Wheat is the most important staple diet of the people of Pakistan. It contributing 13.7 percent to the value added in agriculture and 3.0 percent to GDP. Pakistan is world’s 8th largest wheat producer with a total production of 23.47 million tons. Among the leafy vegetables, spinach is an important source of nutrients in the diet ranking 2nd after kale in total carotenoids and folate. It is also a rich source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, betaine, iron, vitamin B2, calcium, potassium, vitamin B6, folic acid, copper, protein, phosphorus, zinc, niacin, selenium and omega-3 fatty acids. Pakistan is world’s 9th largest spinach producer with 95.5 thousand tons annual production having 1.2 tons h-1 yield. Fertilizer applications significantly enhance growth, yield and nutrient uptake traits of cereal and non-cereal crops. The hazardous environmental consequences and high cost of inorganic fertilizers make them not only undesirable but also uneconomical and out of reach of the small farmers, which needs to be replaced with the natural organic fertilizers for reducing health hazards and prevent environmental degradation. Present research undertaken was an endeavour to studying the role of soil applied microorganisms and crop productivity of wheat and spinach. Nitrogen and phosphorus are the major limiting factor in agricultural soils of Pakistan. Biofertilizers are considered to be the only supplement fertilizer to minimize use of chemical fertilizers, which apart from their increasing cost are enhancing the pollution hazards of our environment. The plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and phosphorus solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) are important because they help in plant growth and development. Bioinoculants have multiple modes of operations. They not only fix atmospheric N, or solubilize soil phosphorus but may act through hormones production. In this study Humic Acid and IAA are used as non-biological control treatments, in addition to urea and singal super phosphate (SSP) to compare the performance of bioinoculants in terms of hormonal mode of action in addition to their N-fixing, phosphorus solublizing and xxix zinc solublizing abilities. Assessing the capacity of these microorganisms to be used as a consortium in biofertilizer for wheat and spinach was the main objective of this investigation. The present study was to strengthen such endeavors and to provide a better combination for nutritional requirements of these important crops. This research work was categorized into eight treatments in wheat crop and ten treatments in spinach crop. The PGPR and PSM used were selected isolates from Soil Biology repository, NARC, isolated from rhizosphere, rhizoplane and roots of wheat and spinach on their respective media. Two sets of microorganisms were used for the two test crops. The inoculants were applied as seed treatments. Plants above ground and below ground parts and rhizosphere samples were collected at various stages of growth and development for the analysis of N, P, K, Fe and Zn in both wheat and spinach crop. Microbial analysis of the rhizosphere was carried out at three stages of growth to check the viability of microorganism in plants rhizosphere, an important pre-requisite for beneficial effects on plants. Enumeration of microbes was carried out on p-free medium, Sodium Lactate medium, N-free and Yeast Manitol medium. Statistical analysis of the results shows that all treatments differed significantly from each other in all indices of growth. The maximum increase in wheat shoot dry biomass, straw biomass, maximum number of tillers, highest root dry biomass of wheat was recorded with Humic Acid and Rhizobium + ½ NP as compared to the application of chemical fertilizers alone. Application of Humic Acid and Rhizobium + ½ NP increased the uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as compared with chemical fertilizers alone at different stages. Maximum iron content was recorded with Rhizobium + ½ NP, Pseudomonas+ N ½ P and HA. Maximum zinc content of wheat crop was recorded with the application of Rhizobium+ ½ NP, Pseudomonas+ N ½ P and Azospirillum+ ½ NP as compare to the application of chemical fertilizers alone. Application of Azorhizobium + ½ NP, Rhizobium + ½ NP, Pseudomonas+ N ½ P and Azospirillum+½ NP saved the rhizosphere N upto 73%, phosphorus 74%, potassium 12.4%, iron 18% and zinc 62% respectively. Analysis of the data concluded that application of Rhizobium+ ½ NP as well as HA increased grain yield of wheat upto 43% as compared to the recommended dose of the application of chemical fertilizers alone. In case of spinach, it is concluded from the statistical analysis of results that biological inoculants significantly affect the growth, N, P, K, Fe and Zn uptake. The maximum foliage dry biomass of spinach shoot and root was recorded with Azorhizobium and Rhizobium as compared to the uninoculated control. Highest spinach nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium accumulation in foliage was recorded with Azorhizobium, Rhizobium and PSM-QA as compared to uninoculated control at different stages of growth. Maximum quantity of iron and zinc uptake in spinach was recorded with Azorhizobium, Rhizobium, Tax-psm1 and PSM-QA as compared to uninoculated control at different stages of growth. Maximum soil nitrogen content of spinach rhizosphere was recorded with NP as compared with uninoculated control. Maximum spinach rhizosphere phosphorus content was recorded with ½ NP, SP.OL and NP as compared with uninoculated control at different stages. Maximum rhizosphere potassium content was recorded with PSM-QA and ½ NP Azorhizobium and Rhizobiumat different stages as compared with uninoculated control. Highest rhizosphere iron and zinc content was recorded with the application of Azorhizobium, Rhizobium, SP.OL, PSM-QA and Taxpsm1 at different stages as compared with uninoculated control. It can thus be concluded that application of bacterial isolates inhanced not only the nutrient uptake in both the crops but enhanced the concentration of nutrients in the rhizosphere of both the crops, whereas humic acid proved very effective in the nutrients uptake of wheat crop. It is recommended that further experiments related to inoculation of beneficial microorganisms should be carried out to firm up the conclusions and formulate technology packages for reducing the deleterious effects of chemical fertilizers and safeguarding the natural environment for sustainable crop production.
یہ مونوگراف 2016ء میں منظر عام پر آیا۔ اردو اکادمی دہلی نے ادبا و شعرا کے مختصر حالات زندگی اور ان کی منتخب تحریروں کو شائع کرنے کا فیصلہ کیا تاکہ نئی نسل بھی ہمارے مشا ہیر کی زندگیوں اور کارناموں سے واقفیت حاصل کر سکے۔ اس سلسلہ میں اقبال کے حوالہ سے مونو گراف تیار کرنے کی ذمہ داری پروفیسر عبد الحق کو سونپی گئی جو آپ نے احسن طریقے سے نبھائی۔ پروفیسر عبد الحق نے پہلے شاہ حاتم دہلوی پر ایک مونوگراف شائع کیا تھا۔ جسے بہت پسند کیا گیا۔ یہ کئی بار شائع بھی ہوا۔ مونوگراف میں سوانح ، تصانیف اور انتخاب کا مختصر مگر جامع نقشہ پیش کیا جاتا ہے۔ اس کے لیے بہت مہارت کی ضرورت ہوتی ہے۔ پروفیسر عبد الحق کےجو مونو گراف بھی نظر سے گزرے ہیں وہ ان خوبیوں سے متصف ہیں۔ اقبال کی زندگی کے حوالہ سے ”زندہ رود“ کو بہت اہمیت حاصل ہے۔ یہ کتاب بہت زیادہ تفصیل لیے ہوئے ہے۔ مونوگراف کا مقصد اس تفصیل سے اختصار اخذ کرنا ہوتا ہے۔ پروفیسر عبدالحق نے دیگر کتب کا ذکر اقبال اور علامہ اقبال کی شخصیت اور فن کےعلاوہ زندہ رود کو بھی بطور ماخذ استعمال کیا ہے جس سے اقبال کی زندگی کے شب و روز کا شاندار نقشہ فرزند اقبال کی زبانی ہمارے سامنے آتا ہے۔ کلیات اقبال اردو سب سے زیادہ شائع ہونے والی کتاب ہے۔ اس کا مطلب ہے کہ اتنے سال گزرنے کے بعد بھی اقبال کی شہرت تو کیا اقبال کے فکر وفن میں کوئی کمی نہیں آئی بلکہ اقبال کے فکر وفن کو سمجھنے والوں کی تعداد میں روز بہ روز اضافہ ہی ہوا ہے۔ پہلے دو مونوگراف سامنے آئے ہیں ان میں کلام اقبال سے انتخاب پیش کیا گیا ہے۔ اس مونو گراف میں بھی انتخاب پیش کیا ہے۔...
Of all the leaders who came to rule Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has been only second to the Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in terms of receiving attention from authors of different types—biographers, journalists, researchers, and professional historians. While many prime ministers of the country have remained in oblivion even though some of them deserved to be studied seriously given their contribution to the country’s political development, Bhutto was regularly made the subject of studies both within the country and abroad. A number of Ph.D theses have been done on him and his rule. The number of books written by various authors expressing different shades of opinion are simply uncountable. Being the founder of the nation, Jinnah was treated by and large, over an extended period of the country’s history, and by a majority of writers, as a national hero whose role in history was highlighted in the manner in which the nationalist historians write about the national heroes. It was much later that Pakistani historians took to writing more professionally about the Father of the Nation. Quite interestingly, the Jinnah that emerged from these objective histories proved to be a more original and powerful historical figure as compared with his previous representation as a straightjacketed national hero. As compared to him, Bhutto became the subject of objective historical works right from the beginning. Of course, there have been books of hagiography written in his honor, but these are mainly from the pen of people belonging to his own political party or the ones who were overly inspired by his charisma. Then there are numerous books written by his diehard opponents, who leave no stone unturned in demolishing his image. Despite the diverse writings about him, ranging from one extreme to another, it is good, from the point of view of historical political writings on Pakistan, that with the
This particular research work provided a better understanding for the practices of existing supply chain paradigms i.e., lean, agile, resilient and green which is commonly known as LARG; and how these LARG practices of Supply Chain (SC) impact the performance of SC. To measure the performance of SC three sub-factors were identified from literature i.e., operational performance, economic performance, and environmental performance. Measuring the performance of LARG practices of SC is entirely under researched area, as it has never been attempted by researcher before. To measure the performance of LARG practices of SC a framework was theorized after through literature review. The performance evaluation of LARG practices of SC provided the supervisors with better understandings about the areas where the performance of SC could be enriched. Moreover, it could also be identified that what are the areas which require special attention so that better performance could be achieved. Measurement of SC performance allowed not only the suppliers but also the retail distributors to evaluate their own performance as well as performance of their sub-contractors. Likewise, it also provided the opportunity to recognize what elements enhance the SC performance and what all factors weaken the SC performance. There should be equilibrium among the sub factors of performance i.e., operational performance, economic performance, and environmental performance. The previously available research studies relating to the topic of LARG practices of SC paradigms have been carried out independently; because there is not even a single research study available in which all four LARG paradigms of SC has been evaluated simultaneously and no effort has been made to empirically validate any of LARG paradigms. It is also worth mentioning that there is no single research study available in which impact of LARG practices of SC have been evaluated on the performance of SC having three sub factors i.e., operational performance, economic performance and environmental performance. So this is the very first study in which key performance indicators are identified and developed to form four constructs of independent variable i.e., lean, agile, resilient and green and three constructs of dependent variables i.e., operational performance, economic performance and environmental performance. Subsequently the indicators for the constructs were selected, basing upon these indicators final items were also adapted with the help of previous literature. Afterwards by using these indicators and constructs few hypotheses were suggested and basing upon these hypotheses a conceptual framework was formulated. For the empirical validation of this framework mixed methodology approach was applied in this thesis, the theorized conceptual framework was tested in two phases. In first phase the causal relationships were evaluated at the indicator to indicator level; indicators were compared for four independent and three dependent level variables with the help of five Pakistani textile industry‘s qualitative case studies. In these qualitative case studies, firstly the perception is recorded for the importance of every indicator and then subsequently actual implementation level of these indicators in the said case study industries was recorded. Consequently, the causal loop diagram technique was used to measure the causal relationship of every indicator of independent variable with every indicator of dependent variable. The results of causal loop diagram provided us the general view of causal relationships amongst indicators of depend and independent variables. The qualitative case study analysis results facilitated us to conclude that the executives involved in the textile industry SC, not only give due importance but also actually implement these LARG practices of SC and likewise to the measures of SC performance; which accordingly better revealed the impacts of these practices on the performance of SC. The results and conclusion of this exploratory type of qualitative analysis helped us to understand that how this framework could be useful for Pakistani textile industry particularly and global textile industry generally. Theorized conceptual framework was empirically validated in second phase with the help large scale quantitative analysis. This is the unique attempt in which the scale was adapted from state of the art literature review, which was not only tested for reliability but also for different kinds of validity which included, face; content; discriminant and convergent validity using SPSS 20 and AMOS 20 soft wares. The large-scale data of survey responses was obtained by using this reliable and validated instrument form Pakistani manufacturing industries and then this data was transferred to SPSS for further analysis. After carrying out initial descriptive statistics analysis, Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) was performed using AMOS-20 software, to test four main and twelve sub hypotheses. These hypotheses testing enabled us to empirically validate the theorized conceptual framework. The SEM, hypotheses testing results and goodness of fit statistics showed that there is no issue in theorizing of the conceptual framework, as well as empirically validation of the theorized conceptual framework. Empirically validated framework in third phase was also case tested where LARG framework was applied on China Pakistan Economic Corridor as a case study; for verification of the results scenario planning technique was applied.