The Us Recognition of Jerusalem: Aspects and Implications

The status of Jerusalem lies at the heart of Palestine-Israel conundrum. Its disputed status is pelagus forsit for the resolution of the intractable Palestine conflict. The Palestinians have always regarded Eastern Jerusalem as capital of their future state under Two-nation solution. On the other side, Israel declared in 1998 to further expand Jerusalem by annexing the surrounding areas as well. This paper investigates the Trump administration’s stance on relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, its implications for Palestinian state and broad reactions of the world community

A study of learning stress and stress management strategies of the students of postgraduate level: a case study of Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan

Stress management .........................This study was designed to study Learning Stress and Stress Management Strategies for University Students. The objectives of the study were to find out the common symptoms of stress, causes of stress and to suggest stress management strategies used by students for coping with stress. For collecting data, survey method was adopted. This study was completed by following the procedure of descriptive method of research. 39 questions were used for data collection. 200 students from different departments of The Islamia University of Bahawalpur were chosen as a sample of the study. This study concluded that majority of students felt fatigue during stress. Burden of study, assignments were major causes of stress and they agreed that they reduce stress by watching T.V/Movies, listen to music or take part in other leisure time activities. It was recommended that burden of study may be reduced by conducting co curricular activities in academic area

Impact of generalized dissipative coefficient on warm inflationary dynamics in the light of latest Planck data

The warm inflation scenario in view of the modified Chaplygin gas is studied. We consider the inflationary expansion is driven by a standard scalar field whose decay ratio $\Gamma$ has a generic power law dependence with the scalar field $\phi$ and the temperature of the thermal bath $T$. By assuming an exponential power law dependence in the cosmic time for the scale factor $a(t)$, corresponding to the intermediate inflation model, we solve the background and perturbative dynamics considering that our model evolves according to (i) weak dissipative regime and (ii) strong dissipative regime. Specifically, we find explicit expressions for the dissipative coefficient, scalar potential, and the relevant inflationary observables as the scalar power spectrum, scalar spectral index, and tensor-to-scalar ratio. The free parameters characterizing our model are constrained by considering the essential condition for warm inflation, the conditions for the model evolves according to weak or strong dissipative regime, and the 2015 Planck results through the $n_s-r$ plane.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in EPJC. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1704.0700

Are Defense Expenditures Pro Poor or Anti Poor in Pakistan? An Empirical Investigation

Recent increase in defense expenditure (Dexp hereinafter) in Pakistan due to increase in internal security and terrorism is an issue of concern to many Pakistani and other stakeholders in the Pakistan economy. Presently, internal security issues especially that of the increasingly violent homegrown terrorism is forcing increasing financial cost on government‘s expenditure towards defense sector. According to Budget documents, defense budget amounts to Rs 700. 2 billion for the 2014-15 fiscal year compared with Rs 627.2 billion allocated in the preceding fiscal year, showing an increase of Rs 73 billion. However, these figures do not include Rs 163.4 billion allocated for pensions of the military personnel.1 In addition to this, military would also be given Rs 165 billion under the contingent liability and Rs 85 billion under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF). This means that in reality Rs 1113 billion has been allocated for the military which is about 28.2 percent of the country‘s total budget [Sheikh and Yousaf (2014)]. This has led to diversion of the money needed for much-needed development projects, as the share of current expenditure in total budgetary outlay for 2014-15 is 80.5 percent.2 This diversion of funds has economic implication since some social sectors are likely to suffer in Pakista

Effect of Direct Participation on Perceived Organizational Performance: A Case Study of Banking Sector of Pakistan

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find out the association between the HR practices and perceptions of firm performance and to know, understand and investigate the scope of relationship among different types of employee participation (Delegative & Consultative) and organizational performance in banking sector of Pakistan. Methodology: To investigate the relationship that exists between employee participation and firms, performance cross sectional survey design was used for collecting data based on subjective measures. Data was analyzed through MS Excel 2007 & SPSS (17.0), then descriptive, correlations and regression analysis was applied to find out the result for describing empirical and statistical relationship between dependent and independent variables. Findings:  Correlation results shows that the direct participation (Delegative & Consultative) have weak, positive and significant impact on organizational performance. Whereas, regression model results also depicts that employee participation has significant impact on organizational performance. The variation in organizational performance is explained about 23% by the independent variables e.g; delegative & consultative participation which is very minor so, we can conclude that contribution of other HRM variables towards organizational performance is comparatively high. These results are consistent with (Singh, 2004) for the same variable. Research Limitations: The study was limited to only banking sector of Pakistan. This was based on perceived measures that the organizational performance and the forms of direct participation. So the data collected was based on perceptual and subjective measures, generally objective measures are more reliable and consistent to the outcome and results. Practical Implications: Results revealed that direct participation has minor contribution towards organizational performance in Pakistani settings but one could not achieve the desired results by ignoring this key variable. So it is advisable that direct participation must be used in combination of with other HRM variables to boost the performance. Originality/Value: This paper furthers our understanding of the role that employee participation attributes organizational performance. Key Words: Banking Sector, Direct Participation: Delegative & Consultative, HRM Practices, Perceived Organizational Performance, Pakista

The rise and rise of neurosurgery: academic journey of a young department in a developing country

The Section of Neurosurgery, part of the Department of Surgery, and the Mind and Brain Service Line at the Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi, has come a long way since its recognition in mid-90s. Although the program itself was recognized in late 90’s and the first resident graduated in 2004, it wasn\u27t until 2008 that it assumed its current shape of a formal, structured training program. Currently it has six full-time faculty members, one part-time faculty member, two instructors, and a team of 12 residents. Following are few of the innovations introduced within the program over the last few years

Bureaucracy and Public Management Reforms: Evidence from Pakistan

The paper examines administrative performance and public management reforms in Pakistan. The study is based on the expert opinion of the civil servants gathered via 27 semi-structured interviews. Pakistan has inherited the administrative structure from the British colonial raj. Although there have been numerous reforms aimed at improving administrative performance, none of them have been implemented adequately. The changes pursued in the first two decades were related to enhancing the administrative performance by creating an adequate structure of administrative posts and ensuring a fair remuneration system. The first full reform package was presented in the 1970s with steps to improve the civil service performance and nationalization of significant banks and industries. The New Public Management (NPM) inspired the Pakistani government to adopt the policies of managerialism and privatization during the 1990s. The government intended to remove the status quo and privatize the public sector industries. This reform was successful only with regard to the privatization of some sectors and banks. The remaining reform programme failed mostly because of political instability, weak political will, political interference with the reform process, etc. The semi-structured interviews conducted with Pakistani civil servants tackled the public administration problems and their possible solutions. The respondents suggested that an indigenous public management model should be created. They indicated that the government should firmly support the implementation of reform measures. Civil servants should get salaries according to their expertise. There must be a well-defined and up to date performance and evaluation system able to ensure performance-based promotions, rewards, and punishments

Comparing twice versus four times daily insulin in mothers with gestational diabetes in Pakistan and its implications

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common medical problem associated with maternal and fetal complications. Good glycaemic control is the cornerstone of treatment. Objective: Compare outcomes between four times (4x) and twice daily (2x) regimens. The morning dose of the 2x regimen contained two thirds of the total insulin comprising one third human regular insulin and two thirds human intermediate insulin; equal amounts in the evening. Methods: 480 women at > 30 weeks with GDM with failure to control blood glucose randomly assigned to either regimen. Results: Mean time to control of blood glucose significantly less and glycaemic control significantly increased with 4x regimen. Operative deliveries, extent of neonatal hypoglycaemia, babies with low Agpar scores and those with hyperbilirubinaemia significantly higher in 2x daily regimen. Conclusion: 4x daily regime associated with improved fetal and maternal outcomes. Consequently should increasingly be used in Pakistan, assisted by lower acquisition cost