China Pakistan Economic Corridor: Challenges and Opportunities

Pak-China relations have been exemplary in the contemporary international politics. Both States have been maintaining strong ties in terms of diplomatic and military cooperation. However, the close economic cooperation has added a new dimension in the Pak-China all weather partnership. Over the years, China and Pakistan strategic cooperation has evolved at unprecedented level. In the year 2013, the Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the construction of One Belt One Road (OBOR) that aims to connect China with West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia and Middle East. It is a bitter fact that, since 9/11 Pakistan has suffered in socio-political and especially in economic dimension. The regional security environment and rise of extremism and terrorism has resulted into the hampering economic development. Therefore, the CPEC project will prove to be game changer and when completed it will have deep impact on economic development of Pakistan in future. The CPEC provides an opportunity for Pakistan to stabilize its society and reshape its positive image at international level from fragile State to emerging economy in the South Asian region. The rise of China in economic sphere has been jealously seen by other developed countries while for Pakistan it has been a blessing factor. Thus, Pak- China strategic partnership entered into the new phase of economic cooperation that will certainly change the dynamics of the regional politics. This paper aims to discuss the multiple dimensions of CPEC its importance for Pakistan and China along with its internal and external challenges. Moreover, economic and security perspectives will be focused in detail. To fully understand the role of CPEC as driving force of economic prosperity, this paper discusses its potential as a game changer for both China and Pakistan. ___________

Chemical and Biological Evaluation of Medicinal Plants for Their Anti Carcinogenic Attributes

Cancer is terrible disease. It is second leading cause of mortality worldwide. Conventional cancer therapies burdened the disease crippled patient with toxic side effects and are also very expensive. Therefore, the demand to use alternative approaches in treatment of cancer is increasing. Plant derived compounds due to their unique structure and sophisticated mechanism of action play promising role in anticancer therapies. The main objective of current study was to evaluate anticancer potential of medicinal flora of Pakistan. The plants used in current study are frequently utilized in folk medicines for treatment of many ailments in Pakistan. In present research work these traditional medicinal plants were scientifically examined for their antioxidant, antitumor, antimicrobial, anticancer and anti-inflammatory potential. Furthermore, chemical composition of the plant extracts was evaluated by state of art chromatographic techniques such as UV/Vis spectrophotometer, HPLC and GC-MS, revealed the presence of phenolics, flavonoids and broad range of other bioactive components in them. Antioxidant activity was estimated by free radical scavenging activity estimated by DPPH (1,1- diphenyl 2-picrylhydrazyl) assay. The outcome of antimicrobial activity assay showed that E. coli was the resistant strain to most of tested plant extracts. Overall, among the fungal strains, A. niger was the sensitive one. Furthermore, we examined antitumor activity by potato disc assay. Chloroform extract of V. betnocifolia (IC50= 38.13 μg/mL) exhibited maximum antitumor activity. We determined anticancer activity of different plant extracts against human cancer cell lines (KBM, mylegeous leukemia; U266, multiple myeloma; SCC4, tongue squamous carcinoma and HCT116, colon carcinoma cells) by MTT assay. The extracts with maximum anticancer activity against human mylegeous leukemia (KBM5) cells were examined for inhibition of inflammatory transcription factor, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB). Surprisingly all the plant extracts inhibited TNF-α induced NF-kB activation.