The present study aimed to develop and validate an instrument by employing quantitative measures for the assessment of prospective teachers’ professional ‘Dispositions of Instructional Planning and Strategies’ (DIPS) in line with National Professional Standard for Teachers in Pakistan (NPST) developed by Ministry of Education (MoE) as policy guideline in the context of Pakistan. The instrument was employed to 424 prospective teachers in the Institute of Education and Research University of Punjab using stratified sampling with the representation of prospective teachers form all programs, semesters, and gender. Five dimensions of DIPS Scale namely, Critical Thinking and Multiple-ways of Problem Solving, Team Work and Cooperative Learning, Collaboration and Cooperation, Enabling Students for Independent Learning, Attainment of Curriculum Goals were identified. The Cronbach Alpha reliability of the instrument was found 0.8. The finding provides preliminary evidence of a valid and reliable tool for the pre-service teachers in Pakistan.

We are investigating the relation of project planning with project success and introduce project risk as a moderator. We examines how different dimensions (organizational, people, technical and technology, project management, economic and stakeholder) of project risk determine this relationship. A survey is carried out from information technology professionals from 20 registered firms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (KPITB). We find that overall project risk has significant moderation impact on the relation of project planning with project success. Information technology (IT) professionals of KPITB plan risk related project management. Technical, technological and economic aspects are detailed and insights on how other risk factors affect project success in IT sector include in the study. Our research highlights the significance of planning in the presence of risk.

This paper aims to analyze the institutional framework in Pakistan for disaster management and specific disaster management policies. This paper is also designed to develop an in-depth understanding of the key challenges that the communities of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan face in the wake of constantly reoccurring disasters. House-hold survey, observations and key informant interviews were conducted to analyze the preparedness, both at community and organizational levels. The findings point out that disaster management policies and mechanisms regarding preparedness are not implemented by both federal and state authorities at local level. Further, the local communities of AJK, Pakistan are susceptible to different kind of hazards related to disasters. The paper reveals that available federal/state mechanism of disasters do not meet the needs of community. All of the stakeholders including federal government institutions, state government institutions and local communities are not prepared. Thus, communities are continuously getting affected by natural disasters. The paper suggests that there is a dire need to improve the coordination between state and national agencies. Further, there is need to enhance community preparedness specifically in AJK, Pakistan to upgrade community's defensive and awareness mechanism to safeguard citizens' lives in response to seismic emergency.

This paper analyses the management of foreign languages in the language planning of Afghanistan after the fall of Taliban. The analyses assess the suitability of foreign languages performing developmental and peace-making roles in domains where distribution of power is contested by the Afghan ethnolinguistic groups. Primary data of the paper comes from a questionnaire based survey and followup interviews. Analysis reveals the presence of various modern languages such as French, German, Russian and English in Afghanistan. The acceptance of foreign languages especially English is overwhelming in Afghanistan. Among foreign languages, English happens to be the most vigorous and promising language. However, a significant portion of Afghans oppose the growing influence and power for the foreign languages in Afghanistan. The paper notes, an uneven spread of English as the dominant foreign language in Afghanistan. Therefore, foreign languages' role in development and peacemaking may not be achieved due to lack of equal access. The paper recommends a wide-range of interventions to help in making foreign languages a resource for development and peacemaking. The intervention includes social, economic and political equality and equal opportunities in learning of foreign languages. It is also emphasised that the promotion of local languages is not to be affected by the availability of foreign languages.

This paper evaluates the Language Policy and Planning's (LPP) Methodological Rich Points (MRP) in the geographic, ethnic and linguistic composition of Afghanistan. The theoretical construct is taken from the work of Nancy H. Hornberger on MRP in LPP. The paper explores a range of primary and secondary sources, and finds that the presence of inequality, marginalization and oppression in intra-ethnic and intralanguage group relations, sharing of resources and power account for neglect of the MRP in Afghan LPP. The geographic details in conjunction with explanation of historical process of migrations and conquests explains that most of the minority language speakers are concentrated in the difficult to reach areas of Afghanistan for their safety. Further, the limiting factors of Afghan geography explains the preservation of minority languages from the effects of majority languages. The study concludes with the proposal that it would be helpful to avoid the pitfalls of the current LPP in future by giving due attention to MRP.

The current study is conducted to evaluate the e-government portal E-Khidmat Markaz launched by the government of Punjab. This study addresses two contemporary issues related to e-government: the successful implementation and the factors behind the success. For this purpose, a theoretical framework for assessing critical success factors behind e-government and online interaction in Pakistan is developed. The responses of25 officials from public sector firms were interviewed to determine the relationships between technological, organizational, and external factors and the successful implementation of e-government. The nature of the study is qualitative, and the research methodology is applied using Nvivo software.This study will contribute to the research work done in the IT sector and the managerial implications of adopting e-government-based service delivery.The Pakistani government can realize its advancement through proper planning, policy making, process designing, and improving it. Government-based services can be delivered more effectively and efficiently. A citizen will be more satisfied with a government organization's performance if the factors identified in the study given consideration will implement in an e-government project in Pakistan.

The Safe City Project is a complex phenomenon based on the Internet of Things (IoT), interconnected devices using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The purpose of this study is to explore the challenges faced in the development of Safe City Projects. For this purpose, an exploratory case study was conducted in two main cities i.e. Lahore and Islamabad, Pakistan. Some challenges faced by the management while deploying such projects have been discussed. The population is the top management, Middle management, and lower management. Twenty interviews have been taken from Islamabad and Lahore Safe City Projects. Data were analyzed by Creswell's (2009) technique which outlined the six steps to analyzing case study data in order to develop different patterns, themes and descriptions. The finding of this research reflects that Lahore Safe City Project seems to be more successful whereas the results of the Islamabad Safe City Project reflect partial success. Based on the research findings, this research also documents challenges and their remedial strategies to overcome those issues for better implementation of a Safe City Project in future.

The study aimed to compare teacher effectiveness in English and Mathematics by using students' ratings on quality factors such as learning environment, instructional planning and strategies, subject matter knowledge, assessment, and effective communication. Through using a multistage sampling technique, the data was obtained from the students of 10th grade (N=2009), who evaluated their teachers' performance on STEQ developed by Akram (2018). The five factors of STEQ exhibited a high level of reliability (α=.88) with factor-wise reliability ranging from 0.74 to 0.86. T-test for independent samples was used to compare boys' and girls', and urban and rural students' perceptions of teacher effectiveness in English and Mathematics. Female teachers were perceived as more effective than male teachers by their students in Mathematics and English, while urban teachers were perceived as more effective as compared to rural teachers by their students in Mathematics and English. Student achievement in English and Mathematics also statistically significantly differed based on the gender of students and school location. The study also gave recommendations.

Climate change is a profound phenomenon that influences our environment in ways that not only create new problems but also intensify the existing ones. Drawing from comprehensive research, this article explores how climate change fosters change in policies and practices to counter such risks. A mixed method approach was implemented for this study, the first phase includes a quantitative analysis of existing policies, and the second phase includes a qualitative analysis. For this research paper, only qualitative findings of research are presented and discussed. Thematic areas include the impact of climate change on natural disasters, socio-economic implications, resilient urban planning and infrastructure development, mainstreaming climate science into DRR and emergency preparedness, international collaboration and policy formulation, and community-based approaches and indigenous knowledge integration. Study shows complicated interdependencies and cause-and-effect interactions between climate parameters and natural disasters.

In the dynamic urban landscape of Johar Block-15, Karachi, this research investigates residents' perceptions of walkability, a crucial aspect of urban life. Survey data reveals significant concerns about safety, overall walkability, cleanliness, infrastructure adequacy, and connectivity to amenities. Most respondents express dissatisfaction and emphasize prioritizing and investing in enhancing walkability. Accessibility problems resulting from choking and poor roads also affect the area’s pedestrian host factor in terms of traffic and maintenance. However, 68.18% of the respondents use walking for small distances, showing the relevance of walking in developed countries' mobility systems. These recommendations will be helpful to urban planners and policymakers in putting a focus on improving the quality of life of the people living in Johar Block-15 and every other block.