Arbitration: Legislation, Scope, and Functioning in Pakistani Legal System a Pragmatic Approach in Law and Sharī‘ah

This study investigates the case of arbitration in the modern states in general and in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in particular, as a self-binding, amicable mode of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). It starts with arbitration’s meaning, history and evolutional background and discusses them as preliminaries and entrance to the main topic. The study debates Pakistani legislation on the subject, with special focus on the Arbitration Act, 1940. It examines the functioning of arbitration in Pakistani legal system, detects the flaws and areas of improvement therein, and most significantly, suggests proposals for required amendments in the relevant laws. In this connection, the equivocal nature of ADR provisions in some statutes other than Arbitration Act, has been specially highlighted.  As per requirement of the Article 2(A) of the Constitution 1973, some inconsistencies of the laws on the subject with Sharī‘ah have also been traced. The issue of qualifications of arbitrators (hakams) has been detected as the main subject of inconsistency between law and Sharī‘ah, resulting in substantial and effective bearings. A similar inconsistency, comparatively with a lesser effect, has been noted in arbitration of family disputes regarding fixation of number of arbitrators and the hail from families of the disputing spouses. While investigating all these issues, an analytical-cum comparative strategy has been followed. The conclusion contains a concise brief on comparison between Sharī‘ah and law on the subject and a package of proposed amendments in the gray areas.

An Autobiographical Approach to Exploring Secondary Elts Professional Development in Developing Countries: Syria and Pakistan

The new trends in learning/teaching English, as a foreign/second language, highlight teachers' professional development (TPD) as essential in bringing about educational reforms through enhancing teachers' subject-content and pedagogical content knowledge, and changing their attitudes and beliefs about their roles and teaching. Therefore, this study focused on exploring English language teachers' (ELTs') professional development (PD) in developing countries; namely Syria and Pakistan. For approaching this phenomenon, the study used qualitative research with a case-study design. Moreover, it applied the auto/biographical approach to get more insights into ELTs' learning experiences by analyzing the stories of two ELTs. Furthermore, it employed cross-case analysis to identify the emerging issues in both contexts (Syria and Pakistan), and to find out some similarities/differences of ELTs' learning experiences between these contexts. The study was conducted in a private secondary English-medium school in Karachi with a Pakistani ELT and me, as a research participant from Syria. Reflective journals, semi-structured interviews, ELTs' auto/biography, documents analysis, informal talks and classroom, observations were used for generating the data for this study. Analyzing the data, some key themes emerged in relation to the process of achieving PD of ELTs. Out of these themes, stories were generated about ELTs' learning journey. Moreover, data resulted out of the two ELTs' cases drew attention to ELTs' unique ways of learning during the journey of PD such as learning in the workplace (informally: by doing, and by reflecting on past experiences and on action/practices), and learning off-site (formally: by attending professional training). Applying the cross-case analysis revealed the commonalities and differences between the two ELTs' professional development. As for the key findings emerged out of the analysis and discussions, they were: a) Significance of ELTs' self-motivation, b) Learning in-service through formal/informal opportunities, c) Impact of schools learning environment (with reference to school cultures and a principal's leadership), and d) Role of family in supporting ELTs' professional development.