The principal concern of this paper is to examine the feasibility of using Public Works Programmes (PWPs) as a strategy for solving the problem of under-utilisation of labour in the urban sector. A number of hypotheses are implicit in this analysis and it would be appropriate to list them here....

This article has five parts. The first provides an overview of major structural weaknesses in the Pakistani economy—I call them faultlines. The following three parts describe the programme of stabilisation and structural reform introduced by the caretaker administration of Prime Minister Meraj...