his supervisor for excellent research work and made some suggestions for reorganisation of research thesis.
The VC emphasised upon the research scholars to follow the research criteria as set by Higher Education Commission and provided by the varsity for guidance of researchers in their M.Phil and Ph.D research. He suggested that a scholar should compile the thesis in a manner that a layman can understand and also get benefit from the research.
Professor Dr Mughal, while referring to a book of Professor Margantha, said each century has produced different political powers in the world.
He said that 18th century produced France as major power in the world and 19th century produced Austria and others. Defining political power, he said there are two ways to evaluate any country for analysing it as a power, on its natural resources and on strength of scholars, scientists, percentage of literacy. Population is also a factor for analysing as major power, he added.
He said that looking on economic conditions of our own, it is direly needed that we work hard for economic development and development of the country.
The research scholar, while presenting his research work said that study on the topic covers various aspects of relations between Pakistan and Japan such as political, economic, nuclear and terrorism. It, on one side, accumulates relevant material at one place and on the other, creates platform for future researchers to conduct more research on the subject.
He said that policies adopted by Japan in the post-Cold War period did not much influence its relations with Pakistan. However, nuclear explosions undertaken by two major countries of South Asia in May 1998, strained relations between Japan and Pakistan.
The former imposed economic sanctions against Pakistan and India and severely condemned nuclear proliferation in the region. Japan held the problem of Kashmir as the main cause of tension between the two rival countries the scholar said.
The scholar said that Pakistan has been receiving bilateral and trilateral aid from Japan. The latter has been extending Official Development Assistance to Pakistan since 1960, adding that this kind of aid was extended due to Pakistan's political role in South West Asia, Islamic countries and maintenance of its traditional relations with Japan, its geo-strategic position, Pakistan's pursuance of domestic development and policies of deregulation, economic liberalisation and privatisation of state owned enterprises.
Japan joined the Consortium to Aid to Pakistan in 1961. Since then, it has been extending substantial amount of aid to Pakistan he added.
He said that Pakistan has also been receiving aid from Japan in social, health, agriculture, power, and technology and infrastructure sectors. The scholar further said that both the countries have established various business missions and offices to further promote trade and extend facilities to each other in this regard.
Pakistan is the beneficiary of General System Preferences (GSP) introduced by Japan and added that that although GSP is meant to encourage the imports but its conditions are strict on the commodities in which developing countries have competitive edge for example, textile and footwear. In contrast, the scholar said that conditions are most lenient for the products in which developing countries are less competitive, such as machinery, which limits the significance of the GSP scheme. Thus, Pakistan could not take much benefit from the scheme as it ultimately contributed to Japan the scholar added.
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