The paper explores the progress of regional cooperation in various functional areas as identified by South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) since its inception in 1985. It also examines whether and to what extent SAARC has been successful in accomplishing the goals enshrined in its charter. SAARC was formed: to promote peace, amity, stability and progress in the region; to promote the welfare and quality of life of people; to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development, and; to attain collective and national self-reliance through joint efforts. SAARC made significant progress in several areas, such as: agriculture and rural development; environment; science and technology; human resource development including education, arts, culture and sports; transport; telecommunications, and information and communication technology; tourism, and energy. It has concluded several agreements and conventions besides setting up a few regional centres to realize its objectives. Generally, SAARC has not successful in implementing its programs and projects due to various reasons. It has been short of achieving several of its goals which makes its performance dismal.

Modern democratic age is based on the philosophy of |ONE-MAN ONEVOTE". Women constitute more than 50% of the world population. Pakistan's Constitution of 1973 has guaranteed women's political rights, equally with men. The general elections of 2002 and 2008 witnessed greater women political participations compared to the elections of 20th Century. The 9/11 incident and un-natural death of Benazir Bhutto left society plagued with extremism, fundamentalism and terrorism. In many instances, the war on terror crossed 'Durand-Line' and affected Pakistan, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, where every second family faced causality. Vested interests and international media focused on the region and sketched it from darkness to table of discussion. The reports of FAFEN, IDEA, PILDAT, European Union Observation Mission and Election Commission of Pakistan also acknowledged the truth that political participation of women has accelerated in Pakistan tremendously by means of casting votes, launching elections campaigns and contesting elections on general seats.

Pakistan is signatory of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where promoting good health is at the heart of achieving various goals. Social marketing has earned its credit worthiness quite convincingly in influencing behavior change. It is, however, pertinent to see nature of the challenges that social marketing program tend to address are quite complex and each social problem need to size up with broader social context rather merely using conventional approaches. Number of scholars has questioned approaches that have been barely successful in bringing perceptible improvement. This gap quite pervasive as most of the techniques employed used one way communication, persuasive techniques of communication. The paradigm of participation in social marketing has shown better results in bringing about sustained behavior change. This study uses broad categorization of fear appeals elements using the explanatory power of participatory paradigm to induce behavior change. Study participants were randomly selected from a Public Sector University. The participants were randomly assigned to study intervention. Study participants were given treatment based on fear appeals in groups, based on activity theory. The qualitative data drawn was analyzed using NVIVO. The different themes were explored were grouped into four categories using activity theory like activities produced by artifacts, activities produced by subjects, activities produced by rules and transformational activities. The participatory paradigm using systematic interaction proved key factors to reinforce fear appeals that enhanced the value for social marketing program to achieve sustainable behavior change.

The study focuses on the participation of community through PTC in the arrangement of different curricular and co-curricular activities in schools for betterment of students and enhancement of their qualities. A valid and reliable questionnaire was served to the two categories of stakeholders i.e. PTC members (Chairman and secretary) and Non-PTC members (Parents and Teachers). A sample of one hundred schools randomly selected from two districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Mean, Standard Deviation, Coefficient of variation, t-distribution and p-value were applied as statistical tools. Responses of both groups show moderate response and show that participation of community is found for the first variable i.e. arranging curricular activities but there is opposite opinion found in the point of view of both group regarding the arrangement of co-curricular activities in schools; response of PTC members group is positive but non PTC members group did not support it.

Performance Appraisal of the team is a core element of administration to achieve the required objectives of an organization. The study was intended to measure the effectiveness of the existing performance appraisal system towards professional excellence of secondary school teachers as perceived by their principals. Two hundred secondary school principals were found available as a sample to mark the questionnaire. The researcher himself developed a questionnaire for the principals to seek their opinions on the present performance appraisal system. The data collected were analyzed with descriptive statistics. It was found that the effectiveness of the system is of moderate level in Punjab. The performance appraisal system contributed fifty-nine per cent to the professional excellence of the teachers. Some strong recommendations were also written on the basis of findings to see the performance appraisal system more effective

Modern innovation in communication has changed patterns of socializing. Advance forms of communication are paving ways for people to convey their ideologies to others. This study attempts to analyze the role of social media in strengthening democracy in Pakistan and highlights the importance of media in democratic states by an extensive review of the literature. The core concern of the study was to observe how mass media contributes to the socialization of democracy. Quantitative research methodology opted, and research findings concluded that social media advocates the public on general political issues that increase the political efficacy and resulting in more political participation in Pakistan. Web 2.0 platforms such as Twitter and Facebook provide new opportunities to create a political environment in Pakistan. In the presence of these platforms, a bridge is developed between the citizens for strengthening a strong democratic setup.

Deliberate Self Harm (DSH) is a pervasive issue in Pakistan. The limited research on this phenomenon conducted in Pakistan is restricted by the non-availability of an empirical assessment measure of self-harm in the Urdu language, hence relies mostly on the interviews of cases reported to the emergency departments and those translated does not necessarily carry the same connotation. An indigenous deliberate self-harm scale was developed to cater to this issue. Factors of DSH were identified using Nock’s integrated theoretical model and literature review. Sixty-five items were generated. Content Validity Index (CVI) was calculated. The scale was administered on a sample of 200 self-harm cases.EFA revealed a three-factor structure (i.e intrapersonal, interpersonal and situational) supported by Parallel Analysis. RASCH analysis supported the item fit. This scale can be a helpful tool for the researchers and clinicians to explore DSH in the native population.

This research was aims to examine the point of view of university students about parental participation in their curricular and co-curricular activities. It explores the comparisons in parental participation level regarding students gender, socio-economic status in public and private universities. This exploration followed the quantitative research method. The sample for this research consisted of the graduation students (boys and girls) of public and private sector universities which were located in Lahore district. A random sampling procedure was used to collect data from boys and girls studying in different universities. The sample size of this survey was 300 students. The researcher has constructed a questionnaire for finding out the opinions of students about their parental participation in their academics. After the collection of data, the data were analyzed. Findings of the research revealed that parental involvement was different due to gender, education and social status of university students.

The current study assessed the leadership roles of secondary school heads in Kohat division (SSHKD). The study used a quantitative research design for examining whether principals and teachers interpreted leadership roles differently and whether gender and age have any effect on leadership role of principals or not. A random sample of 60 secondary school principals and 120 Senior School Teachers (S.S.T) from 03 districts of Kohat Division participated in the study. It was found that both teachers and heads perceived that school heads perform their leadership roles effectively and efficiently. However, performing leadership roles by male and female heads viewed differently. Female principals viewed that they perform leadership roles efficiently as compare to their male counterparts. No significant differences were found in the perceptions of principals when compared regarding age. The study recommends preservice training programs for principals after their selection.

Literature has served as one of the most convincing tools for developing emancipatory thinking among Americans, particularly the colored people in the antebellum period. The current research paper is an attempt to study and explore how emancipatory thinking was developed through literature which is, generally considered to be more fictional than factual. Through the close reading of the selected narratives written during the period, the researcher has attempted to unearth various aspects and relate them with the factual accounts of the time in order to investigate their closer relationship with each other. This required a theoretical framework that would enable us to juxtapose the literary and non-literary texts to have an actual picture of the situation; therefore, the non-literary journalistic writings during that period have been studied parallel to the literary narratives. The findings and discussion developed in this study also suggest that further studies may also be conducted in order to dispel the misconception ascribed to narratives of the antebellum period that narratives are imaginary scattered accounts of the authors which are much exaggerated than to have elements of realism.