آہ جناب امیر احمد صدیقی
یہ خبر بھی بڑے افسوس کے ساتھ سنی جائے گی کہ ۲۳؍ مارچ کو مشہور ادبی ماہ نامہ ’’نیادور‘‘ لکھنو کے سابق مدیر جناب امیر احمد صدیقی نشاط گنج میں اپنی رہایش گاہ پر وفات پاگئے، ان کا آبائی وطن لکھنو کے مضافات میں اجریاوں تھا، وہیں تدفین ہوئی، ان کی عمر ۸۲ سال تھی۔
وہ ۱۹۴۸ء میں محکمہ اطلاعات و رابطہ عامہ اترپردیش سے اس وقت منسلک ہوئے تھے جب جناب علی جواد زیدی، صباح الدین عمر، فرحت اﷲ انصاری اور خورشید احمد صاحب اس سے وابستہ تھے، اب اس دور کی تنہا یہی یاد گار رہ گئے تھے، آخر وہ بھی چل بسے۔
مرحوم مختلف وقتوں میں محکمہ اطلاعات میں افسر اطلاعات، فیچر رایٹر، جوائنٹ اڈیٹر، اڈیٹر نیا دور اور اسسٹنٹ ڈائرکٹر اردو رہے اور اپنے رفقائے کار میں تنہا ان ہی کو ملازمت میں ڈھائی سال کی توسیع ملی تھی:
نیا دور ہی کے وسیلے سے ان سے میرے تعلقات کی ابتدا ہوئی، میں نے جب اس میں مضامین لکھنا شروع کیا تو اس وقت یہ اس کے جوائنٹ اور خورشید احمد صاحب چیف اڈیٹر تھے، مضامین کی وصولی کی رسید اکثر ان ہی کی جانب سے آتی تھی اور جب یہ اڈیٹر ہوئے تو برابر خط و کتابت رہتی اور فرمایش کرکے مضامین طلب کرتے تھے، امیر احمد صاحب کے دور ادارت کا اصلی امتیاز نیا دور کے خاص نمبر ہیں جو بڑی تعداد میں نکلے اور بہت مقبول ہوئے، کئی خاص نمبروں میں ان ہی کے اصرار کی وجہ سے میں نے مضامین لکھے۔
کسی تقریب یا اردو اکیڈمی کے سمیناروں میں جاتا اور وہ موجود ہوتے تو بڑے تپاک سے ملتے، اپنے گھر بھی مدعو کرتے، ان کو معلوم ہوجاتا کہ میں آیا ہوں تو میری قیام گاہ کا پتہ لگا کر فون کرتے اور...
Farmers predominantly belong to lower class of the society, particularly in developing and under developing countries. This actuality really put them on back-foot in every sphere of life, including their various agricultural activities. For instance, they always face problems to fulfil their agricultural requirement, both for crop and non crop activities, and hence, not in position to get utmost benefits from their efforts. Being citizens of a developing country, Pakistani farmers come across the identical situation. As they are Muslims, therefore, avoid securing interest based loan from the financial institutions. Islamic financial system provides an alternate to such interest based arrangement in the shape of various financing techniques. Among these, Istisnā’ (manufacturing) is the most important one which can be used effectively for the fulfilment of various agricultural requirements. However, its role is more dominant in the satisfaction of non crop agricultural activities that is for example, manufacturing of some heavy agricultural machinery and equipments, installation of tube-wells and channels for appropriate irrigation system, construction of small houses for farmers in their lands etc. The present work discusses the theoretical background of this mode, available in the scholarly work of classical and contemporary Muslim jurists’ work, followed by the description that how it can be used for financing various sectors of agriculture. Study reveals the transaction is equally viable for the development of all sectors of agriculture like local farming, fish farming, dairy farming, poultry farming, horticulture etc. The intended results can be achieved when the financial institutions apply the transaction in its true spirit and philosophies envisaged for it by Islamic commercial law, and not mere a source of earning profit.
Beliefs play a vital role in shaping actions. They not only drive the actions but also help in identifying strategies to practice beliefs. English Language Learning beliefs and strategy use is a relatively unexplored area in Pakistani context. The aim of this study is to investigate Pakistani college students’ and teachers’ beliefs about English language learning, to explore English language learning strategies used by the students and preferred by the teachers and to find out relationship between beliefs and strategy use. 419 college students and 40 teachers participated in the study. A wide range of data collection tools were used, including four Likert-scale questionnaires, comprising different versions for teachers and students respectively, The Individual Background Questionnaire (IBQ), the Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI), the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and Teachers Preferred Strategy Questionnaire (TPSQ). Apart from these questionnaires, other information gathering tools including Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), Open-ended Questions, Interviews and Classroom Observations were also used for collecting qualitative data with a view to imparting more reliability and objectivity to the data used for the study. In this regard, five focus group discussion sessions and 12 classroom observations were conducted. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 for quantitative date, while the software Nvivo 9 was used for qualitative data analysis. The results largely suggest convergence in teachers’ and students’ beliefs, yet they differ from each other in many respects. The data revealed that metacognitive strategies are most frequently used by Pakistani students, while social strategies are amongst those least preferred. Gender as well as exposure to English is among significant factors in determining the use of these strategies. The study also showed that teachers preferred certain strategies over the others. Most importantly, the study testified that there existed a significant association between beliefs and strategy use. The study has important implications for language teaching, teacher training, syllabus reformation and the examination system. The study recommends that curriculum, teacher training programs and examination system prevalent in colleges of Pakistan be revised keeping in view teachers’ and students’ beliefs towards learning of English in order to improve English language teaching/learning situation in the country.