The Third Party Involvement in Resolving River Water Disputes between Pakistan and India

Water and related issues are gaining importance in the present world politics. It is believed that water would be the source of some major future conflicts in many regions including South Asia. Water distribution between Pakistan and India has become a serious political issue since independence. The problem has its roots in the partition of the Indian Subcontinent in 1947. Although the issue was resolved amicably by the two states in 1960 and a treaty was signed, even then number of other issues developed after the treaty. One of the important aspects of the settlement route was the Indian refusal and Pakistan’s insistence on the presence and participation of any third neutral party. Despite the Indian policy of bilateralism on many regional issues, water disputes and resolution remained a classical example of multilateralism, where at least on four major occasions the settlements were reached with the involvement of a third neutral party.

Preparedness of University Students for the Challenges of Globalization

This study focused on preparedness of university students for the challenges of globalization. ICT being driving force of globalization was taken as main theme of the present research. Information and Communication Technology is the most vital part of modern curriculum at all levels in the field of education. In this age of modern technology, deficiency of ICT skills among teachers and learners can deteriorate the whole education system of any country. The objectives of the study were: a) to examine the facilities and resources available at university campuses for developing ICT skills among prospective teachers; b) to investigate ICT competencies of prospective teachers at university level; and c) to investigate the communication and collaboration skills of prospective teachers studying at university level.The population of the study was all the prospective teachers studying in B.Ed. Hons, M.A Education, and M. Ed programs and teacher educators from all the public sector universities of KP, Punjab, and Federal area of Pakistan. From 12 universities of the target area, 480 prospective teachers and 24 teacher educators were taken as sample of the present study using random sampling. Mixed method research design was used. A questionnaire probing ICTs related resources, facilities and competencies of prospective teachers was used for the collection of data from prospective teachers and a semi-structured interview exploring ICT related problems and difficulties of teacher educators was also used. Frequency, percentages and Chi-square were used for analyzing the data. The findings of the study revealed that facilities like personal computers, interactive whiteboards, laptops, printers and multimedia were available to majority of the respondents at universities campuses. Majority of prospective teachers had access to internet, educational portal and they had facility of submitting and getting back their assignments.On the other hand majority of the respondents had lack of facilities like virtual libraries, virtual classroom, scanner and satellites cable and many others. The findings of the research indicated that majority of respondents were able to use computer, multimedia projector, laptop, interactive white board. While majority of prospective teachers were not able to use on-line library, virtual library, virtual classroom, satellites cable, virtual resource centre, scanner, bulletin board and printer. The findings indicated that majority of respondents were not able to use educational portals, teachers‟ and students‟ websites. Majority of prospective teachers perceived that they were able use MS word completely. Majority of the prospective teachers were able to open, close and save an Excel file. They were efficient to enter and edit worksheet, change column width and row heights, develop formulas and functions in Excel sheet. The majority of prospective teachers perceived that they could open, close and save files in power point. They were able to create a new presentation and use the default template many other functions. Majority perceived that they were able to use internet and search for information by using search engine such as Google etc and to refresh a web page. They were able to download files from the internet, to send and receive email with and without attachment and to organize websites. The findings revealed that majority of the prospective teachers were able to communicate and collaborate with culturally-distinct counterparts. They were able to be social and confident while interacting with people from different cultures. They showed respect and openness to the values of people from different cultures. The findings showed that Teacher educators faced various problems like energy crises, ethical issues, no connection between university education and world of work, global competition and students‟ low capabilities and many others. It is concluded that prospective teachers were efficient or average in those areas of ICTs for which facilities were available while they were deficient in the skills of ICTs applications that were missing at the institutions. Theprospectiveteachers werenotabletouseofscanner, bulletin board,onlinelab and virtualclassroom. For equipping students with ICT skills virtual resource centers may be established at university campuses. Teacher educators may be trained in ICT skills. Workshops and seminars may be arranged on regular basis.