Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The current research was conducted in Dara Adam Khel, Pakistan to explore the structure and procedure of the informal social justice system- commonly known as Jirga. The war on terror made it imperious for tribal Pakhtuns to bring back their chaotic lives on the right track to achieve economic prosperity and peace in the region. Pakhtuns residing in Pakistan have been suffering from this tempestuous situation since decades. Terrorism has brought the social structure to standstill. Due to the war on terror, the Jirga system has experienced a serious setback. The Jirga system has served the Pakhtun society as a complete code of conduct in maintaining peace and harmony. The data was collected through Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews and In-Depth Interviews. Majority of the respondents were aged between 45 to 70 years and they were selected through purposive sampling technique.

Background The utilization of plants and plant resources for various ethnobotanical purposes is a common practice in local towns and villages of developing countries, especially in regard to human and veterinary healthcare. For this reason, it is important to unveil and document ethnomedicinal plants and their traditional/folk usage for human and livestock healthcare from unexplored areas. Here we advance our findings on ethnomedicinal plants from Haripur District, Pakistan, not only for conservation purposes, but also for further pharmacological screenings and applied research. Methodology Information of ethnomedicinal plants was obtained using a carefully planned questionnaire and interviews from 80 local people and traditional healers (Hakims) in Haripur District, Pakistan, from 2015 to 2017. Informed consent was obtained from each participant before conducting the interview process. Quantitative ethnobotanical indices, such as relative frequency of citation (RFC), use value (UV)...

The question of legality of the Durand Line is not much of an interest for the international political and academic community. Most of the Global Powers readily buy Pakistan’s legal argument and agree that the Durand Line is a sacrosanct international boundary separating Afghanistan and Pakistan and that it has existed as it is for more than a century now.They also assert that Afghanistan had no legal rights to repudiate any agreement pertaining to their border unilaterally. However, there is a new line of scholarly investigation on the legality of the Durand Line as an international border and it questions the nature of the agreement and treaties pertaining to the Line. This paper intends to pursue the investigation further and challenge the legality of the Durand Line. For the purpose, all the original treaties and agreements signed between the Amirs of Afghanistan and the Government of India, and since 1919 between the two Governments have been studied in the paper.

At the time of its independence in 1947, 33% of Pakistan was under the forest cover i. By the end of 2015 this cover had fallen to 1.9%, primarily due to deforestation ii. With an annual deforestation rate of 2.1% Pakistan ranks the highest in Asia iii. A country of roughly 200 million, Pakistan is 8th on the list of countries most effected by climate change in the past two decades iv. And despite being a low emitter of GHGs (less than 1% global contributions) v the melting of Siachen and Boltoro glaciers in the Himalayas (the largest glaciers in the world outside of Arctic and Antarctica and colloquially referred to as the Third Pole) threatens the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan, thus placing it amongst countries most vulnerable to climate change vi. Exogenous factors aside, antiquated agriculture and livestock sector, lack of solid waste management, rabid industrial development and illegal deforestation continue to malign honest efforts to mitigate environmental issues in Pakistan. Pakistan ranks highly in indices for desertification and water depletion. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan is already the third most water-stressed country in the world and is poised to become a water-scarce country by 2025 vii. This is a harrowing statistic considering Pakistan heavily relies on the Indus basin river system for irrigation for its agriculture, accounting for 21% of the its GDP. Amidst all the bad news, there is some good news: 2% of Pakistan's forest cover is destined to recover by 2018 through a grassroots reforestation drive called the " Billion Tree Tsunami " (BTT) project viii. This is the first reforestation or afforestation project of its kind in the country. It was initiated in 2015 by the provincial government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. Situated in the Northwestern foothills of three mighty mountain ranges of the world, the Karakoram, Hindu-Kush and the Himalayas, KP holds 40% of the country's remaining forest cover ix and has been most vulnerable to illegal deforestation. In a country with lax legal codes, a wanting judicial system and absence of constitutional protection for the right to live in a healthy environment for its citizens, there exists plenty of administrative oversight and corruption when it comes to tackling the practice of deforestation. The road to recovery seems long and arduous and the policy challenges increasingly complex. Aside nota bene: This policy brief is addressed to the newly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Imran Khan, whose party (The Movement for Justice) had adopted the Billion Tree Tsunami (BTT) project in its previous provincial term in KP. The policy brief analyzes the legal shortcomings and environmental implications of the Billion Tree Tsunami reforestation drive. It also assesses the economic viability of the BTT project and investigates the concerns emanating within environmental groups on the identified tree species for plantation and their impact on the flora and fauna of the region. It looks at comparable afforestation drives in other jurisdictions around the world namely, Brazil, India and China and provides recommendations to cull deforestation practices through strengthening of legal codes and innovation and technology.

Pakistan Youth Change Advocates (PYCA) and Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (IBT) are working as part of a consortium that aims to address the issue of girls’ secondary education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The consortium partners are pooling in their unique strengths to engage in a collaborative effort to:
(i)  Create demand at the community level for girls’ education; (and) (ii)  Engage in policy advocacy to ensure public sector’s commitment to providing the      necessary infrastructure and legal environment to meet the newly created demand      for girls’ education beyond primary level.
This report serves as a preliminary assessment, the findings of which will feed into the individual and collective efforts of the consortium partners to ensure universal secondary education for young girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
All the relevant findings and results have been documented vis-à-vis the state of girls’ education in nine districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The districts were selected on the basic criteria of rural and urban areas from north, centre and south of the province.
The recommendations on future interventions, implementation approaches and the nature of potential partnerships to increase girls’ access to quality education are also discussed in this study.

For most young people the transition to adulthood is a difficult phase of their life. During this transition young people have to make very important decisions about their lives including career, living arrangements and future education. Most young people are accompanied and supported by their parents, family and friends during and after this transition. However, for 1

This essay takes forward previous research on a statue of Hariti in the British Museum's collection further, beyond its iconography, to a social context. It details the historical importance of this image to reflect on how a single image can be made to communicate to diverse people. By examining one sculpture carefully, I will argue in this chapter, that it is possible to isolate the different sources that contributed to creating this image in Gandhara, and that this was done quite deliberately, for the audience to be able to read the diversity that made up their society.
This challenges the overly simplistic binary terms: Indo-Greek and Greco-Buddhist which are generally used to describe Gandharan art. The essay begins by noting how Buddhism stipulated the terms at which Hariti was included in its purview. It attempts to answer if the anxieties of immigration and globalisation in antiquity were any different by concluding with a note on which historical sources that can be read to see how the culture of Gandhara was transforming by the third century AD, who it now regarded as the 'other', and how Brahmanical texts record the terms of assimilation and cultural shift.

How does a single image communicate to diverse people? Attendant to globalisation is a fear of homogenising difference, and yet, what it has enabled, oftentimes, is a cosmopolitanism that allows for different local practices to coexist even as some differences collapse.This essay examines some of these issues through a close reading of a remarkable ancient Buddhist sculpture of Hariti that comes from the vicinity of Peshawar in ancient Gandhara. Gandhara absorbed a variety of people and traditions--Central Asian, Indian, Iranian, Greek, West Asian and, as this research shows, even Egyptian. In such cases, images emerged as polyvalent, or sometimes, syncretic; however in this example, they also showed an awareness of difference.

The current study titled "Dynamics and Impacts of Peasants' Movement in North-Hashtnagar, District Charsadda, Pakistan, aimed at examining the causes of Peasants' Movement in Hashtnagar and its socioeconomic impacts on peasants' community. Data for the study were collected through the interview schedule from 380 sampled respondents belonging to landlords, peasants and labours community. The study variables included both independent variables (poverty, alienation, awareness, landlords' attitude with peasants, ejectment, agricultural productivity, politics, social relations, law and order, litigation) and dependent variable (peasants' movement). Likert scale was used for the measurement of variables, and the chi-square test was used to test the association between independent and dependent variables. The Bivariate association between poverty and Peasants' Movement show that

Through this study, the researchers aim to explore the history of Journalism and Mass Communication education in Pakistan in general and the evolution of academic discipline in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) in particular. The study also explores the problems and prospects of the Journalism and Mass Communication Departments in KPK. The researchers used qualitative method and collected the data though secondary resources as well as conducted in-depth interviews with the chairpersons and in-charge of the departments. The researchers developed five questions and six objectives to explore the history of academic journalism in KPK and highlight the problems of the concerned departments. The study disclosed that the academic Journalism and Mass Communication started as discipline in 1974 and presently there are seven departments in government universities and one in a private sector university. The Articles Page 54 Journalism Education Volume 6 number 3 study found out the answers of the designed questions and proved the objective that the departments of journalism and Mass Communication are facing academic, professional , curricula, administrative, technical, lack of research culture, lack of coordination with other journalism departments and media organizations, printing, broadcasting, telecasting, online journalism, practical journalism, education system, lack of research environment, administrative, technical and financial resources for the development of research journal publication. On the basis of current study, the researchers presented suggestions and recommendation for the academia, students, research scholars, poli-cymakers, media practitioners and government to take positive steps for the solution to the defined problems and improvement of the quality of academic journalism in the province.

IntroductionIn Pakhtun society, proverbs occupy a special place in oral literature and are the most widely used for all folklore (Tair and Edwards, 1982; Akhtar, 1997). Rather than relics of the past, Pashto proverbs are still widely spoken and play an important role in the everyday lives of Pakhtuns. A wiser man is considered to be the one who speaks more proverbs (Khattak, 2006). Pashto proverbs are found in textbooks, newspapers, and are spoken in radio programs and in television dramas, as well as in daily conversations in the bazzar and at homes, between and among men and women (Bartlotti and Khattak, 2006). Proverbs can be heard in political speeches as well in political commentaries, in a situation of social conflict and in aggravated family arguments. The use of proverbs makes these not only a clever form of verbal art, but also a potent tool of verbal combat (Enevoldsen, 2004). A proverb is a wisdom expressed in a sentence (Mieder, 1985:113).According to Milner (1969:199) a...

Current research was conducted in the village Toru in District Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The main objective of this research was to understand Pakhtun society through matal (proverbs) with special emphasis on Tarboorwali (agnatic rivalry) and cousin marriages. Tarboorwali (agnatic rivalry) and cousin marriages are indispensable part of Pakhtun culture. People express their distinct cultural identity and ideal Pakhtun behaviour through the expression of proverbs on various occasions. So, with the help of proverbs one can easily understand the worldview and perceptions of the people about Pakhtun customs, traditions, social institution, the ideology, and belief system. The matals were used as a daily activity and were interpreted in the socio-cultural context to understand the way of thinking and behaving. One can easily understand the feelings, aspirations, and customs and traditions of the Pakhtuns and how all these become meaningful in social discourse. One can understand the significance of social institutions such as Tarboorwali (agnatic rivalry) and cousin marriages by interpreting matals through discourse analysis.

Conflict management remained important for many years, yet it gained special interests of the managers and researchers in the last decade. Several studies have found the antecedents of conflicts and its impacts on many aspects of the organizations e.g. performance, environment and productivity etc. The goal of this study was to find which of the interpersonal conflict resolution approach has significant relationship with morale of the academicians of the universities in Pakistan. To understand the dynamics of this relationship and the impacts of the independent on the dependent variables, data was collected from 231 teachers working in different universities in the five cities of Pakistan. Data analysis was performed through SPSS-15. Convenient sampling method employed for data collection. The study has found positive and significant relationship between interpersonal conflict resolution approaches and level of education with morale of the teachers working in the universities of Pak...

آرمی پبلک اسکول پرحملے کے ایک سال بعد پاکستانی فوج نے جونغمہ تیارکیااس پرلبرل لیفٹ اورقوم پرست عناصرکی طرف سے بہت سخت ردعمل آیا۔ اس نغمہ میں 'دشمن کے  بچوں کوپڑھانے 'عزم ظاہرکیاگیاہے جس سے  یہ پیغام ملتاہے کہ فوج ایک بارپھرطالبان سے  سمجھوتہ کی طرف بڑھ رہی ہے۔ اورجنگ کوفراموش کرکے اورحساب برابرمان کراب بچے  کچے  طالبان کی سرپرستی  کرناچاہتی ہے۔ میں نے 15،16اور17دسمبرکوسوشل میڈیا پرشئرہونے والے مقبول ترین پوسٹوں میں کچھ کومنتخب کرکے یہ جاننے کی کوشش کی ہے  کہ قوم پرست، روشن خیال، لبرل اورلیفٹ کیاکہناچاہتاہے  اورپھران کے  وجوہات جاننے کی کوشش کی ہے۔

Dr. Mohammad Farooq Khan, an ambidextrous, stood up
with ‘innovative’ views, apparently inconsistent with the raditional personality traits and norms of the Pakhtuns, tried to
bring a change in the ways and thinking of the people through
persuasion and education and adopting every possible means-traditional or modern printed and electronic media. Opposition
to him and his views did not detract him from the path which he had chosen for himself and for his people. When he was in the process of de-radicalization and rehabilitation of the militants and development of a public sector university in Swat-once under the control of the Taliban militants, he was murdered in Mardan in October 2010. There is a need to answer the question that under what conditions a single individual can induce a broad, positive impact on tradition ridden society?

The enemy: Hefazatul Islam (defenders/protectors of Islam) it is called and just like our Blogger Comrades their strategies and agitation methodology have more elements of similarity than dissimilarity! Our worries peaked when these ‘pure Huzurs’ stunned us with their ultimatum to the Government that our Blogger Comrades ought to  be arrested, tried and hanged by the 6th of April 2013. Failing, they have threatened an occupation of Manik Mia Avenue, where they plan to erect an “Islamic Jagoron Moncho” with the ‘faithful’ from all over Bangladesh thronging and besieging Dhaka.

The allegations: They enemy says a) we are atheist b) we have insulted Prophet Muhammad c) we have disrespected the Holy Qur’an; apparently good enough reasons to get us hanged .

The Prediction: One can be rest assured that hundreds upon thousands of white skull caps will ride the crest of an imminent tidal bore – for the precise three points ‘championed’ by the enemy, (rightly or wrongly is a separate matter) is good enough reason to excite the passions of millions of pious – if not fanatical or fundamentalist Bengali Muslims, to take to the streets. And why do I say so?

The Pretenders: Do these hate filled so-called “defenders of Islam”, who in reality are Muslim pretenders, and are agents for murder mayhem, strife, disquiet and disorder in civic life; ever consider that attributes such as benevolence, forgiveness and mercy are also foundations of the Creators all encompassing omnipresence, in the course of human destiny? The concept of “God fearing Muslims” is a construct of hate merchants backed by Free Masonic agents, disguised in robes of religiosity, to misguide the pious and ‘religion sensitized’ masses. That this mindset of division dates back to periods of Islamic history, post the death of Prophet Muhammad, is rarely, if ever acknowledged.

The 6th April siege of Dhaka: I am glad 04/06 happened, for the purpose, attitude, appearance, and the intent of the enemy has never been clearer than now. What they have already spelt out implies a pledge to slide us back into the dark pits of medievalism, confine women to homes, perforce enforce the hijab, ban female and coeducation systems, ban music, ban fine arts, specially sculpture  and anything considered deviant or not in conformity of what in their perception is ‘Islamic’.

The 5th May crackdown on Hefazat: We get to see the likes of Allama Shafi riding insanely expensive SUVs and helicopters, while his half-fed ‘supporters’ are coaxed and threatened to join his murderous jihad on fellow Muslims, are made to endure a ‘long march’ to Dhaka? How more corrupt and vulgar can these fake ‘god men’ be? How long shall we be in fear of these so-called ‘apolitical theologians’ that are no different from sections of our corrupt politicians? And after a day spent haranguing the ‘faithful’ with screams of imaner lorai (fight/resolve of faith) where they promise in public view and that of the world, never to leave their ground, never to return home if their demands are not met, to sacrifice their blood, to become immortal shaheeds (martyrs) — and all it takes is 17 minutes of security forces action, for the ‘millions’ to flee, to literally disappear into thin air.

Earlier studies (Shah and Shahbaz, 2015) have analysed how post-conflict relief and rehabilitation efforts by development partners in conflict-affected areas of Pakistan did not completely align with local realities, culture and traditions. Using this body of work on livelihoods after conflict as an entry point, this working paper seeks to examine the role of local institutions during and after the conflict, in order to inform and ensure the success of future relief and rehabilitation efforts.
Through focus group discussions and key informant interviews in Swat and Lower Dir districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), we collected the views of different sections of the community to gain an understanding
of the power dynamics, social norms and influence of traditional local institutions, and how these have changed as a result of the violent conflict suffered in the region.

Climate change may have detrimental effects on income from crop farming in Pakistan and according to the IPCC (2014), the impacts of climate change will be more vigorous in the coming years. Despite a few studies we still have limited knowledge on how climate change can impact the crop farming economy in Pakistan. Considering Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province of Pakistan as the study area, we attempted to fill this gap by analyzing the economic impacts of climate change on the net income from crop farming. Data from the 635 farm households and also climatic variables data were collected from five agro-ecological zones (AEZ) of the KP. The Ricardian method was employed for analysis purposes. The results revealed that the increase of annual average temperature and decreases in rainfall is strongly associated with net revenue deficits. The effects of increasing precipitation are observed to be useful but an increase in temperature is forecasted to be harmful to the net revenue. The effect of increased temperature in the summer season on NR ranged between US$-29 to US$35, and the effect in the winter season ranged between US$-14 to US$28 per hectare. The effect of decreased annual precipitation on NR in the summer season and winter season ranged between US$ 0 to US$-24 and US$<-20 per hectare, respectively. This effect is particularly severe in the Central Valley Plains, Southern Piedmont Plains, and Western Dry Mountains. This study further evaluates the effects of the climatic forecasts by three Atmospheric Oceanic General Circulation Models (AOGCM). Our results will facilitate the policymakers to implement suitable strategies in KP to curb the deleterious effects of climate change on overall crop production and farmer income.

Abstract
The present study offers a critical analysis of the resistance movements in which rural poor, in one way or the other, have actively involved and participated in the province of Khyber-Pukhtunaw (North West Frontier Province-NWFP and former FATA) province of Pakistan since 1947. As a post-colonial state, not only does Pakistan have inherited a structure of state and society regulated by bureaucracy under a set of laws and regulations but also legacies of resistance and struggle against it. These resistance movements of the rural poor –generally categorized as nationalists, peasants and Islamists—take different forms and restore to various methods of resistance, taking its aspirations from the grand narratives of its age and contemporary movements and also from the resistance and struggles of past. Nationalist’s movement is considered a perpetuation of the Red Shirt Movement (Khudai Khidmatgar Movement) led by Bacha Khan. The movement also finds its legacies in the struggles and fights against the Mughals Kingdom, waged by various Pashtuns stalwarts including Sher Shah Suri, Pir Roshan and Khushal Khan Khattak. Peasants’ movements were mainly enlightened by the Russian Revolution 1917 and Chinese Revolution 1948; and the peasants movement of the near past mainly the Ghaladir Movement of 1930s. Both movements were progressive in many ways. The nationalist movements had challenged the forces of status quo; assumed an anti-imperialist posture and stood for lower stratum of the society before scrummed to identity politics and postmodernist ideologies in late 1980s and early 1990s. With fall of the democratic regime in 1977 on one hand and on the other hand stagnation of the peasants’ movement in the face of resistance from landlords and state repression resulted in the disorientation of the peasants’ leadership, adversely affected the class struggle of peasants in the province. The study aims at exploring the transformation of these movements during the course of time as well as its implications for state and society in the province and country.

It is the illustrated version of an article originally published in the Azad Academy Journal [ISSN  2248-9835] XXII:1 (April 2006), pp. 11-21. It is a socio-historical introductory overview of the Afridi tribe, one of the richest, politically most influential, and numerically strongest of the Pashtun/Pakhtun/Pathan tribes in eastern Afghanistan and north-western Pakistan with a significant diaspora population in India.

Federally Administered Tribal Areas unification with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is an important move by Pakistan 's govt to handle the matter of law and order and the normalization of the area. This qualitative study is an effort to examine the role of systemic and cultural aspects that caused disruption to the FATA region and the consequences of fusion in solving these problems. Research findings indicate that not only do a large number of FATA citizens support the move, but also look forward to providing the area with great outcomes. This proposed merger would not only bring about governmental and infrastructural growth in FATA, but the province will also be involved in new enterprises, better connectivity, greater innovation and positive social improvements. In addition , it is important that govt include local citizens in this program, because it would be very challenging for the state to gain the desired outcomes without understanding the local conditions. _____________________________________________________________________________________________

Pakistan arose from the Indian Empire ashes first as a British Dominion, later as the independent Islamic Republic, therefore with a constitutive
definition marked by religion. There is no doubt Islam is the heart of its identity. In addition, Pakistan is also a crucible of a multifarious patterns of life,
traditions, religious and legal references, cultural events.
Pakistan represents one of the oldest cultures in Asia and the world, the Indus Valley. The country’s demographic expanse is essentially the result of
waves of conquests and migrations, resulting deep unifying behaviours. Here we only point out some salient aspects of the resulting ethnic and stylistic
architectural mix, framing them in course of time into various manifestations of genesis and development.
Minorities are an integral part of Pakistan’s culture: ranging from the ethnic groups such as Saraikis, Sindhis, Aymāq, Hazaras and Dards, to Muhajirs and
Gujǎr, as well as religious as Christian, Buddhist, Bön, Hindu, Sikh and Zoroastrian Parsi. These minorities indeed come for Pakistan as an asset.