Impact of Military Wars/Conflicts on Pakistan-India Relations

South Asia and Indian subcontinent have historically been regions of geo-strategic importance. They have been the most sought-after territories for every major World Player in each era. As a result of independence from the British in 1947, Pakistan and India emerged as two sovereign states, however, at loggerheads with each other since their very inception. The two countries have fought four deadly wars (1947-48, 1965 & 1971), including one (Kargil) after attaining the status of nuclear powers. One commonality in all these wars has been the unresolved Kashmir Issue, which remains the sorest point in the Pak-India ties to-date. These wars and many others military conflicts have resulted in the breach of peace for the region causing a much-feared nuclear threat, economic losses, disruption of social and cultural ties etc. For greater world peace, Pakistan and India need to resolve their differences/issues through bilateral negotiations, as war is no solution to any problem. For this purpose, political leadership of both the countries will have to intelligently carve out a plan to achieve the objective of peace and tranquility in the region. Both the countries need to realize that neighbours cannot be wished away. Peace in South Asia is synonymous to peace in the world.

The Transformational Leadership Skills and Teachers Performance at Secondary Level in Punjab

The present study aimed to explore the certain transformational leadership skills used by the principals of high school to influence on teachers‟ performance at secondary level public schools in province Punjab, Pakistan. The study examined the influence of the transformational leadership skills namely idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration and humor orientation on teachers‟ performance. The objectives of the study were to find out the level of the transformational leadership skills of the principals, how the five factors separately and jointly influence the performance of secondary school teachers in Punjab. A sample of 223 male and female principals of government secondary schools was taken for the study. Two self-developed questionnaires were used as research instruments to measure the five transformational leadership skills (e.g., idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, and humor orientation) of the principal and secondary school teachers‟ performance. Mean and standard deviation were used as descriptive statistical methods to organize and summarize the collected data, while independent-samples t-test, ANOVA, linear, multiple and stepwise regressions were used for the generalizibility of the findings from the sample to the target population. It was found that transformational leadership skills have significant effect on the performance of the teachers. Five transformational leadership skills were determined significant and effective for secondary school teachers. Moreover, principals‟ transformational leadership skill „inspirational motivation‟ is alone accounted for 34% of the variance in the teachers‟ performance. When individual consideration was included, the variance was increased by 18 percent as 52%. The inclusion of intellectual stimulation increased the variance to 58% and when humor orientation was added, 62% of the variance was explained. Adding idealized influence skill, the influencing magnitude was continuously increased to 65% of x the variance in teachers‟ performance and all of the five determinants taken together contributed 65% to the variance of the teachers‟ performance. Therefore, it is concluded that all of the five determinants of transformational leadership skills are very highly significant predictors of the teachers‟ performance. The overall leadership effectiveness regarding the FIVE transformational leadership skills is on moderate level. Principals‟ inspirational motivation skill was found to be dominant predictor of the teachers‟ performance followed by his idealized influence, individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, and humor orientation. All of the five predictors well determined the teachers with significant predictive powers (R²). The joint contribution of all the five predictors taken together was 65 percent to the variance of teachers‟ performance. So, the principals were required to display these skills to influence their subordinates to get the work done well in time. It means there may be other predictors of the teachers‟ performance to be explored on the same lines. Moreover, the mean value of both male and female principals indicated that they were agreed that transformational leadership skills have positive effect on secondary school teachers‟ performance. The results show that urban principals are more effective than rural principals. The results indicate that principals of 51 to 60 years ages put positive influence on their staff‟s performance than other age groups. The results of the study show that principal having the experience of 21 to 30 years help to improve teachers‟ performance.