Russia under Vladimir Putin’s leadership has assumed a personalised character which has drastically transformed its domestic and defence policy as well as its global grand strategy. The main contour of the grand strategy is a strategic rebalancing in the places of its influence including its near abroad and its area of interest including Asia, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Putin’s leadership and psychological orientation have a fundamental role in the materialisation of this transformation and the study of this factor serves as a lens to explain Russia’s resurgence and also provides a guide to Russia’s future foreign policy. One of the significant aspects of the strategic rebalancing is Russia’s increasing influence in South Asia and the projects of building transport and trade corridor. While China remains another significant powerful player with similar geostrategic and geoeconomic plans; states such as Pakistan foresee great challenges as well as opportunities which emerge as a result of the increasing influence of Russia and China in the region and the lingering dissonance in Pakistan’s relations with the United States of America.

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 study examines the impact of remittances on quality of life. In order to accomplish the objectives, the study uses primary data which are collected from 403 households of District Dir Lower, Pakistan. Results summarized that incoming foreign remittances have a positive effect on education. Foreign remittances improve the household income level, this income is further utilized for different educational expenses. Therefore, remittance recipient families spend more than that of non-receiving families on education. In addition, remittances also increase the probability of children’s enrollment in schools. On the other hand, remittances are positively associated with family health status. The results revealed that 83% of the remittance recipient families have the ability to access basic healthcare needs, whereas 64% of non-receiving households have no access to basic health facilities. Additionally, remittances receiving families mostly prefer a private doctor and private hospitals, whereas non-receiving household usually uses government hospital facilities.

The paper aims to extend the resource-based view to dynamic capability view under dynamic environment, by investigating the effects of three strategic orientations (i.e., customer, competitor, and technology) on firm performance mediated through dynamic capabilities. A sample of 180 pharmaceutical firms of Pakistan was drawn using simple random sampling. Data was collected through a self-administrated questionnaire and analyzed using the variance-based structural equation modeling. The findings demonstrated that customer, competitor, and technology orientations have both a direct and indirect relationship with firm performance. The study offers Pakistani pharmaceutical firms a better comprehension of their strategic orientations and demonstrates how the alignment of strategic orientations with dynamic capabilities may result in better firm performance.

The key aim of current research is to investigate the influence of CG on financial performance (FP) and capital structure (CS) of cement companies listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). To accomplish this purpose, twenty cement firms listed on the PSX was deployed from 2005 to 2014. Auto-correlation and heteroscedasticity were tested and Regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. SPSS 21 is conducted to perform the analyses.CG is analyzed via board size, board independence, and institutional ownership while, return on assets and return on equity are employed to analyze FP, whereas CS is calculated via debt to equity. The outcomes document that CG positively affects FP, however, negatively impact CS. This research not only contributes to examining the impact and association between CG, FP, and CS but also prove the outcomes of previous studies that have presented a significant influence and association between CG, FP, and CS.

Political polarization remains central to the political behavior scholarship. In this study, political polarization patterns among the youth of Pakistan with reference to selective exposure approaches of media were examined. Survey from 420 students of Pakistan public sector universities was conducted. It was found that selective exposure to media is still strong in Pakistan, however diverse exposure is also being witnessed in Pakistan. Now the people are also diverting towards diverse exposure. Consequently, political polarization among the university students of Pakistan is still strong. Findings imply that media in Pakistan is playing an important role in strengthening the democracy in Pakistan. Furthermore, it is also concluded that media played a key role to determine voters’ choice during Elections-2013 in Pakistan.

his research explores the dynamics of women entrepreneurs in the context of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Underpinning on contemporary literature on drivers and barriers of women entrepreneurs, this research argues that literature and empirical evidences on negotiations is scarce and underdeveloped. Therefore, capitalizing on an interpretive qualitative assumption, this research collected date through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through thematic analysis. Conceptually, this research provides a fresh and novel perspective by providing interesting inside from empirical evidences. This research concludes that women entrepreneurs in Peshawar, Pakistan cultural and social constraints. However, personal motivation and family support helped them to negotiate with these constraints.

Image Why does China adopt a harmoniously and Co-existence policy? Is this a strategy for international development? This paper is an attempt to explore Chinese co-existence and harmonious policy towards CPEC. China’s co-existence and harmonious policy and CPEC are interconnected to each other. Co-Existence and harmonious policy are two major indicators of Chinese developmental Philosophy.This policy has been inspired by Chinese socialist roots since its revolution in 1949. The noninterference, peaceful co-existence, and harmonious principles are major policies tools that have shape up the Chinese new global development order. Chinese capital accumulation and advancement is based on its policy of ''noninterference.'' These are significant feature of China’s capital accumulation and development model that manufactured new global economic order. The Chinese official stance over global investment policy is harmonious and co-existence, which is embedded in the theory of realism. This seems like one of the successful policies for international cooperation and development. Co-Existence and Harmonious realism are the major determining factor to protect Chinese development interests and its global outreach

This paper focuses on the history of Islamic studies and the growth of Muslim edification scheme subsequent to the arrival of Islam in South Asia (712 A.D) and also explores the key role played by the Emperors in its establishment since 1206 A.D. Thereafter, it will highlight the efforts of Muslim rulers in introducing religious-cum-modern education system through Madrassah (religious seminaries) in Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent including the period of British-India from 1757 to 1947 A.D. which adversely affected the Muslim education system by introducing foreign educational reforms to target the curriculum of the Islamic education system. The paper will shed light on the development of Madrassahin Pakistan and the 9/11 incident that has drastically affected the image of the religious seminaries in imparting Islamic education to the people in the global community.

The nuclear issue is considered to be one of the most important concerns in the Pak-US affairs since the 1970s. The issue further transpired after May 1998 when India conducted its second nuclear test, followed by Pakistan. Moreover, the US shared its critical concern over Pakistan’s nuclear programme since 1990. Afterwards, the US imposed sanctions on Pakistan to penalize the country and restrict the State of Pakistan from developing nuclear weapons. The Indian nuclear tests in May 1998 furthered the overall frustration in the U.S. administration which paved the way for taking some strong economic restrictions against India and Pakistan. It also became a concentrated challenge for the US to avoid any expected nuclear clash between Pakistan and India in the post-nuclear tests scenario. In this article, the US policy of nuclear non-proliferation toward Pakistan in the 1990s has been extensively examined in chronological order to set a proper score of literature for the researchers and academicians. Also, the study is conducted based on the secondary source of data, published interviews and a comparative analysis of US assistance to Pakistan in the 80s and 90s, to bring up the faded facts.