Search

The Pakistan government extended an un-announced support to local elders in the Pakhtun-tribal belt to raise Lashkars/militias in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the first lashkar was formed in Salarzai area of Bajaur agency in 2008. Pakistan has mainly adopted two approaches 'the kinetic approach' and 'bottom-up approach' to counter militancy in the tribal areas. The kinetic approach involves belligerent and offensive measures to annihilate or capture members of the militant networks. While in the community-led 'bottom-up' approach government works with local clans or community and this is how the Pakistani security forces motivated the local tribal elders to raise a Lashkar/militias of volunteers to combat militants in the FATA. The theoretical framework for this paper is the community-led 'bottom-up' approach as the government security forces engaged the local tribesmen to fight against militants in the FATA. Apparently, the government exploited the concept of the traditional Lashkars/militias and persuaded, encouraged or compelled local tribal chieftain/maliks to raise Lashkars/anti-Taliban militias to guard government installations and patrol along with the security forces during search and strike operations. This paper critically evaluates the legality of arming civilians to fight against insurgents in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. The research is qualitative in nature and the researcher has extensively used the research tools of interviews, focused group discussion (FGDs), personal interactions and observation, as well as both published and unpublished documents and existing literature on the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Pakistani Pakhtun-tribal belt or the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is part of Pakistan yet it is governed differently from the rest of the country through the colonial era regulation known as Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) 1901. Local government system, which is considered as nursery for a participatory system of governance has never been introduced until lately in the FATA. Therefore, the tribal people have remained deprived of their rudimentary right of self-governance. However, the process of introducing local government began in FATA when the former President General (Retired) Pervez Musharraf pledged in January 2002 to have elected municipal councils in the FATA. Thus in 2002 the first draft for the current Local Government Regulation was prepared. Then in 2004, Local Bodies (LBs) polls with limited participation of tribal people were held in the FATA. More recently in 2012, another Local Government Regulation was drafted but the tribesmen are still waiting for the promulgation of an Ordinance, Act or Regulation for materialising the system in FATA. This paper attempts to analyse administrative structure of FATA and the importance of local government system as a basic step to introducing participatory governance and thereby bringing the FATA to the mainstream politics. The broader approach of the paper remains democracy where people share the right of rulership in a nation state and the theory of human development presented by Dr. Mebabul Haq and later evolved by Amrtya Sen advocating for good governance states that participation in local governance is the main indicator to measure the human development of a society. The research is purely qualitative in nature and the scholar has extensively used the research tools of interviews, focused group discussion (FGDs), personal interactions and observations, the unpublished documents and existing literature on local government. The key informants, politicians belonging to FATA, academicians, tribal students, tribal elders, legal experts and bureaucrats have been interviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lately, the Taliban aimed to spread terror, insecurity and created space for extremism in the absence of the local leadership in the tribal belt of Pakistan. The existing/traditionalleadership--Khan and Malik are not only considered the symbol of power, but they also maintain socio-political order in the tribal belt because they coordinate between government and the common people of the tribal society. The Taliban succeeded in minimizing the role of existing structure and created space for themselves in the absence of Khans and Maliks (traditional leaders of the tribal society). This paper critically investigates the phenomenon of targeted killings in Bajaur agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) during the War on Terror. It is concluded that the targeted killings of tribal chieftains havean impact on the social order of Bajaur agency. The research is based on interviews, un-published government document and a case study of the few tribal elders to understand the impact of tribal elders targeted killing on the existing social order in light of anthropological perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study photo-oxidative stability of pasteurized milk packaged in polyethylene pouches was investigated. Milk packaged in three layer polyethylene pouch packs was exposed to 400, 600 and 800 l× florescent light at 4 °C for 6 days, compared with a control (stored in dark). Light had a pronounced effect on fat content of milk with no effect on protein, lactose and ash content. Photo-oxidative stability of milk decreased as the intensity of light increased, peroxide value, anisidine value and conjugated dienes increased during the storage period of 6 days, higher values were observed in samples exposed to 800 l× florescent light. After 6 days of storage period, milk exposed to 400 l× florescent light did not reveal any oxidized flavour. The results of this study depicted that polyethylene pouches have the capability to resist photo-oxidation up to 400 l× light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study focuses on fabrication of magnetic activated carbon (M-AC) using tire waste and its potential investigation for adsorption of Cr (VI) from wastewater. The composite material (M-AC) was synthesized by pyrolysis followed by in situ magnetization method, and characterized by FTIR, FESEM, EDX, and XRD analysis. The maximum adsorption of Cr (VI) ion over composite adsorbent was found (~99.5%) to occur at pH 2, sample volume 10 mL, adsorbent dose 100 mg, contact time 30 min. The adsorption process was endothermic, feasible, spontaneous, and was found to follow pseudo second order of the reaction. The Cr ion could be completely desorbed (~99.3%) from the composite adsorbent by using 20 mL of 2 M NaOH solution. The composite adsorbent was regenerated by continuous adsorption and desorption for 5 consecutive cycles by using 10 mL 0.1 M HCl solution. M-AC also performed well in case of tannery wastewater by removing about 97% of Cr (VI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the effect of leadership styles on knowledge management. The population of the study consists of faculty and administrative staff of public sector universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. To test the study hypotheses, correlation and regression analysis were conducted. The study found that transformational leadership style has positive and significant relation with knowledge management effectiveness. The study found that transactional leadership style has negative but significant relationship with knowledge management effectiveness. The study concluded that educational institutions should adopt transformational leadership style in order to improve knowledge management effectiveness. Educational leaders should not adopt transactional leadership style as that type of leadership negatively affects knowledge management. The study recommended that leaders of the educational institutions should get involved their subordinates in decision making process in order to further enhance their performance. Managerial implications, recommendations and directions for future research are also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) has become a widely accepted bariatric procedure for treating morbid obesity and associated comorbidities due to its relatively straightforward technique and positive outcomes in terms of weight loss and metabolic improvement. Objective To investigate the frequency and types of early complications following LSG using four ports. Methods This prospective observational study was conducted at Al Hadi International Hospital, Swabi, Pakistan, from January 2022 to December 2022. A total of 369 patients aged 25-65 years with a BMI of 35-55 kg/m 2 were included. Data on demographic characteristics, surgery duration, intraoperative blood loss, and hospital stay were collected. Early complications within 30 days post-surgery, including bleeding, infection, and leakage, were documented. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26 (Released 2019; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). Results The mean age of patients was 43.6 years (SD = 11.8) and the mean BMI was 42.3 kg/m 2 (SD = 6.5). The average surgery duration was 92 minutes (SD = 22) and the mean intraoperative blood loss was 100 mL (SD = 50). Early complications occurred in 18% of patients with bleeding, infection, and leakage each accounting for 5%, 4%, and 3%, respectively. Reoperation was required in 5% of patients due to these complications. Higher BMI (45.2 vs. 41.8 kg/m 2 , p = 0.04) and longer surgery duration (105 vs. 88 minutes, p = 0.03) were significantly associated with increased complication rates. Comorbidities were present in 60% of patients with complications compared to 34% without complications (p = 0.03). Conclusion The four-port technique in LSG is associated with an 18% early complication rate with significant risk factors being higher BMI and longer surgery duration. Careful patient selection, standardized surgical techniques, and robust postoperative care are essential to minimize complications and improve outcomes in LSG., Competing Interests: Human subjects: Consent was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Ethical Review Board of Bacha Khan Medical Complex issued approval BKMC/ERB/2021/124. Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (Copyright © 2024, Ullah et al.)