It has been empirically evidenced and hence widely acknowledged that SMEs play a major and active role in economic growth, social development, employment generation and poverty reduction. The developing countries like Pakistan have been facing various macro problems such as low and unsustainable economic growth, unemployment, and poverty. SMEs can be used as a panacea for resolving a nation''s macroeconomic issues. SMEs have a great capacity to produce jobs which would reduce the problem of unemployment. In Pakistan, labor force has been continuously growing and it can only be tackled through the promotion of an active SME sector. SMEs have also been providing impetus to the growth of developed economies. The entrepreneurial spirit in the developed countries has been created, nourished, and sustained through the development of the SME sector. The dynamic SME sector is essential for creating employment, generating foreign exchanges, advancing the quality of labor force, upgrading business management skills, and disseminating technological know-how across Pakistan. The study also evidenced that Pakistan has plenty of unutilized domestic resources that can be productively mobilized through the involvement of the SMEs sector. This study is aimed at identifying the factors which are associated with the growth of SMEs and to measure the impact of those factors on constraining the pace of their growth. In total thirty-one (31) constraint-items were identified which were hampering the growth of SMEs in Pakistan. Through literature review and application of exploratory factor analysis these 31 constraint-items were grouped into seven categories (i.e. financial constraints with seven items, market constraints with five items, government regulation constraints with three items, infrastructure constraints with three items, mode of communication constraints with four items, technological constraints with four items and economic constraints with five items).Of the seven constraints categories, the technological constraints have been found to be the most severely influencing the growth of sampled SMEs in Pakistan. This is followed by the market and economic constraints which have also been severely impairing the growth of SMEs. The least important category with respect to its severity was found to be financial constraints. The infrastructure and mode of communication constraint categories have been moderately influencing the growth of SMEs. The study further demonstrated three interaction variables and testified their impact on each of the seven constructs. The first moderator''s (Firm''s Size) impact was found significant with three constructs (i.e.-economic, government regulations and mode of communication constraints); the second construct Firm''s Location was found statistically influencing three constructs (finance, government regulations, economic constraints); and the third construct Firm''s Age was found significant in the relationship between SME growth and two constructs (finance and government regulations constraints). It is recommended that the government of Pakistan has to launch more programs to support SMEs. SMEs, which are characterized as innovative and are technology-based, need government support in building and enhancing their capacity to adopt emerging technological advancements. Further government has to create a conducive and enabling environment in which SMEs can establish themselves and thrive competitively. The government has to intensify its efforts in reducing uncertainties and anomalies in the regulatory, tax, and macro-economic environment. The government needs to reform its policies with respect to financing, business environment, technology, and access to the market. Under the financing policy, the government has to provide traditional loans and venture capital to support the growth investments of SMEs. In the business environment, the government has to scrutinize the business laws and regulations carefully and systematically in order to ensure they should not put a disproportionate burden on SMEs in comparison to large businesses. The government also has to remove the red tape and other bureaucratic hurdles. In the sphere of technology, the government should launch initiatives to enhance the innovative capacity of SMEs. In the organizational internal capability context, the government has to enhance the quality of managerial competence of managers working in SMEs. The government also has to facilitate SMEs in human resource procurement. In access to markets, the government has to develop programs and aim at giving access to SMEs on international markets. The findings of this study will add and update the existing literature on the constraints SMEs face in Pakistan. Secondly, the specific findings of this study would further stimulate the research studies on this important area which has great socio-economic implications at local, regional, national, and international levels. Thirdly, the findings would greatly help the managers of SMEs to understand the severity of constraints which enable them to formulate practical strategies in order to mitigate those constraints. Finally, the findings would enable government policymakers such as (SMEDA) and other relevant authorities to have a comprehensive understanding of constraints SMEs face in Pakistan. Subsequently, they would be able to formulate the strategic growth policies aimed at improving the overall business environment in which SMEs can develop at a faster pace. This study identifies the category of constraints and assesses their influence on the growth of SMEs in Pakistan. The future study should include more comprehensive control variables such as profiles of SME owners and may focus exclusively on the business sector SMEs belong to, in order to gain more understanding on the impact of constraints, whether they are also owner and sectorspecific too.
حدود میں تخفیف کے مواقع مندرجہ ذیل چند اہم پہلوؤں کی نشان دہی کی جا رہی ہے، جن کی بناء پر حدود (عقوبات) میں معافی یا تخفیف کی گنجائش ملتی ہے: 1۔ اگر شریعت کا کوئی دوسرا اصول کسی خاص مجرم پر سزا کے نفاذ میں مانع ہو تو اسے سزا سے مستثنیٰ قرار دیا جائے گایا اس کے لیے متبادل سزا تجویز کی جائے گی ، جیسا کہ رسول اللہﷺ کے فیصلوں سے ثابت ہے۔ حضرت نعیم بن مسعود اشجعی (م:36ھ)سے روایت ہے ، جب بنو حنیفہ کے مدعی نبوت مسیلمہ کے دو قاصد اس کا خط لے کر رسول اللہ ﷺ کی خدمت میں حاضر ہوئے تو آپ ﷺنے ان سے پوچھا کہ کیا وہ مسیلمہ کی نبوت پر ایما ن رکھتے ہیں ؟ انہوں نے اثبات میں جواب دیا تو رسول اللہ نے ارشاد فرمایا " لو لا أن الرسل لا تقتل لضربت أعناقكما۔"49 " اگر قاصدوں کو قتل نہ کرنے کی روایت ہوتی تو میں تم دونوں کی گردن مار دیتا۔ " اس کا مطلب یہ تھا کہ اگرچہ ارتداد کی وجہ سے وہ دونوں قاصد قتل کے مستحق ہو چکے تھے ، لیکن قاصدوں اور سفیروں کے احترام اور ان کی حفاظت کا ایک دوسرا اخلاقی اصول اس پر عمل کرنے میں مانع تھا اور آپ نے اسی کا لحاظ کرتے ہوئے انہیں بحفاظت واپس جانے دیا ۔ آپ ﷺنے اسی اصول پر یہ ہدایت کی کہ اگر باپ اپنے بیٹے کو قتل کردے تو اسے قصاص میں قتل نہ کیا جائے۔ حضرت سراقہ بن مالک (م:24ھ)سے روایت ہے " رسول الله ﷺ يقيد الأب من ابنه ولا يقيد الابن من أبيه۔"50 " رسول اللہﷺ باپ پر بیٹے کے قتل میں قصاص نہیں دلوایا کرتے تھے جب کہ بیٹے سے باپ کے قتل میں قصاص دلواتے تھے۔ " 2۔ سزا...
Background of the Study: The aim of the present research was to examine the assessment practices of Speech-Language Pathologists for Cognitive Communication Disorders after Traumatic Brain Injury.
Methodology: It was a cross-sectional survey method, a convenient sampling technique. Research was carried out from January 2021 to June 2021. The sample size was n=21, out of which n= 9 (42.8%) participants, each from Rawalpindi and Islamabad n= 3 (14.4%) participants from Lahore filled in their responses. Medium; being Online, the questionnaire was distributed either through email, WhatsApp or Facebook MessengerApp. SLPs who were undergraduates or who had no experience working with TBI clients were excluded. Questionnaire included 12 items. Responses of research participants were recorded using Google Forms and presented in the form of n (%). The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, and chi-square analysis was performed to confirm the association between settings, city of practice and years of experience through Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 22.0.
Results: Speech-Language Pathologists reported that they routinely assessed (62% each) Receptive and Expressive communication. However; less than half of the participants routinely evaluated domains like verbal pragmatic skills (43.3%), functional communication (33.3%) and phonemic awareness (33.3%). SLPs assessed their clients by employing tests like MoCA (55.62%), Quick Aphasia Battery (18.75%), Cognitive Assessment (LOTCA Protocol) (14.35%) and a combination of Formal (48%) and Informal (52%) clinical interviews.
Conclusion: Informal discourse assessment is incorporated more frequently as compared to informal discourse evaluation in assessment practices of Speech-Language pathologists of Pakistan for cognitive communication impairment followed by traumatic brain injury.
There are many frameworks and paradigms within which mass media can be studied, and are being studying. Scholars studied media in their own perspective and paradigm. Some scholars think that media has transformed the culture and society into massive audience, while for some it is just a power full tool by which powerful corporations own and control them, and manipulates the public for their own gain. Noam Chomsky and Marshall McLuhan are the great scholars of media of twentieth century. Both deals with role of media in society, however many similarities are found among these scholars. Chomsky being a great scholar of 21st century sees media as powerful tool for corporate culture. He with his friend Edward S. Hermann developed a propaganda model and presented it in his seminal work “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media”. Though model was based on the characterization of US media but it is equally applicable to any country that shares the basic economic structure and organizing principles which the model postulates as the cause of media biases. Chomsky in his model suggests that media including newspaper, radio and television is controlled by elites particularly in democratic society. McLuhan is also a great scholar of 20th century, he is called media guru. He also developed the theories about the role of media in mass popular culture. He is also a great critic of media and modern technology. He says that it is the medium which transform the society and it affects the society in which it plays the role not only by content delivered through the medium but also it is inherent characteristics of medium itself. McLuhan discusses the social implications of media and says that society’s values, norms and ways of life changed because of the technology. Both scholars presented media theories in their own perspective. They provide an in depth view of role of media in our lives. Both scholars feels that mass media has changed the world in later half of 20th century. For Chomsky media is manipulating society for elite and ruling class while for McLuhan it was the nature of media itself that he felt dangerous. In present dissertation the media theories of two prominent scholars of 20th century is examined through content analysis of mainstream Pakistani media. This study also delineated theoretical approaches of Marshall McLuhan and Noam Chomsky to explain the role of media in society in the light Pakistani media. The combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches is applied for this study. In this study descriptive method along with content analysis of the books of McLuhan and Noam Chomsky and Pakistani mainstream newspaper is applied. The period selected for the study is from 2007 to 2015 which covered three consecutive governments, which made it easy to study the behavior of media with different governments.