Muhammad Nouman

Availability of Microfinance & Its Impact on Economic Growth: A Case Study of Rural Areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Microfinance is one of the most widely used tools for poverty reduction all over the world. This research provides an overview of the availability of microfinance and its impact on economic growth in the rural areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Opinion survey of the locals of different rural areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been conducted using schedule method. A sample size of 100 people has been selected from the randomly selected 35 villages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Descriptive statistics for center and dispersion have been used for the purpose of analysis. Findings suggest that there is a huge gap between the amount of microfinance needed and the amount of microfinance that is available in the rural areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Moreover, the available microfinance facilities are not generating sufficient economic activities.Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1944406

Constraints in the Application of Partnerships in Islamic Banks: The Present Contributions and Future Directions

Partnership is considered as the essence of Islamic banking. Therefore, Islamic banks are supposed to rely on the partnership contracts for acceptance of deposits and investment of funds. In practice, Islamic banks adopt partnership contracts for accepting deposits. However, these are rarely used while investing. All over the world, Islamic banks rely heavily on non-partnership contracts for investment of funds. The present paper provides a critical review of the extant literature on the rare use of partnership contracts by Islamic banks for investment purposes. This review highlights the contributions that extant literature has made to the current knowledge about the constraints in the application of partnership contracts in Islamic banks. From this review, concentrations of research efforts are identified and directions for future research are proposed