This thesis aims to explore the perceptions and experiences of professional women at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro-Pakistan (UoSJP), regarding their respectability and social status in the workplace and in the community. Additionally, the thesis elaborates on professional women's perceptions and experiences regarding their autonomy and independence, which they have supposedly achieved through their university education and gainful employment. The major contribution of the thesis is that it addresses the lack of feminist research on professional women in the context of the ongoing debate over gender equality in Sindh, Pakistan. This thesis, by using feminist standpoint theory and intersectionality as theoretical and analytical tools, emphasises multiple identities, rather than focusing on a single dimension of social difference. Additionally, this thesis, by employing a Bourdieusian framework (economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital), explores and examines professional women's identities in relation to their particular spatial locations, as well as the ways that social capital and institutionalised cultural capital intersect with their social and familial backgrounds to produce complex hierarchies. The research asserts that women's higher-ranking position (socially accepted) also has a potential influence on their respectability, social status and autonomy in the workplace and in the community. Because it plays a significant role in establishing influential social networking, which further increases women's symbolic capital. Thus, the thesis explores and establishes links between the respectability, social status, autonomy and independence of these professional women, and the intersection of potential influencing factors (for example, patriarchy, class, caste, familial and educational backgrounds, locale and employment). The thesis, then, discusses how professional women negotiate their multiple identities within certain defined spheres while upholding or regulating the respectability, dignity and ‘family honour' that is linked to their modesty (sexuality). The thesis claims that ‘collectivity' is the social ethic or essence of Pakistani society, while ‘individuality' has been socially and culturally dishonoured and/or disapproved. Therefore, these professional women, understanding and attributing meanings to these concepts in local context, observed their ‘limited' or ‘defined autonomy', which is influenced by many potential intersecting factors rather than their gender and/or patriarchy.

How do citizens vote in rural Pakistan, and how much agency do they have in relation to local landlords, patrons and kinship networks in making electoral decisions? I explore this question in this dissertation through an empirical investigation of the voting behaviour of Pakistan's rural majority in its most populous and politically important province, Punjab, using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods and original data on the voting behaviour of about 2300 households in 38 villages. The results of this dissertation counter the notions that rural Punjabi voters are dependent and that national elections can be won on the basis of extended kinship networks. My data reveals that the dependence of rural voters that so captivates popular discourse about Pakistani politics describes only about 7 percent of voters, and that kinship networks function more as forums for local collective action than as extended political organisations. I found that a vast majority of rural Punjabi citizens vote as members of village-level vote blocs that are organised by the landed village elite. Nevertheless, most rural Punjabi voters do not participate in vote blocs because of socio-economic dependence. Instead, I found that they are benefitseeking political actors who organise within their kinship networks to strengthen their bargaining position and then give their collective votes to vote bloc leaders who act as broker-patrons and provide access to state officials and services. I also found that voting behaviour varies significantly across villages and across households within the same village. Most of the variation between villages is explained by differences in social structure and varying levels of historical and current land inequality, while the fact that households that lie within the same village behave differently from one another is explained mainly by their wealth and caste status.

This research was designed to study the transferability of American management skills to an underdeveloped country such as Pakistan. The contingency theory framework was used for the general design of the study.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the factors affecting the repatriation of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, by using data collected in these refugee camps, during the Fall of 1988.

This study examines transformational and transactional leadership behaviours of heads of schools/departments, and the individual level cultural dimensions idiocentrism-allocentrism, as perceived by academic staff in Australian and Pakistani universities. The principal research aim was to investigate the relationships between academics??? attributions concerning leadership behaviours of heads of schools/departments and cultural norms in a collectivistic and an individualistic culture. Samples of academic staff were randomly selected from Australian and Pakistani universities. The Australian sample consisted of 117 academics, and the Pakistani sample comprised 120 academics. Analysis was carried out using exploratory factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, and discriminant analysis. Within the context of the research, the results suggested that Australian and Pakistani university academics had similar attribution patterns for entities related to transformational, transactional, and passive leadership behaviours, and the cultural dimension allocentrism. The results also suggested that the academics of both samples did not differentiate between various transformational leadership behaviours, and perceived the transactional leadership behaviour contingent reward as part of the transformational leadership behaviour proactive leadership. Further, the academics of both samples perceived the transactional leadership behaviour passive management-by-exception and laissez-faire leadership as a single dimension, passive leadership. Analyses identified some critical relationships between perceived leadership behaviours of heads of schools/departments and idiocentrism-allocentrism variables for the two samples. The transformational leadership behaviour participative leadership was positively related to allocentrism and self-reliance for the Australian sample. The transactional leadership behaviour active management-by-exception was positively related to positive-competitiveness and negatively related to negative-competitiveness for the Pakistani sample. Passive leadership was negatively related to leadership outcomes for the Pakistani sample. Moreover, active management-by-exception and positive-competitiveness discriminated between the two samples. Leadership of schools/departments in universities has been found to be a multifaceted phenomenon. The research suggests that academics??? perceptions of leadership behaviours, cultural norms, and context have important implications for school/department leadership in universities.

<p>Microcredit provides small loans to poor people and small enterprises. It is the best solution of removing poverty. This research provides an overview of the role and performance of microcredit in Pakistan. The major objective of the study is to show the microfinance sector performance and impact of the microcredit on the different poverty levels. This study is based on both quantitative and qualitative methods in order to answer the thesis questions. The result of the study was that microcredit helps in the poverty alleviation of different categories of poor people and has the positive effects on their living standards. It was found that there is a high interest rate on micro loans because of the administrative cost. We discovered that there are three types of organizations that provide services of microfinance in Pakistan. The government takes interest and supports the microfinance sector and of their main initiative is microfinance ordinance 2001. It was observed that there is improvement in the microfinance sector in the recent years in terms of investments, active borrowers, branches and personnel.</p>

Ist Pakistan das gefährlichste Land der Welt? Jochen Hippler, ein exzellenter Kenner dieses Landes, analysiert die innenpolitische Dauerkrise. Der Staat wird immer fragiler und die Politik immer mehr durch Gewalt geprägt. Große Teile des Staatsapparates sind deformiert. Gelingt es nicht, diesen Zerfall zu stoppen, wird Pakistan mittelfristig für die Welt bedrohlicher als das krisengeschüttelte Afghanistan.

Microcredit provides small loans to poor people and small enterprises. It is the best solution of removing poverty. This research provides an overview of the role and performance of microcredit in Pakistan. The major objective of the study is to show the microfinance sector performance and impact of the microcredit on the different poverty levels. This study is based on both quantitative and qualitative methods in order to answer the thesis questions. The result of the study was that microcredit helps in the poverty alleviation of different categories of poor people and has the positive effects on their living standards. It was found that there is a high interest rate on micro loans because of the administrative cost. We discovered that there are three types of organizations that provide services of microfinance in Pakistan. The government takes interest and supports the microfinance sector and of their main initiative is microfinance ordinance 2001. It was observed that there is improvement in the microfinance sector in the recent years in terms of investments, active borrowers, branches and personnel.

E-commerce has flourished in the developed world and is playing an important role in the everyday lives of the people and national economies. The developing nations are far behind in this regard even though their governments have made considerable efforts to encourage e-commerce. This thesis is a study of the environmental factors that act as barriers to the development of e-commerce in Pakistan. It shows the nature and the level of hindrance these environmental factors have caused and there relation to one another. In order to make a national analysis, environmental factors have been stretched to include the government, businesses, consumers, physical infrastructures, social and cultural factors. A qualitative study was conducted via telephonic and written interviews from academic and professional experts, users and non users of e-commerce in Pakistan. The analysis of these interviews revealed that not all of the factors considered as e-commerce barriers for developing nations were present in Pakistan. The relation between different e-commerce barriers was studied and further, additional barriers were also identified. Low literacy rate, traditional economic sector, failure of government to successfully implement e-commerce initiatives and regulations, shortage of electrical supply and low demand for online businesses and the consumer purchasing behaviour of Pakistanis were identified as the main e-commerce barriers.

Das Pro und Contra hinsichtlich bewaffneter Drohnen für die Bundeswehr schwelte hierzulande bereits seit Längerem, als Bundesverteidigungsminister de Maizière 2012 mit einem befürwortenden Plädoyer aus der Deckung trat und solche Kampfmaschinen als „ethisch neutral“ einstufte. Inzwischen könnte – ohne Einbeziehung des Parlaments – eine Entscheidung der Bundesregierung gefallen sein. In der Antwort auf eine parlamentarische Anfrage der Linkspartei hieß es, „dass eine durchhaltefähige bewaffnete Aufklärung […] als Schutz bei plötzlich auftretenden gravierenden Lageänderungen unbedingt erforderlich ist“.