Electronic Government Re-Inventing Governance: A Case Study of Pakistan

This study evaluates the importance of the emergence of Electronic Government (E- Government) as a tool  of practice in the re-invention of  Governance. It presents e-Government as wide-ranging of Electronic Democracy (eDemocracy), and Electronic Business (eBusiness), examines the nature and scope of developments in this emerging field.  In the contemporary scenario, e-government is already in its second decade. More or less all countries around the world are introducing the e-government as a tool for reducing cost, saving time, improving social services and increasing efficiency and effectiveness of in public sector improving social services. E-government is a relatively new concept in Pakistan.  However, being a developing country, it is facing serious problem regarding adoption of e-government and public delivery services. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of e- government on public service delivery with a view to identify opportunities and challenges for the government and the governed.  It may be made clear here that it does not provide an in depth analysis of various factors and forces. Instead, provides synoptic view of various issues and problems related to e- government. Keywords: E- Government, Good Governance, Accountability, Public Service Delivery, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Smart Governmen

PENGARUH PENDAPATAN DAN LITERASI KEUANGAN TERHADAP PERILAKU KEUANGAN DENGAN GAYA HIDUP SEBAGAI VARIABEL PEMODERASI

Financial behavior has an important role in this latest situation within the organization and company, and also in employees. The main issue is lack of understanding of financial behavior. Therefore, it is important to find out how lifestyle can affect someone’s financial behavior in self-controlling. This research aimed to examine the effect of income and financial literacy on financial behavior, with lifestyle as a moderating variable. The research was quantitative. Moreover, the population was 156 employees who worked at Sarana Metal Group Surabaya. The data collection technique used purposive sampling, which the sample was based on the criteria given. In line with that, there were 54 respondents as the sample. Furthermore, the data analysis technique used Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) with SPSS 23. The result concluded that 1) income had a positive effect on financial behavior; 2) financial literacy had a positive effect on financial behavior; 3) lifestyle could not be able to moderate the effect of income on financial behavior; and 4) lifestyle could moderate the effect of financial literacy on financial behavior at Sarana Metal Group Surabaya.Perilaku keuangan mendapat perhatian penting pada situasi sekarang dalam lingkup organisasi maupun perusahaan, termasuk juga di antaranya pada karyawan. Masalah utamanya adalah pada pemahaman tentang perilaku keuangan yang masih rendah. Penting juga mempertimbangkan bagaimana gaya hidup dapat mempengaruhi perilaku keuangan seseorang dalam pengendalian dirinya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meneliti pengaruh pendapatan dan literasi keuangan terhadap perilaku keuangan dengan gaya hidup sebagai variabel pemoderasi. Jenis penelitian menggunakan penelitian kuantitatif. Populasi dalam penelitian adalah karyawan yang bekerja pada Sarana Metal Group Surabaya yakni sebanyak 156 orang karyawan. Metode pengambilan sampel menggunakan metode purposive sampling dengan pertimbangan kriteria tertentu diperoleh 54 Responden dari 156 karyawan PT Sarana Metal Group Surabaya. Teknik analisis menggunakan analisis regresi moderasi Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) dengan menggunakan program SPSS versi 23. Hasil dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa: 1) Pendapatan memiliki pengaruh positif terhadap perilaku keuangan; 2) Literasi keuangan memiliki pengaruh positif terhadap perilaku keuangan; 3) Gaya hidup tidak dapat memoderasi pengaruh pendapatan terhadap perilaku keuangan; 4) Gaya hidup dapat memoderasi pengaruh literasi keuangan terhadap perilaku keuangan pada PT Sarana Metal Group Surabaya

Over Exploitation of Groundwater Resources and Their Influence on Groundwater in Peshawar Valley

In this study the objective is to find the impact of the rainwater recharge on the ground water table fluctuations. For this purpose the data about different sources of discharge from the ground water as well as the sources of water recharged into the ground water was collected. The discharge of these Tube wells ranges from 1200 gallons per hour for a Tube-well in Pishtakhera Payan to 50625 gallons per hour from an Irrigation Tube well in Lakaray. It was also observed that both turbine and submersible pumps are used in these tube-wells. After summing up all the discharges from all the tube wells it was found to be 7,401,684 gallons per hour (7.78m3/sec). According to PDA report area of Peshawar is 1257 Km2. Since Depth of water per unit time is total discharge / total Area, therefore depth of water per second is 7.77 / (1257*1000^2) = 6.18 * 10-9 m/sec. Depth of water per year = 6.18 * 10-9 * 3600*12*365= 0.098 m /year= 98 mm / year. The average discharge of each commercial well was found to be 0.38 Liters / second. Since ttal number of union councils in Peshawar region are 92, therefore on average total number of commercial/community tube wells are 552. Taking average discharge for each tube well as 0.38 Liters / sec, total discharge from the commercial wells in Peshawar region will be 552*0.38=209.76 Liters per second which is equal to 0.2098 cubic meter per second. Discharge from commercial wells per year=0.2098*3600*4*365= 1102498.6 cubic meter per year.Total depth of water discharged by the commercial wells from the Peshawar region is Depth of water = 1102498.6 / 1169*1000^2=0.94mm/year.Assuming two hours operation of hand pump daily, total outflow of water from town-II is equal to 22873905.7 cubic meters per year. Total depth of water discharged from town-II using hand pumps was found to be equal to 52.28 mm per year.So total annual depth of water discharged out through hand pumps from three towns (II, III, and IV) is equal to 171.05 mm. Keywords: Rainwater, Recharge, Hand Pump, Tube well, Discharge, Total Dept

Pakistan-India Relations: Peace through Bilateral Trade

The idea behind this study is to identify the importance of trade in Pak-India peace process. This study emphases that trade is instrumental in achieving and maintaining peace and stability in the Indian subcontinent.  Economic interdependence promotes peace and mutual economic benefits preclude war between nations and this concept has been argued in the paper. Furthermore, considering Pakistan-India trade relations; barriers to bilateral trade; current trade volume; measures needed to be adopted for improving bilateral trade and its role in Indo-Pak peace negotiations, territorial and border disputes and peace settlement have been analyzed. It is, therefore, concluded that trade can play a soft and positive role in conflict resolution between the two long standing adversaries. Key Words: Trade Relations, Peace Process, Economic Factors, Most Favored Nation Status, Bilateral Ties

PAKISTAN-INDIA RELATIONS: PEACE THROUGH BILATERAL TRADE

The idea behind this study is to identify the importance of trade in Pak-India peace process. This study emphases that trade is instrumental in achieving and maintaining peace and stability in the Indian subcontinent. Economic interdependence promotes peace and mutual economic benefits preclude war between nations and this concept has been argued in the paper. Furthermore, considering Pakistan-India trade relations; barriers to bilateral trade; current trade volume; measures needed to be adopted for improving bilateral trade and its role in Indo-Pak peace negotiations, territorial and border disputes and peace settlement have been analyzed. It is, therefore, concluded that trade can play a soft and positive role in conflict resolution between the two long standing adversaries

Comparing Methods and Finding H. pylori Infections and their Resistance to Beta Lactam Drugs as Seen in Peshawar, Pakistan

The aims of this study were to find and report pattern of resistance towards beta lactam antibiotics in patients infected with H. pylori by visiting Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC). Diagnostic procedures like: gastroendoscopy, Rapid Urease Test (RUT), biochemical testing, microscopic examination, antibacterial sensitivity tests and molecular methods were utilized and compared. Polymerase chain reaction was used to find 16S rRNA gene fragment. Hundred forty-four patients were found H. pylori positive for urease and 182 were positive for catalase. Hundred and thirty-two were positive for oxidase while hundred eighty were Gram negative. By polymerase chain reaction, 16S rRNA gene fragment was found to be positive in 164 subjects. The pattern of antibiotics resistance in H. pylori as seen in Peshawar, Pakistan in 200 gastric biopsies. A poorer resistance level towards amoxicillin is noticeable as due to low socioeconomic conditions

Dimensions of Women Empowerment: A case study of Pakistan

Introduction Over the last three decades, gender equality and empowerment debates are being focused. It has been realized that policies and projects without concerning the female position in the society have adverse impact on development. United NationsInternational Conference on Women in 1995, held in Beijing, stressed on the need to reduce gender inequality and to increase women empowerment. The third target of Millennium Development Goal is regarding gender equality and women empowerment.Numerous countries, regions and International Development Organizationsmade commitments to reduce gender equality as a key for sustainable economic development. The term women empowerment has different connotation which depends on social, economical, and political context in which it is used. World Bank (2001) defines “the expansion of the freedom of choices and action, which could increase women authority and control over resources and decision regarding their life.”Similarly, Women empowerment is a process through which women achieve the ability to control, take ownership over resources and make strategies of life choices(Kabeer 2001). However, the process itself depends on women, through education, capacity building, skills and trainings and changes in legal and structural framework. Women empowerment covers many dimensions including social,economic, cultural, political, legal and psychological (Malhotra et al. 2002). This explains a broad variation in the concept of women empowerment.  Although, these definitions are clear but there are some constraints to measure women empowerment due to lack of standardized ways. Moreover, many researchers  tried to construct set of specific questions based on Population Based Primary Survey for measuring empowerment at individual level, (Kishor and Subaiya 2008). Women empowerment is preferred not only for the development of a country but also required to minimize poverty and promotes economic growth. (Chaudryet al.2012). According to United Nations Women Policy Division (2013), women empowerment need to be focused and all the development projects and policies need to be gender sensitize. In most of the developing countries, due to early marriages, high female unemploymentrate along with limited investment in them comply females to depend on men. Early marriage is one of the crucial reasons of lower participation of females in the labor marketcompared as to developed nations [ (World Bank 2007) , (Doepke et al. 2012)]. Plethora of literature demonstrates that women empowerment are directly associated with contraceptive use, lower fertility, and longer birth intervals[( Gwako 1997), (Schuler et al. 1997), (Balk 1994), (Woldemicael 2009), (Upadhyay and Hindin 2005)]. Furthermore, education is one of the determinants of empowerment of women which also lowers the fertility rate and improves the earnings. (Jejeebhoy1995), ( Mason 1987)]. For political empowerment, education plays a crucialrole as  well educated women are better informed about their legal rights and they can actively participatein political decision making process[ (Moghadam 2003), (Rihani et al. 2006)]. In a patriarchal society like Pakistan, women empowerment is also very difficult to achieve as societies and communities are governed by strictly social and cultural norms. In a traditional society like Pakistan, the entire major as well as the minor decisions related to inside and outside the house are taken by the men. The worse situation has been reported for Pakistan in terms of gender equality and women empowerment.  According to MDG Report (2013), Pakistan is still far away from the targets of 2015 MDGs in terms of access to education, gender equality and women empowerment which are reflected by child mortality, maternal health and nutrition (Government of Pakistan 2013). Pakistan ranks 121st as overall in the Gender Gap Index (GGI) 2014 out of 142 counties, and 146th out of 187 countries in Human Development Index (HDI) 2014,Furthermore,it stands141stfor economic participation and opportunity for women, ineducation attainmentit ranks 132nd, in terms of health and survival 119th and 85th in terms of political empowerment in 2014. Pakistan,Inequality Human Development Index(IHDI) value for 2013 is 0.375, Human Inequality coefficient was 28.7%, Inequality in Life Expectancy at Birth is 29.9% ,Inequality in Education was 45.2%  andInequality in income is 11% .Pakistan GII value is 0.562 and rank is 126th out of 149 countries in the 2013 index. The Maternal Mortality Ratio is 260 per women 100,000 lives birth, Adolescent birth rate is 27.3,and female seats in parliament are 19.7%. Population with at leastSecondary education for male is 46.3% and for female is 19.3%. The impediments of low level of women empowerment in Pakistan is due to regional disparities, social values, cultural norms and traditions, ethnic and political issues (Sustainable Development Policy Institute, 2008). Furthermore, the women’s status and position is also different in terms of rural and urban. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2012), reports female literacy rate is lower and unequal as compared to men in rural and urban areas. However, women in rural areas spend more hours at work as compared to females in urban areas. Mostly in developing countries like Pakistan, women are restricted to domestic activities like doing household chores and raisings children (Mollel and Metenga ,2000) and women have less access to enjoy the opportunities, decision making, and basic resources. There is strong need of women empowerment especially on economics ground. The reason is that women are the majority of the population and represent majority of the poor. Moreover, the economic empowerment has significant impact on the livelihood of women, children at the household, but also at the community and national level(Singh(2006) , Ogato(2013). According to Awan (2012) cultural issues have more or less same impact on women regarding upper or lower classes. She further explained that the upper class women are more educated with strong financial support and available resources. However, in some tribal areas women are the victims of injustice. The status and position of women in marginalized segment or unprivileged segment of population are vulnerable. Because they don’t have any chance or resources against unfair treatment, especially domestic violence. Even these women are not aware regarding their basic rights. Pakistani women are bounded in a trap of dependency and subordination due to low economic, political and social position in the society. Moreover, majority of them suffers from all kinds of poverty (Social Policy Development Centre,2009). In rural areas, women are expected to perform household choresas well as agriculture and farming activities, however their contribution is hardly appreciated and mostly taken as for granted because they are the unpaid family workers. Later, when women become old then they are able to control over some domestic decision making, the situation is much better in urban areas due to exposure of education, electronic media. However, it cannot be stated that women are empowered in urban areas as the magnitude of women discrimination is different in urban and rural areas. Although political empowerment condition is better in Pakistan as compared to china , India, and Iran, and its represent 22.2% seats in national assembly and In the Senate, women have 17 per cent of the parliamentary seat ,however its cannot explained overall women empowerment on household and community level. These women are needs to be more active for taking part in laws in order to raise women status in the society in reality they are not as much as active as they should be. This paper comprises of IV sections. Section I is introduction followed by review of literature II. Section III highlights the data sources and methodology. Section IV identifies the different dimensions of women empowerment and the last section is the conclusion and policy options

Generalized Operations in Soft Set Theory via Relaxed Conditions on Parameters

[EN] Soft set theory has been evolved as a very useful mathematical tool to handle uncertainty and ambiguity associated with the real world data based structures. Parameters with certain conditions have been used to classify the data with the help of suitable functions. The aim of this paper is to relax conditions on parameters which lead us to propose some new concepts that consequently generalize existing comparable notions. We introduce the concepts of generalized finite soft equality (gf-soft equality), generalized finite soft union (gf-soft union) and generalized finite soft intersection (gf-soft intersection) of two soft sets. We prove results involving operations introduced herein. Moreover, with the help of examples, it is shown that these operations are proper generalizations of existing comparable operations.Abbas, M.; Ali, MI.; Romaguera Bonilla, S. (2017). Generalized Operations in Soft Set Theory via Relaxed Conditions on Parameters. Filomat. 31(19):5955-5964. doi:10.2298/FIL1719955AS59555964311

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE AS DETERMINANTS OF BULLYING BEHAVIOR: A CASE STUDY OF HYDERABAD, SINDH, PAKISTAN

This study investigated the social anxiety and social competence as determinants of bullying student’s behavior of among college students in Pakistan. To define the level of social anxiety and bullying behavior of students which self, peers, regard fatalities as having poorer social skills through 20 behavior’s/competences. A convenience sample of 230 pupils aged between 12 to 14 years (130 girls and 100 boys) provided self-report and peer-report data. They were taken from four colleges of Hyderabad city Sindh Pakistan, like as I mentioned zubaida government degree Girls College Hyderabad, Hayat Girls College Hyderabad, Government Boys degree College Qasimabad, Government degree College kohsar Hyderabad. Furthermore the researcher has used quantitative method survey questionnaire distribute to the respondents for data collection. Analysis through SPSS version 26 Post hoc multiple comparisons of social anxiety and social competence of bullying behavior of students experiences with social anxiety in college students. Study situations using Mann–Whitney U tests demographic information of respondent’s, analysis reliability analysis. In results researcher has found some of the main cause behind this study social anxiety and bullying behavior of students playing negative role in the society. This research will be fruitful for the scholars and policy makers. Article visualizations