An Analytical Study of the Outcomes and Impacts of Religious Education of Pakistan, the Challenges and Opportunities

This study focuses on the impact of Religious Education in Pakistan at individual and collective levels. The research discusses the educational basis for the study of religion and analyzes the contribution of religious education towards the intellectual growth of individuals. The study raises few questions regarding religious education in Pakistan such as; why has our education system been divided into religious and secular education system. Whether the existing religious education is able to create a linkage between religion and society or not, if not what are the areas which need to be focused. What are the possibilities of sidelining the religious education and what could be its effects. The research focuses on the aims and objectives or religious education in Pakistan by analyzing the nature of curriculums of religious education at various levels. This study highlights the deficiency of the inclusion of the teachings of other religions in our religious education. The research consists of a current survey of the said topic, some findings and conclusions on the issue and few recommendations as well.

Floristic and Ethnobotanical Enumeration of Thal Desert, Punjab, Pakistan

Thal Desert, Pakistan has unique flora with reference to xeric conditions. Like other desert ecosystems of the country, this desert has been ignored to document the plant biodiversity and its ethnobotanical uses. Keeping in view, the area was surveyed to record flora and ethnobotanical information during September, 2011 to August, 2014. A total of 248 species distributed across 166 genera and 38 families were identified during the survey period. Besides, Heliotropium pakistanicum, H.crispum var. angulosum and H. europaeum subsp. thaliensis are determined as addition to science, while Themeda triandra as new recorded for Pakistan. It inculdes one fern, 4 monocots and 33 dicots families were determined. The most dominating family was Poaceae that contributed 52 species (21.49%), followed by Fabaceae (34 spp., 13.05%) and Amaranthaceae & Asteraceae (17 spp., 7.02% each), Boraginaceae (11 spp., 4.5%), Brassicaceae, Cyperaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Solanaceae (8 spp., 3.31% each), while, rest of the families contributed few number of species. The flora comprised on nine life span in which 122 species (46.74%) were herbaceous nature, followed by grasses (51 spp., 19.54%), trees (28 spp., 10.73%), shrubs (27 spp., 10.34), sedges (9 spp., 3.45%) and climbers (3.07%). With reference to ethnobotanical study, local inhabitants utilize native flora to fulfill their eight use needs such as folk medicine, fuel, fruits, vegetable, fodder/forage, ethno veterinary, soil binder and others. Most of the species were recognized as palatable by the herders and used as fodder (234 spp., 35.62%), followed by folk medicine (120 spp., 18.26%), fuel (108 spp., 16.44%), others (64 xiii spp., 9.74%), soil binder (48 spp., 7.31%), wild fruits (40 spp., 6.09%), vegetables (25 spp., 3.81%) and Ethno veterinary (18 spp., 2.74%). Compared to the medicinal literature, four species viz., Limeum indicum, Launaea residifolia, Farsetia jacquemontiiand Indigofera hochstetteripossessed novel medicinal uses not earlier reported in the literature. Besides, 76 species possessed new uses in addition to the medicinal records. Capparis decidua (Karenh), Moringa oleifera (Suhanjna), Prosopis cineraria (Jand), Salvadora oleoides (Pilu)and Ziziphus spinachristi (Jhar beri) were highly utilized species and ranked first amongst all species which fulfilled six major use categories. This comprehensive study will provide a useful starting point for further ecological and bioprospective research of the study area. The findings of this study will be helpful to foresters, rangeland managers, medicinal plant growers & collectors, economic botanists, ecologists, physiologists, breeders, etc.