Date palm has a long history of cultivation and a valuable germplasm in Pakistan with little knowledge about genetic makeup and variation among the most important cultivars. Date palm is among the top three fruit crops of Pakistan which is grown throughout the country except the northern highlands. This study was conducted for evaluation of morphological, chemical and molecular diversity of date palm cultivars of Pakistan. Important morphological parameters of fruit, leaf and trunk of forty five locally adapted cultivars were evaluated for this purpose. Proximate analysis of the date fruit was also carried out. Morphological traits of trunk, leaves and spines had no significant correlation with fruit traits. Seven components explained 81% variability in the data set by principal component analysis. Length, weight, volume of fruit, pulp weight, total soluble solids, % reducing sugars, % total sugar, % ash content, length and width of leaf, midrib length with pinnae, spine number, leaf base width and perianth height largely contributed to variability among the cultivars. Forty six simple sequence repeat markers were used to find genetic diversity in date palm cultivars under study. Only two SSR markers showed polymorphism with five amplicons, 24 markers showed monomorphic bands while the remaining 20 primers did not amplify. Coefficient matrices were computed to form clusters to assess the relationship among the studied cultivars. Dendrogram based on morphological and proximate composition data divided the cultivars into four clusters while due to the less number of polymorphic SSR markers the studied cultivars were divided into two groups. Currently characterization of commercially important varieties is made primarily through morphological and yield parameters and to a lesser extent on genetic analysis using RAPD markers. There is a great need to develop some genetic x identification system that could be used at sucker stage without relying on phenotypic traits of adult plant such as fruit characteristics. For this purpose, a detailed genetic analysis of seven commercially important cultivars was performed. Initially more than 3.5 kb of DNA fragments belonging to rbcL, atpB, GGR, matKand 16S rRNA genes of date palm chloroplast genome from seven commercially important date palm cultivars of Pakistan were sequenced. All these genomic fragments were found near identical among the selected cultivars. Twelve DNA fragments already reported to harbor single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in date palm nuclear genome were also sequenced. Eight novel SNPs were also found in the sequenced fragments in addition to those already reported. The analysis of sequencing data indicated that three fragments have the highest marker index (MI) of 4.61, 3.61 and 2.26 and bear eight, seven and five SNPs respectively. A SNP typing system was developed for varietal identification of date palm cultivars which is able to distinguish not only all the seven studied cultivars from Pakistan but also other cultivars from the world. The study suggests, that SNPs are important markers to study closely related cultivars and in some instances might prove superior even to sequencing of genes. An authentic sequence based identification key for date palm germplasm in Pakistan can be developed by extending this study to all the indigenous cultivars.
فرخندہ رضوی کی تخلیقات سنو خموشی کی داستان فرخندہ رضوی کا پہلا شعری مجموعہ ہے۔ جو جنوری 2002 میں شائع ہوا۔ یہ شعری مجموعہ آزاد اور نثری نظموں پر مشتمل ہے۔ جسے آئیڈیل پبلی کیشنز اردو بازار کراچی پاکستان نے شائع کیااور جس کی کمپوزنگ کا فریضہ فیضان صابری کمپوزنگ سنٹر نے سرانجام دیا۔اس وقت کے مطابق اس شعری مجموعے کی پاکستانی قیمت 225 روپے اور برون ملک 8 امریکی ڈالرز تھی۔ اس کا انتساب فرخندہ رضوی نے اپنی جان سے پیاری دوست ثمینہ کے نام کیا۔ یہ شعری مجموعہ ایک سو آزاد اور نثری نظموں پر مشتمل ہے۔ اس شعری کتابچہ میں انتساب کے اگلے صفحے پر اپنے خیالات کا اظہار فرخندہ رضوی نے اس کے بارے میں یوں کیا ہے۔ ’’مجھ میں ایسا کچھ نہیں کہ مجھ سے ملا جائے اتنا کافی ہے کہ تحریروں کو ملاقات کا ذریعہ بنائیں‘‘ بس جذبوں کی سچائی لفظوں میں سمیٹتی رہی ہوں۔یہ راہیں یہ سفر پرانا ہے۔اپنی کاوشوں کو تحریری صورت میں مختلف میگزین میں بکھراتی رہی ہوں۔محبت کو جنون کا نام دیا ہے میں نے۔شعری ذوق کسی کا ورثہ نہیں۔ جو چاہے دل کی دھڑکنوں سے نکلی ہر سانس کو لفظوں میں بیان کر سکتا ہے۔ مجھ جیسی کم تعلیم یافتہ ہستی کا آسان لفظوں میں یہ سمجھا دینا کہ لہریں جوش سے مچلتی ہیں تو ساحل اور قریب چلا آتا ہے۔ اپنی تمام تحریریں بہت محبت سے پیار سے پڑھنے والوں کے نام۔ (بہت پیار کرنے والے میرے جیون ساتھی کی اجازت سے)( فرخندہ رضوی) "سنو خموشی کی داستان" کے حوالے سے عرض ناشر میں سلیم احمد یوں رقم طراز ہیں : " فرخندہ رضوی جو آج کے دور کی شاعرہ ہیں، ان کا کلام" سنو خموشی کی داستان" آزاد شاعری میں ایک نیا منفرد کلام ہے جو قارئین کو ضرور ضرور پسند آئے گا"(23)
Indus Waters Treaty is the most comprehensive and complex document which divides Indus Rivers System between India and Pakistan. It has continued to function through three wars and various political tensions between both neighboring states. It was signed in 1960 when no international law was available to deal the non-navigational uses of the international watercourses. Since the Helsinki rules were adopted by the International Association of Law in 1966 and the United Nations Convention on International Water Courses was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 1997, both documents have little effect on the terms and conditions of the Indus Waters Treaty. This paper is an attempt to explore the relevance of the provisions of the Treaty to the contemporary international law on non-navigational uses of the international rivers
Despite many reforms, teacher education in Pakistan, especially its pre-service component suffer from multiple issues, which have collectively affected its ability to produce graduates for the 21st century Pakistan. Overall, there is little or no improvement in teacher education, teaching and students' learning. Education reforms in Pakistan have been predominantly foreign funded and full of paradoxes in terms of policies and processes, curriculum designing, and infrastructure and sustaining quality programmes. This particular qualitative case study with a phenomenological bent examined the newly introduced BEd.Honors (BEI-1), as one such reform initiative. Conceptually, the study is located within the discourse of teacher education reform as global (western) best practice, via policy borrowing and lending (PB& L). Methodologically, the study explored the programme's objectives, rationale, value, and challenges, and ways of improvement from the lived experiences and perspectives of 8 education faculty members (EFMs) (five male and three female) at a public university in northern Pakistan. The findings showed two paradoxical perspectives: at the talk level the BEd.Honors was seen as a welcome transformative shift in pre-service teacher education, emphasizing research, student —centeredness, theory —practice blend, relevance, flexibility, quality and responsive to the 21st century teachers' profiles and students' needs. At the actual implementation level, serious issues, such as lack of material and human resources, practicality, quality, cultural compatibility, sustainability, were highlighted. EFMs presented contesting views about borrowing of the BEH and its being international good practice. None was able to view the borrowed and contextualized BEH as a culturallyinvasive, intellectually- depriving and strategically-shaping the minds and bodies of Pakistani perspective teachers in a way that might be more towards more global market rather than needs of independent Pakistan. Their criticality was limited to the implementation issues. This study confirms the complexity of teacher education reform and of the borrowing of the global best practices as solutions. It raises questions for future studies around how solution to Pakistan' teacher education should come from within.