Financial distress has been considered as an important area of research for academicians and managers. Despite this, the role of corporate governance in financial distress in Pakistan lacks empirical evidence yet. This research examines the role of corporate governance practices on financial performance and the likelihood of financial distress for a cross section of 146 companies listed at the Karachi Stock Exchange for the period of 2003-2012. The analytical framework is based on the agency and stewardship theories. Corporate governance variables are operationalized in terms of ownership structure, and board structure. Additionally, ownership structure is measured through institutional ownership, insider ownership, foreign ownership, and government ownership. Board independence, board size and CEO duality is used to measure board structure. For firm’s financial performance, accounting-based measures such as return on asset (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), and market-based performance measures such market to book ratio (MBR) and Tobin’s Q (TQ) are used. The Altman Z-score is used as a proxy for financial distress. The dynamic panel generalized method of moment (GMM) is applied to investigate the association between corporate governance practices and firm’s financial performance, while pool logistic regression is deployed to examine the role of corporate governance practices on the likelihood of corporate financial distress. The empirical results reveal positive and significant relationship between institutional ownership, insider ownership, government ownership and financial performance of the selected companies during the period 2003-2012. A positive relationship between the internal corporate governance practices (that is, Board independence and Board size) and corporate financial performance was also observed. The results further reveal that in the presence of board independence, CEO duality has a positive and significant impact on both the accounting-based and market-based financial performance of the sampled companies in Pakistan. Furthermore, we also observed a positive and significant relationship between insiders’ ownership and the likelihood of corporate financial distress. The findings also reveal significant negative impact of foreign ownership and board independence on the likelihood of financial failure. It is also observed that firm-specific variables such as profitability, liquidity and size have a decisive role in determining the likelihood of corporate financial distress. In overall term, this study provides useful information for corporate managers, policy makers and investors about the corporate governance practices, financial performance and the likelihood of financial distress in Pakistan.”
مولوی حسین حسان ندوی راقم کے لیے تیسرا حادثہ طالب علمی کے زمانہ کے رفیق مولوی حسین حسان صاحب ندوی اڈیٹر پیام تعلیم کی وفات کا ہے، مرحوم درجہ میں مجھ سے دو تین سال نیچے اور غالباً عمر میں بھی اسی قدر چھوٹے تھے، لیکن ہم دونوں عرصہ تک ایک ہی کمرے میں رہے تھے، اس لئے ان سے دوستانہ تعلقات تھے جو آخر تک قائم رہے، اسی زمانہ سے ان میں مضمون نگاری کا ذوق تھا، چنانچہ عشاق عرب کے عنوان سے ایک طویل مضمون لکھا تھا۔ جو زمانہ کانپور کے کئی نمبروں میں چھپا تھا، ندوہ سے فراغت کے بعد جامعہ ملیہ چلے گئے اور وہاں تعلیم کے ساتھ مختلف اوقات میں جامعہ کے مختلف شعبوں سے ان کا تعلق رہا، بچوں کا ادب لکھنے میں ان کو خاص ملکہ تھا اس کے وہ صاحب طرز ادیب تھے، برسوں بچوں کے رسالہ پیام تعلیم کے اڈیٹر رہے اور اس کو ان کا بڑا مقبول رسالہ بنادیا، پیام تعلیم کے مضامین کے علاوہ انھوں نے بچوں کے ذوق کی بہت سی کتابیں لکھیں اور بچکانہ ادب کا بڑا ذخیرہ فراہم کردیا، ان سے تعلقات کا سلسلہ برابر قائم رہا، کبھی کبھی ملاقات بھی ہوجاتی تھی، گزشتہ دسمبر میں دلی میں ملاقات ہوئی تھی، کیا معلوم تھا کہ یہ آخری ملاقات ہے، اﷲ تعالیٰ ان کی مغفرت فرمائے۔ (شاہ معین الدین ندوی، اگست ۱۹۷۴ء)
The study aimed at exploring social justice, peace, prosperity, love, welfare and coexistence in the light of Prophetic Sīrah being the model of humanism in the world. The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) was a paragon of social justice and a role model at the apex for humanity. He was a great social reformer and social activist. He (ﷺ) crippled an arrogant class and race-based system by the virtue of equality, avoiding the exploitation of basic rights of poor and by establishing a society based on virtues of charity and well-wishing. The Holy Prophet (ﷺ) strived for making a society based on collective and individual justice. He was real role model of tolerance and kindness which can vividly be observed at various events such as; entering the city of Makkah, the pact of Ḥudaybiya, the treaties with the non-Muslims, at the time of migration to Madīnah, fixing the Black-Stone and Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl. Thus, it is a fact that Holy Prophet (ﷺ) emerged a society that strives for gaining social justice. The researcher applied descriptive method for conducting this research. The study concludes the aspects of social justice in the Sīrah of the last Prophet which can surly enlighten the whole humanity and all societies of the world
The study aimed to find out relationship among satisfaction, learning style and achievement of distance learners. Its objectives were to determine the learning style of distance learners, to explore the satisfaction level of distance learners, to assess the relationship between satisfaction and achievement of distance learners, to find out the relationship between learning style and achievement of distance learners. and to find out the relationship among satisfaction, learning style and achievement of distance learners. This study is significant as it may be helpful for instructional designers, educational planners, course writers, and tutors to make strategies for effective learning environment. The study was delimited to the learners of M.Ed program in core courses at Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad from eight districts from four provinces of Pakistan. It was a correlational study in which stratified random sampling procedure was used. Satisfaction of distance learners was measured by using student Satisfaction Survey Items developed by Strachota (2006). The learning style of the students was assessed using Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Styles Scale (Diaz and Cartna, 1999). The study found majority of the learners with collaborative learning style followed by participant, Independent, competitive, dependant and avoidant learning styles. Besides, majority of students had general satisfaction with learner-learner interaction, learner content interaction followed by learner technology interaction, and learner instructor interaction. It was concluded that learner-content interaction and Learner-Instructor interaction were significant predictor of general satisfaction while Learner-learner interaction and Learner-technology interaction were not significant predictors of general satisfaction. It was also concluded that although learning style components were mostly positively and significant correlated with components of satisfaction except avoidant learning style which was negatively correlated with components of satisfaction. It was concluded that learning styles and achievement were not significantly correlated at p< 0.05 except a significant negative correlation between avoidant learning style and achievement score (r =-0.159, p<0 .01). It was also found that students’ satisfaction and achievement were not significantly correlated. It was also found that there was significant positive correlation between learning style and satisfaction with the exception that avoidant learning style was negatively significant with all components of satisfaction. The study recommended that distance learning materials and methods may be made more interactive so that collaborative learning is increased and avoidant behavior of students is decreased. There is need to develop collaborative and participant learning styles in distance learners. Learners might be encouraged to increase interaction with other learners. Distance learning tutors should be trained for better interaction and communication with students. The study may be replicated using procedures that allow a higher degree of randomization and more generalizability.