The military and foreign policy in Pakistan : with special reference to Pakistan-Soviet relations 1947-1971

The thesis is a study of the role of the Pakistan military in foreign policy, with particular emphasis on the linkages between defence and foreign policy, using relations with the Soviet Union to demonstrate the extent to which the military has dominated Pakistan's external directions from independence in 1947 to the country’s dismemberment in 1971. From the very start, Pakistan's political leadership, military and bureaucracy adopted an anti-Soviet and pro-Western foreign policy, with the military showing particular interest in establishing defence links with the West. Pakistan-Soviet relations were therefore tense as Pakistan ignored Soviet overtures, motivated by the Soviet desire to curb Western influence in a strategically placed country. Pakistan-Soviet tensions reached their peak as Pakistan formally entered into anti-Soviet alliances with the West. Internal developments guided Pakistan's foreign policy, with the military dictating the country's domestic and external orientations. Internally, the Wlitary High Command exercised power in partnership with the bureaucracy, as bureaucratic-controlled governments advanced the military's interests. Pakistan's uncertain external environment, particularly its conflictual relations with India, advanced the military's internal standing as it was used to justify ever-increasing defence spending. As the military's autonomy grew, it embarked on independent, although parallel, efforts with the bureaucracy to obtain Pakistan's entry into US-sponsored regional pacts, motivated by its desire to obtain Western arms assistance. While Pakistan's entry into the pacts and rejection of Soviet overtures led the antagonised Soviets into supporting India and Afghanistan in their disputes with Pakistan, the main beneficiary of alignment was the military as US military aid poured into the country, further strengthening the Pakistan Armed Forces' internal position. Close links with the US in turn reinforced the anti-Soviet and pro-Western views of the Pakistan officer corps. The military took over direct power in 1958 when its internal autonomy and Pakistan's pro-Western foreign policy directions were threatened by domestic opposition. It then moved to consolidate its position by supporting Ayub's rule and in the external sphere continued to dictate a pro-Western and anti-Soviet foreign policy. However, external determinants such as superpower detente and US partiality towards India downgraded Pakistan's importance in American regional strategies, forcing Ayub to readjust his foreign policy rhetoric. He then attempted to use the Chinese and Soviet cards, hoping to pressure the Americans to revise their policies vis-à-vis Pakistan, especially in the wake of the US arms embargo in 1965. Although Pakistan-Soviet relations improved as the Soviet Union reacted positively, motivated by its desire to curb Chinese and Western influence in Pakistan, tensions remained due to Ayub's continued efforts to consolidate relations with the West. Ayub’s failure to persuade the Americans to resume arms assistance, combined with dissatisfaction arising from the conduct and aftermath of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, led the military to withdraw its support as internal opposition grew to Ayub's authoritarian rule. Army C-in-C Yahya Khan then took over power as Martial Law was imposed in 1969. Under Yahya, the military once again kept its options open vis-à-vis the Soviet Union as long as the Americans downgraded Pakistan's importance as an ally, although Pakistan's primary foreign policy objective remained a strengthening of relations with the West, with an emphasis on a revival of defence links with the US. Once US global interests, including Pakistan's role in helping the Americans to open relations with the PRC, led to the establishment of closer US-Pakistan relations, the Yahya regime downgraded relations with the Soviet Union. Pakistan's foreign policy directions assumed a new significance in the wake of the East Pakistan crisis, as the Soviets supported India during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, while Pakistan's American and Chinese allies only extended it limited support. Yahya's shortsighted internal and external directions ultimately led to the dismemberment of Pakistan

Stadig værre udsigter for Afghanistan

Samina Ahmed skriver om sikkerhedssituationen i Afghanistan anno 2012.&nbsp

Evaluation of rapid immunochromatographic card test in comparison with IgM ELISA in diagnosis of dengue fever at a tertiary care hospital, South India

 Background: Dengue has emerged as a major public health concern throughout India because of the mortality and morbidity associated with it. It is the most common mosquito-borne viral disease of humans. Hence early and rapid laboratory diagnosis of dengue is crucial. This study aims to determine demographic, clinical and laboratory investigations of all the suspected cases of dengue fever and comparison of two commercial tests routinely useful in diagnosis of dengue fever. This study was conducted to determine seropositivity of dengue samples in patients suspected of dengue illness and to compare immunochromatographic card test (ICT) test and IgM ELISA test.Methods: A total of 702 serum samples from patients with suspected dengue infection were included and the study was undertaken at department of microbiology at a tertiary care hospital, Hyderabad from July to December 2021. All samples were subjected to rapid ICT and confirmed by dengue IgM-capture ELISA.Results: Out of 702 cases suspected of dengue, 85 (12%) samples were positive by IgM ELISA method. The most affected age group was 21-40 years with 55 cases (64.3%) were positive, followed by the age group 0f 0-20 years with 25% of the cases. Males were affected more than females with a percentage of 54% and 46% respectively. The highest number of suspected dengue patients admitted was in the month of September, i.e., 140 with 16 positive (14.81%) followed by August 122 samples (12.16%) and October 110 samples with 14 (11.03%) positive. The sensitivity and specificity of ICT was 95.5% and 100% when compared with IgM-ELISA.Conclusions: Dengue cases were more during August to November in the monsoon and post monsoon season which is useful to plan special preventive strategies. This study draws attention toward the male, young and adult age group. To conclude, in countries lacking infrastructure for the diagnostic labs especially in the rural and remote areas, the rapid dengue ICT tests can play a major role in diagnosis and in patient management of acute dengue infection. The rapid ICTs are very simple, easy to perform, and can be used as point of care tests. We suggest that the rapid ICT for dengue detection may be used in patients presenting with febrile illness

Level of Serum Uric Acid in Pre-eclamptic and Normal Pregnant Women

Objective: The objective of study was to find out serum uric acid level in normal andpreeclamptic pregnant women of third trimester visiting outpatient department of obstetrics and gynecology of Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur. Methodology: It was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted form July 2018 to June 2019. All primigravida women of age 18-35 years in third trimester of singleton pregnancy attending in Obstetrics and Gynecology Outpatient Department of Bahawal Victoria Hospital in study duration were included in the study. Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS version 14. Chi-square test was performed to find the statistical difference regarding uric acid distribution between groups and ‘p' value <0.05 was considered as a lowest level of significance. Results: Out of total 1212 women 84.6% were normal and 15.4% had preeclampsia. In our study out of 187 preeclamptic women, 63.6% had raised serum uric acid level and out of 268 normal pregnant women uric acid level was raised in only 39.5%. Results were found statistically significant. Conclusion: Results of our study suggest that serum uric acid level in pregnant women can be used as a useful and inexpensive marker in prediction of preeclampsia and preventive measures can be taken accordingly

Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Economic Growth: Empirical Results from Pakistan

The study analysed the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth of Pakistan. Time series data for 35 years from 1979-2013 is utilized in this study. Impact of inflation (CPI) on GDP is also examined. Data of FDI, GDP and inflation is collected from world data bank. Multiple linear regression model is used to find out the impact of FDI and inflation on economic growth of Pakistan. Unit root test is used for stationarity of data. Results of the study show that FDI and inflation significantly affect economic growth of Pakistan. FDI has positive relationship with GDP while inflation has negative relationship with GDP. Keywords: ECONOMIC GROWTH, FDI, GDP, INFLATION

Environmental Effects of Trade Liberalisation: A Case Study of Pakistan

Within today’s global economy countries now trade more intensively and frequently than in the past. Trade has become an increasingly important global economic activity, with annual trade volumes increasing sixteen fold over the last fifty years and the ratio of world exports to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) now approaching twenty percent. With this recent acceleration of global trade, countries throughout the world have benefited from more investment, industrial development, and employment and income growth. Other positive effects include increased mobility of capital, increased ease of movement of goods and services (and information) across national borders as well as the diffusion of global norms and values, the spread of democracy and international environmental and human rights agreements. Critics of trade liberalisation argue that these much-acclaimed advantages of trade liberalisation (and globalisation) often underrate the impact of globalisation on widening the economic gap between the North and the South. Over the years, attention has been given to the advantages of trade liberalisation and globalisation to the detriment of the disadvantages. The major disadvantage that is always swept under the rug is the environmental problem. Recently, however, there has been an increasing concern over the potential negative impacts of trade liberalisation, particularly on the environmental and natural resources of developing countries

Postoperative Analgesia Following Caesarean Section: Intravenous Patient Controlled Analgesia versus Conventional Continuous Infusion

Background:Management of postoperative pain after caesarean section (CS) requires a balance between pain relief and undesirable side effects of drugs and technique. In order to improve postoperative pain management after caesarean section, we compared intravenous patient controlled analgesia (IV-PCA) with our current hospital practice, which is continuous opioid infusion. Method: We enrolled one hundred and twenty patients in our prospective randomized trial after an uneventful elective caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia. All patients received 0.5 mg/kg bolus of pethidine on first complaint of pain or at 120 minutes after institution of spinal anaesthesia. Depending upon the ran-domization, Group P received IV-PCA with 0.15 mg/kg bolus pethidine with 10-minute lockout and Group C received continuous pethidine infusion at a rate of 0.15 mg/kg/hr. Statistical Analysis: For qualitative variables means and stan-dard deviations were computed and analyzed by T-test, Mann Whitney U test and repeated measures ANOVA. Fre-quency and percentages were computed for qualitative data and analyzed by Chi-Square and Fischer exact test. A p-value of less than 0.05 was treated as significant. Results: The numeric rating score for pain, need for rescue analge-sia and incidence of nausea and vomiting was significantly lower (p-value \u3c 0.001) in IV-PCA group as compared to continuous infusion group at 6, 12 and 24 hours postoperatively, 98% of the patients were satisfied with pain manage-ment in Group P as compared to 70% (p \u3c 0.001) in Group C. Conclusion: Our results showed improved pain control, less need for rescue analgesia for breakthrough pain, lower incidence of nausea and vomiting and greater patient satis-faction with IV-PCA. In the absence of preservative free narcotics for intrathecal use, postoperative pain management can be significantly improved by using IV-PCA instead of continuous opioid infusion in patients undergoing caesarean section

To compare the efficacy of progesterone between oral versus vaginal routes of administration in the treatment of first trimester threatened miscarriage

Objective: To determine the efficacy of oral versus vaginal progesterone in the treatment of the first trimester threatened miscarriage. Methodology: This randomized controlled trial study was conducted at Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department of Mardan Medical Complex, Mardan from September 2019 to March 2020. A total of 126 women between ages 18-45 years presenting in their first trimester with threatened miscarriage were included. All patients were randomly allocated in two equal groups A and B by lottery method (63 in each group). Patients in group A were given oral progesterone 10 mg bid for one week and group B patients were given vaginal progesterone 400 mg for one week under the supervision of obstetrician. All patients were followed up till 20th week of pregnancy. The efficacy of the drug was evaluated based on the absence of bleeding per vagina and pregnancy proceeding beyond 20 weeks of gestation. Results: A total of 126 women were included. The majority of the patients 64 (50.79%) were between 18 to 30 years of age. The mean age of women in group A was 30.52 ± 4.52 years and in group, B was 30.73 ± 4.23 years. Efficacy of Oral progesterone (group A) was seen in 57 (90.48%) women and of vaginal progesterone (group B) was seen in 46 (73.02%) women. This showed a highly significant difference between the two routes of administration with p-value of 0.01. Conclusion: Oral progesterone is more effective than vaginal progesterone in treating first trimester threatened miscarriage in terms of prevention of blood loss and continuing the pregnancy beyond 20 weeks

Problems and prospects of mobile banking in Bangladesh

The main objective of the study is to find out the problem and prospect of mobile banking in Bangladesh. For this research primary data were used. This study adopts with descriptive in nature. Total respondents were 120 within that 61 % respondents think it saves time than traditional banking, the highest number of respondents use mobile banking for Air-time top-up service, that is 21%, out of 120 respondents 56% replied it is less costlier than traditional banking, 100% respondents did agree that it is speedy, and 38% respondents are upper class. Although this concept is new in Bangladesh but its potentiality is high. From this research, other researchers and policy makers will get an insight about the problems and prospects of mobile banking in Bangladesh. Key words: Problem, prospect, Mobile banking

Organic synthesis via Kolbe and related non-Kolbe electrolysis: an enabling electro-strategy

An efficient and environmentally friendly synthetic methodology is preferred over conventional methods that require expensive chemicals & oxidants to achieve value-added organic transformations. Electrochemical conversions encounter conventional shortcomings and introduce easy scale-up methods to synthesize complex and hindered molecules employing electricity as a clean reagent and catalyzing entity. Electrochemical conditions minimize waste formation and increase the chances of getting the maximum amount of target products under ambient conditions. The Kolbe and related non-Kolbe electrolysis process where the anodic oxidation of carboxylic acids leads to decarboxylation can be used intelligently to form new bonds and achieve value-added molecules and stereoselective products. The memory of chirality, where we have contributed to, is a more fascinating strategy to achieve highly desired asymmetric products via electrochemical decarboxylation (ED). Besides this, coupling (homo, hetero), dimerization, addition, cyclization, and CH activation via ED are also significant aspects of this strategy. Flow electrochemistry and photochemistry using the ED strategy could enhance the selectivity and product yield, avoiding overoxidation. Herein, we discussed several examples of ED and its applications to drive value-added transformations under mild, clean and sustainable conditions and also addressed mechanistic aspects. This ED approach will enable and provide inspiration for future applications in electro-organic synthesis