Cotton is an important source of fiber used as main input in the textile industries throughout the world and it also has significant position in the world trade. Pakistan is 4th in terms of cotton production and 10th in terms of yield. From last few years in Pakistan, there is a serious decline in production of cotton due to untrained stakeholders. In the marketing chain of cotton in Pakistan, three stakeholders i.e. cotton growers, commission agents and ginners are the most important. The lower level of knowledge, skills, and attitude of the stakeholders results in less productivity and lower quality products. Ultimately, stakeholders get small returns due to which they lack competence and incentive to spend in technological upgradation of the cotton farming. This study addresses the skills gap of the stakeholders involved in marketing chain of cotton, constraints faced by the stakeholders and methods of bridging those gaps by providing better extension strategies. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select the study respondents. The total sample size of the study was four hundred respondents (300 cotton growers, 50 commission agents and 50 ginners). Separate interview schedules were prepared to collect the data from three types of respondents. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). It appeared that most of the cotton growers had skills gap in production practices, assessment of quality characteristics of cotton, control of factors involved in low production and quality, skills regarding value addition options, skills regarding management of marketing costs and skills gap regarding packing material. Commission agents had skills gap in assessment of quality characteristics of cotton, acquiring price information, labor and its costs management, transportation, storage, grading, packaging, control of losses, control of factors affecting price and quality of cotton. Ginners had skills gap in assessing quality characteristics of cotton, getting price information, managing operations involved in ginning process, management of problems, labor management, upgradation of machinery, business competitiveness, quality management, marketing strategies, knowledge of government policies, promotion of institutional linkages, transportation, storage, capacity of losses management, getting extension services, packing and acquisition of technical knowledge
01 1. Al-Fatihah/The Prologue I seek Allah’s protection
from the satanic, the accursed and evil forces within the human soul and social environment.
01:01 a. I/We begin by the Blessed Name of Allah. b. The Immensely Merciful to all, c. The Infinitely Compassionate to everyone. 01:02 All Praise and Gratitude is for Allah alone, while one can never adequately praise HIM and express gratitude. Rabb - The Lord Creator and the Lord Sustainer of all existence from infinity to eternity.
01:03 Allah - The Immensely Merciful to all, Allah - The Infinitely Compassionate to everyone.
01:04 a. Allah is the sole and the Supreme Authority on all judgments at the Time of Final Judgment. 01:05 It is YOU alone – O Allah! – we consciously submit to in worship, awe, and reverence, and it is to YOU alone – O Allah! – we call for help, mercy, and compassion.
01:06 a. Guide us to the righteous approach of understanding and practicing Islam in all its connotations, and set us firmly upon it.
01:07 The approach of those whom YOU favor and bless, and, not of those who incur YOUR Wrath, and not of those too who are misguided and lost and are disfavored by YOU. Amen - O Rabb, The Lord! Accept our plea!
Force Conversion is adaptation of a different religion or irreligion under duress. Some who have been forced to convert may continue, covertly with the beliefs and practices originally held, while outwardly behaving as converts. At many places the Orientalists put the statement that Islam basic purpose is to establish sovereignty throughout the globe and its primary purport deals with ‘authority’, ‘political’ and ‘economic’ matters for which it also used force for the implementation. Although it is an erroneous statement as Islam’s basic purport is religious, pure and simple; it deals with other social issues. While Islam stressed upon free will and there is no restriction in accepting other religions. As other religions are not in pure form now and Islam is being preserved by Allāh, so it teaches to submit oneself to the Will of Allāh. The early converts to Islam were the Prophet (peace be upon him) close friends Abu Bakr (may Allāh be pleased with her) and his family members in which his faithful wife Khadija (may Allāh be pleased with her), his cousin Ali were on the top, sand his slave Zayed. None of them argued and accepted Islam immediately. Among them Abu Bakr (peace be upon him) enjoyed prominent place among Arabs and with his influence five people accept Islam in which Sa’ad, Zobeir, Talha, Othman and Abd-al-Rahman who were member of prominent families. Abdul Rahman converted four people of his family. Likewise Bilal (may Allāh be pleased with her) was the first slave, ransomed by Abu Bakr (may Allāh be pleased with her). These early converts of Islam were men of piety and dignity.1
The Institute for Educational Development has been a catalyst in introducing new perspectives, particularly, in the in-service teacher education. It is conducting several professional development programs and the M. Ed., in teacher education, is one of them. The IED's M. Ed. graduates are called Professional Development Teachers (PDTs). As per agreement with their management, the PDTs work with the IED and spend 50% of their time on the professional development of teachers through the Visiting Teachers (VT) programs. For the remaining 50% of their time, they work in their schools on school improvement and effectiveness. This study focuses on understanding the PDTs' role and to identify the challenges of their performance in the schools/IED. In order to understand the challenges related to the PDTs' role, a qualitative study was conducted with a group PDTs and other stakeholders. In order to gather relevant information, the research instruments including interviews, observation, document analysis were used. Attempt was made to deal with the issues such as validity, reliability, objectivity, and generalizibility. The study suggests that the PDTs' role performance was affected by some factors such as role overload, role ambiguity, role duality, and system's preference for new models of teacher education. The study has suggested that the PDTs have significantly contributed to the professional development of teachers at the IED, which has an ultimate impact on school improvement. Finally, the study proposes some recommendations related to IED and schools, which may enhance the understanding about the role of PDTs.