Over the past few decades organization has experienced a change from modern and structural interpretivism to the postmodern era. A postmodern perspective of organization emphasizes the ever-changing relationship between concepts and is a defensive reaction to forces intrinsic to the social bodies. This thesis signifies the influence of postmodernism whereby organization has undergone strategic change towards the emergence of new paradigms. Such paradigm shifts have the potential to keep pace with environmental changes with flexibility, efficiency and contextually appropriate response. Virtual organization is one such paradigm. It emerged as an outcome of strategic change due to globalization and changing consumer preferences. This thesis initiates an inquiry into the paradigm of virtual organization of the SME clusters in Pakistan. The thesis introduces virtual organization as a temporary combination of geographically distributed and independently working parties, linked by ICTs for exploiting the emerging market opportunities. It specifically highlights how a virtual relationship could be established among the geographically proximate SMEs using low-technology means of ICTs. This thesis puts to test a unique methodology for the study of relationship between parties, that is, the game theoretic investigation into the virtual organization, wherein, the study further attempts to explore the game theoretic modeling of relationship among enterprises forming an exclusively virtual relationship. These are several key findings and the conclusions drawn from this research. Firstly, the geographically proximate enterprises in the SME clusters can establish a virtual relationship with lesser advanced means of ICTs. Secondly, the relationship among parties in a virtual organization could be modeled in the form of a non-cooperative game in which parties join together at an optimal Nash equilibrium. Thirdly, the mutual trust and social forces work to ensure coordination at the optimum performance level. Fourthly, this research claims an initiative not only in terms of the methods but also the scope as it introduces the paradigm of virtual organization in Pakistan using game theory to model the relationship among parties.
عبدالمجیب سہالوی افسوس ہے کہ ۲؍ نومبر ۲۰۰۱ء کو مشہور مزاحیہ نگار اور صحافی عبدالمجیب سہالوی کا انتقال ہوگیا ان کا وطن ضلع بارہ بنکی کا قصبہ سہالی تھا جو درس نظامی کے بانی ملا نظام الدین کا وطن ہونے کی بنا پر عالم گیر شہرت رکھتا ہے۔ مرحوم عبدالمجیب سہالوی کی تعلیم دار العلوم ندوۃ العلماء لکھنؤ میں ہوئی پھر انہوں نے لکھنؤ یونیورسٹی سے وکالت کی ڈگری لی مگر صحافت کے پیشہ سے وابستہ رہے۔ ان کو ادب کی مخصوص صنف طنز و مزاح سے دلچسپی تھی، ایک زمانے میں لکھنو سے نکلنے والا مشہور روزنامہ قومی آواز پورے اترپردیش میں چھایا ہوا تھا، مگر پچھلے کئی برسوں سے وہ یہاں سے تو غائب ہوگیا مگر اس کو اور اس کے فکاہی کالم ’’گلوریاں‘‘ کو ابھی تک لوگ بھولے نہیں ہیں۔ یہ کالم سہالوی صاحب ہی لکھتے تھے اور اس کی وجہ سے ان کو بڑی شہرت ملی۔ لکھنؤ کی شستہ و شیریں زبان اور طنز و مزاح کا کالم سونے پر سہاگا ہوتا تھا۔ ان کے دلچسپ فکاہی مضامین کا ایک مجموعہ ’’مفلسی میں آٹا گیلا‘‘ کے نام سے عرصہ ہوا شائع ہوا تھا جو بہت پسند کیا گیا۔ انہوں نے طویل عمر پائی لیکن عرصے سے ان کا نام سننے میں نہیں آرہا تھا گویا موتواقبل ان تموتوا کی تفسیر ہوگئے تھے، اﷲ تعالیٰ ادب و صحافت کے اس خادم کی مغفرت فرمائے اور پس ماندگان کو تسلی عطا کرے، آمین۔ (ضیاء الدین اصلاحی، جنوری ۲۰۰۲ء)
Mehmood Taimur، A famous and well known literary figure of Egypt، when started his writing career، besides many literary works، he has penned down many essays too. He has written on different topics including the religious one. His religious writings come in the category of religious essays as their topics are purely religious. His religious essays encompass the following aspects: Love of Religion: He was bred and brought up in a religious family and learnt religious principles. So his essays are imbued in religious spirit. He regards love of religion not a mere part but the very essence of creed. He firmly believes that love of religion and country are the indispensable part of one’s belief. Love of God: His heart was saturated with the love of God. The sighs he heaved from his heart in his religious essays are the clear proof of his love of God. Love of Prophet (PBUH): He believes that you can never have love of God in your heart without the love of His Holy Prophet. Such kind of love is incomplete. He thinks that personality of the Holy Prophet(PBUH) is the living practical example of Holy Quran. Love of Quran: Mehmood Taimur has made clear that the Quran is the miracle of Holy Prophet(PBUH). Quran had influenced his heart deeply. He always meditated on Quran and the recitation of Quran after morning prayer was his daily routine. In short having been raised in religious atmosphere، his heart was free of all vices. On seeing such character traits، every reader may infers the conclusion that his s essays are truly religious in their spirit.
Public school teachers in Pakistan often undergo in-service trainings that are usually managed by foreign donor-funded agencies. Because of the poor performance of primary schools, the training projects usually focus on professional development of primary and elementary teachers. It is important to know how much the programmes are beneficial for building teachers’ professional knowledge basis by enhancing their teaching skills. To improve schools and enhance professional competence of elementary teachers, the Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational development launched a project known as Strengthening Teacher Education in Pakistan (STEP) through funding of Foreign Affairs and Trade Developments of Canada and the Aga Khan foundation (AKF-C) Canada. Among a variety of programmatic activities, Whole School Improvement (WSIP) is one of the key programmes of STEP project implemented in multifaceted interventions in three separate districts of Balochistan. Teachers continued professional development through in-house workshops and follow up support has been one of the key factors of WSIP. This study explored the impact of training programme conducted under Whole School Improvement Programme (WSIP) on primary teachers’ competence in the context of Balochistan. A qualitative case study methodology was adopted to conduct the study. The participants comprised four primary teachers and a Lead Teacher who was the master trainer. The data was collected through multiple sources: semi-structured interviews, classroom observation, field notes and document analysis. The main findings of the study suggested that the teachers built a collaborative learning environment in the schools. Their interactions and discussions enhanced their professional knowledge and skills. The teachers also developed friendly attitude with students. Furthermore, the teachers believed that on the one hand, the new learnt pedagogies help them involve students in interactive learning and on the other hand, they perceived that the pedagogical skills were helpful to enhance students’ conceptual understanding of science topics. However, the teachers faced challenges like, shortage of necessary teaching materials, lack of parental involvement, pressure of syllabus completion and lack of follow up support. These challenges impede the process of effective classroom teaching and learning. The study recommends further support in terms of resources and professional development for teachers.