Suchergebnisse

In the post-9/11 scenario, the rise of the Taliban and their coalition with Al-Qaeda have engendered new discourses about Islam and Pakistan. In this paper, I present a multi-sited ethnography of Bari Imam, a popular Sufi shrine in Pakistan while re-evaluating certain suppositions, claims and theories about popular Islam in the country. Have militarization, Shariatisation, and resurgence movements such as the Taliban been overzealously discussed and presented as the representative imageries of Islam? I also explore the Sufi dynamics of living Islam, which I will suggest continue to shape the lives and practices of the vast majority of Pakistani Muslims. The study suggests that general unfamiliarity of people outside the subcontinent with the Sufi attributes of living Islam, together with their lack of knowledge of the varieties of identification, observance and experience of Islam among Pakistanis, limit not only their understanding of the land of Pakistan, but also their perception of its people and their faith (Islam).

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ; Dumping is to unfairly sell goods at a lower price (at foreign market) as compared to their normal value at domestic market of the manufacturing country, thus causing material injury to the local industry of the importing country. Other researchers have explored the global (WTO Agreement) and the European Union's (EU) Anti-Dumping law mostly with a commercial perspective. At doctoral level EU-China, EU-Japan and EU-Korea trade relations with reference to the application of protective measures have been studied. This dissertation is, however, the very first aimed to examine the application of EU Anti-Dumping law relating to Pakistan. This is a complete health check of EU-Pakistan trade relations with reference to the application of Anti-dumping duties on Pakistan. This study is a combination of doctrinal research and empirical research, whereby it critically evaluates the Commission's investigation and the judgements of the EU Courts related to Pakistan and thus establish their consistency or inconsistency; it also studies the voting patterns within the Council and the impact of AD duties on Pakistani imports. It is a qualitative exploratory study based upon an inductive approach. Contradictions are found in the calculations of normal value and export price, constructed normal value, the comparison of normal value and export price, the calculation of dumping margin, and the calculation of injury. Suggestions are made as to the extent to which Unions' anti-dumping rules need to be reviewed to moderate their tilt that unequivocally favours Union manufacturers. Moreover, this dissertation identifies many provisions of the basic regulation, which being too vague offers multiple interpretations, which are thus recommended to be amended. In the empirical part of this research the voting style of EU member states for or against the adoption of AD measures against Pakistan has been studied. Thereafter, the content analysis of stated reasons for specific voting styles reveals that the member states vote on the basis of the findings and conclusions of investigation as done by the Commission, thus trade partner loyalty is not the reason for their voting. Furthermore, application of the ADDs is found to be reason of import decline from Pakistan to the EU.

AbstractThis is the first paper to document the existence of a gender reservation wage gap in developing countries. We find a 22.6% gender reservation wage gap, a gap that is much larger than current estimates for developed countries. Assets play the largest role in closing this gap, whereas adult height widens the gap among the poor.

Pakistan's national identity has been a contested subject since the conception of the country in 1947. This article examines Pakistan's struggle to create a coherent national identity, which has led to major identity crises caused by the conflict between the nation's markers of identity, including religion, ethnicity, language, culture and historical reminiscences. While employing Benedict Anderson's concept of nationalism, the article explores the perceptions of Pakistanis asking what should be the principal underpinning for defining Pakistani identity. In-depth interviews were used as the main qualitative method for the data collection. In order to conduct in-depth interviews, 47 residents of Rawalpindi, both males and females belonging to diverse sociocultural, political and educational backgrounds were selected through purposive sampling technique to ensure a variety of perspectives. The findings suggest that religion, ethnicity, language and patriotism emerged as major markers of Pakistani identity while the dissension between these indicators persistently exacerbates identity crises and undermines the values of religious and cultural pluralism.

Pakistan's national identity has been a contested subject since the conception of the country in 1947. This article examines Pakistan's struggle to create a coherent national identity, which has led to major identity crises caused by the conflict between the nation's markers of identity, including religion, ethnicity, language, culture and historical reminiscences. While employing Benedict Anderson's concept of nationalism, the article explores the perceptions of Pakistanis asking what should be the principal underpinning for defining Pakistani identity. In-depth interviews were used as the main qualitative method for the data collection. In order to conduct in-depth interviews, 47 residents of Rawalpindi, both males and females belonging to diverse sociocultural, political and educational backgrounds were selected through purposive sampling technique to ensure a variety of perspectives. The findings suggest that religion, ethnicity, language and patriotism emerged as major markers of Pakistani identity while the dissension between these indicators persistently exacerbates identity crises and undermines the values of religious and cultural pluralism.

Abstract Background In view of compliance with increasingly stringent environmental legislation, an eco-friendly treatment technology of industrial dyes and effluents is a major environmental challenge in the color industry. In present study, a promising and eco‐friendly entrapment approach was adopted to immobilize purified manganese peroxidase (MnP) produced from an indigenous strain of Ganoderma lucidum IBL-05 on Ca-alginate beads. The immobilized MnP was subsequently used for enhanced decolorization and detoxification of textile reactive dyes). Results MnP isolated from solid-state culture of G. lucidum IBL-05, presented highest immobilization yield (83.9 %) using alginate beads prepared at optimized conditions of 4 % (w/v) sodium alginate, 2 % (w/v) Calcium chloride (CaCl 2 ) and 0.5 mg/ml enzyme concentration. Immobilization of MnP enhanced optimum temperature but caused acidic shift in optimum pH of the enzyme. The immobilized MnP showed optimum activity at pH 4.0 and 60 °C as compared to pH 5.0 and 35 °C for free enzyme. The kinetic parameters K m and V max of MnP were significantly improved by immobilization. The enhanced catalytic potential of immobilized MnP led to 87.5 %, 82.1 %, 89.4 %, 95.7 % and 83 % decolorization of Sandal-fix Red C 4 BLN, Sandal-fix Turq Blue GWF, Sandal-fix Foron Blue E 2 BLN, Sandal-fix Black CKF and Sandal-fix Golden Yellow CRL dyes, respectively. The insolubilized MnP was reusable for 7 repeated cycles in dye color removal. Furthermore, immobilized MnP also caused a significant reduction in biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) (94.61-95.47 %), chemical oxygen demand (COD) (91.18-94.85 %), and total organic carbon (TOC) (89.58-95 %) of aqueous dye solutions. Conclusions G. lucidum MnP was immobilized in Ca-alginate beads by entrapment method to improve its practical effectiveness. Ca-alginate bound MnP was catalytically more vigorous, thermo-stable, reusable and worked over wider ranges of pH and temperature as compared to its free counterpart. Results of cytotoxicity like hemolytic and brine shrimp lethality tests suggested that Ca-alginate immobilized MnP may effectively be used for detoxification of dyes and industrial effluents.

This study aims to synthesize the literature on the top management team (TMT) characteristics influence on environmental disclosures of public organizations and identify recent trends, key themes, influential journals, and authors. Our study recruited 88 research articles on the relationship of TMT characteristics and environmental disclosures from 54 academic journals published from 2010 to 2021 for bibliometric analysis. Our study has identified three influential streams: (1) Role of Politically connections of TMT, good governance in environmental disclosures; (2) Significance of environmental disclosures and performance; and (3) institutional investors and environmental disclosures. Thematic map classifies the TMT characteristics and environmental disclosures relationship themes into four categories: Niche theme (e.g., financial expertise, CFO characteristics, CEO tenure, and board backgrounds); motor themes (e.g., environmental sustainability and climate change); emerging/declining themes (e.g., Environmental disclosure, managerial ownership, and CEO tenure); and basic/transversal themes (e.g., CEO characteristics, upper echelon theory, corporate governance). This study assists academicians, policymakers, managers, and consultants in the corporate sector to understand the role of different dimensions of TMT characteristics regarding environmental disclosures. Our study concludes with important practical implications and future research directions.

Pakistan is among the Asian countries which permits dual citizenship. However, the dual citizenship privileges availed by overseas-based Pakistanis spark intense debate making Pakistani dual citizens and their entitlements a contested subject in the country. A qualitative study was conducted in the city of Rawalpindi asking what the attitudes of Pakistani citizens on dual citizenship are, as well as their positions on the rights of dual citizens with regard to education, employment and property ownership in Pakistan. In-depth interviews were conducted with two groups of interviewees: 25 Pakistani citizens and 18 Pakistani dual citizens. The findings suggest that Pakistani citizens resist the unconditional provision of socio-economic rights to Pakistani dual citizens considering their "split loyalties." Most of the respondents argued against their employment in sensitive institutions such as the armed forces and judiciary, however, their right to education and property acquisition was supported in circumstances when it benefits Pakistan's development. The perspectives of dual citizens also reflect ambivalence over how to resolve the allegiance conundrum and as a result, display divergent views on their privileges and rights in their home country.

We understand that child labour causes serious mental and physical health issues among children in Pakistan. We borrowed positivist epistemology as a guide for the methodological application of this study to understand what are the determinants of child labour? and how do they affect children's physical and mental health? Using the laminated sampling technique, data for this study come from 100 children. After the management of data through SPSS (statistical package for social sciences), the quantitative content analysis technique helped us in data analysis. The study concludes that poverty, parents' unemployment, and children's school dropout are the major causes of child labour in Pakistan. Moreover, this study finds that child labour causes stress, frustration, aggression, and depression among the children. This study recommends that parents, government, and non-governmental organizations need to jointly devise long term policies to cope with the issue of child labour in Pakistan.

AbstractThe dual citizenship has been the subject of intense political debate in Pakistan barring the elected representatives, in parliament, the provincial assemblies and the presidency, from holding dual nationality. The perceptions that holding a foreign citizenship challenges the undiluted loyalty to country further engender question mark over their political participation in country's affairs. A qualitative study has been carried out in the city of Rawalpindi to explore the stance of Pakistani nationals on such exclusion of Pakistani dual citizens from mainstream politics of Pakistan asking should the individual's association to the state be an exclusive one? In this paper, in‐depth interviews were conducted with a sample of 40 male and female respondents (22 Pakistani citizens, 18 Pakistani dual citizens) and 6 constitutional experts. The results indicate distrust among Pakistani citizens when considering dual citizens' right of representation in general elections of Pakistan, stemming from a mistrust of their "split loyalties".