پروفیسر اصغر علی فیضی
پروفیسر فیضی آکسفورڈ کے اعلیٰ تعلیم یافتہ تھے ان کااصل مضمون قانون تھا، مشرقی علوم وفنون میں بھی ان کودسترس تھی۔اسلامی قانون پران کی کتابیں حوالہ کی کتاب (Book of Reference)کی حیثیت رکھتی ہیں۔ عرصہ تک لاء کالج بمبئی کے پرنسپل رہے، انڈیا کے مصراور شام میں بھی سفیر رہے اورکشمیر یونیورسٹی کے وائس چانسلر بھی ہوئے۔ وزیٹنگ پروفیسر کی حیثیت سے کینیڈا، یورپ اورامریکہ کی متعدد یونیورسٹیوں میں لکچر دیے۔برہان کے خریدار شروع سے تھے اوراس کی بڑی قدر کرتے تھے، برہان کا کوئی مقالہ یانظرات ان کوزیادہ پسند آتاتھا تواس کی داد تحریراً دیتے تھے۔عرصہ سے ان کاکوئی خط نہیں آیاتھا۔بعض خانگی معاملات اورمسلسل ضعف وعلالت کے باعث سخت پریشان تھے۔ اب اچانک اخبارات میں ان کے انتقال کی خبر نظر سے گزری تودیرینہ تعلق کے باعث سخت صدمہ اورافسوس ہوا۔ اللھم اغفرلھما وارحمھما۔ [نومبر۱۹۸۱ء]
It has been said that exogamous marriages tend to lead to language shift (Igboanus & Wolf, 2009 & Dumanig, David & Shanmuganathan, 2013). In an early study Gal (1978) found that Hungarian women marrying German men in the city of Oberwat had shifted to German to negate their peasant Hungarian ancestry and to move up the socio-economic ladder. Similarly, David and Dealwis (2011) found in their study of Malaysian Sindhi Hindus that exogamous marriages tend to lead to language shift but is not the only reason for the shift away from the heritage language. Therefore, before mixed marriages take place one should study perceptions of the speech community towards such marriages. In this exploratory study, the perceptions of Sindhi Muslims-men and women and from different socio-economic groups towards exogamous marriages are studied. With this objective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten Sindhi Muslim participants (four male adults and six female adults) who live in Karachi. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded and themes were generated after formal consent was obtained. The findings show that language choice in the home domain is shifting because of intercultural marriages. Also, such marriages are frequent among Sindhi community members with a high socio-economic status who live in cities. Gender plays an equal role too, as the women respondents showed mixed responses towards exogamous marriages while the male respondents had a more positive perception. Such views and perceptions may affect choice of marital partners and language choice in the home domain.
Hydroponic experiments were conducted to appraise variation in the salt tolerance potential of two wheat cultivars (salt tolerant, S-24 and moderately salt sensitive MH-97) at different growth stages. Salinity stress caused a marked reduction in plant biomass and grain yield of both wheat cultivars. However, cv. S-24 was superior to cv. MH-97 in maintaining higher plant biomass and grain yield under saline stress. Furthermore, salinity caused a significant variation in different physiological attributes measured at different growth stages. For example, salt stress caused a marked reduction in net photosynthetic and transpiration rate in both wheat cultivars but to a varying extent at different growth stages. Higher photosynthetic and transpiration rates were recorded at the boot stage than at other growth stages in both wheat cultivars. The response of other gas exchange attributes was also variable at different growth stages. Salt sensitive wheat cultivar MH-97 was more prone to salt-induced adverse effects on gas exchange attributes as compared to cv. S-24. Salt stress caused considerable reduction in different water relation attributes of wheat plants. A significant reduction in leaf water, osmotic and turgor potentials was recorded in both wheat cultivars at different growth stages. Maximal reduction in leaf water potential was recorded at the reproductive stage in both wheat cultivars. In contrast, maximal turgor potential was observed at the boot stage. Salt-induced adverse effects of salinity on different water relation attributes were more prominent in cv. MH-97 as compared to those in cv. S-24. The integrity of PS II was greatly perturbed in both wheat cultivars at different growth stages and this salt-induced damage to PS II was more in cv. MH-97. A significant alteration in different biochemical attributes was also observed in both wheat cultivars at different growth stages. For example, salt stress caused a substantial decrease in chlorophyll pigments, ascorbic acid, phenolics and tocopherols. In contrast, it increased the endogenous levels of ROS (H2O2), MDA, total soluble proteins, proline, glycine betaine and activities of enzymatic antioxidants (SOD, POD, CAT, APX). These biochemical attributes exhibited significant salt-induced variation at different growth stages in both wheat cultivars. For example, maximum accumulation of glycine betaine and proline was recorded at the early growth stages (vegetative and boot). However, cv. S-24 showed higher accumulation of these two organic osmolytes and this could be the reason for maintenance of higher turgor than that of cv. MH-97 under stress conditions. The activities of various enzymatic antioxidants increased markedly in both wheat cultivars, particularly at the vegetative stage. However, cv. S-24 exhibited consistent increase in the activities of various enzymatic antioxidants, whereas, this phenomena occurred erratically in cv. MH-97 at different growth stages. Salt stress significantly increased the endogenous levels of toxic ions (Na+and Cl-) and decreased essential cations (K+ and Ca2+) in both wheat cultivars at different growth stages. Furthermore, K+/Na+ and Ca2+/Na+ ratios decreased markedly due to salt stress in both wheat cultivars at different growth stages and this salt-induced reduction was more prominent in cv. MH-97. Moreover, higher K+/Na+ and Ca2+/Na+ ratios were recorded at early growth stages in both wheat cultivars. It can be inferred from the results that wheat plants are more prone to adverse effects of salinity stress at early growth stages than that at the reproductive stage.