Violence against women (VAW) is a grave problem in Pakistan, and women from all socioeconomic groups are vulnerable to domestic violence in varying degrees. It is argued that patriarchal definition of gender roles may reinforce the internalized inferiority of women. So, it may not be a mere coincidence that a large number of women in Pakistan justify VAW for various reasons. The objectives of this article are threefold: (a) to identify the drivers of VAW, (b) to see if women's attitudinal acceptance of violence is causally linked with observed violence against women, and (c) to see if attitudinal acceptance of violence mediates between the socioeconomic status of women and observed violence. We used data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2012-13. The sample consisted of 3,265 ever married women aged between 15 and 49 years who were interviewed for domestic violence. We used multivariate logit regression analysis to identify the drivers of VAW and used the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) method for mediation analysis. We found that women's attitudinal acceptance of violence, their childhood experience of violence in their parental household, the education of both husband and wife, and some occupation types significantly predicted their experience of spousal violence. In addition, we found that women's attitudinal acceptance of violence mediated the relationships between socioeconomic factors (education and wealth status) and VAW. The significance of the study lies in the fact that it highlights the need to modify the perceptions of violence through change in educational policy. Among multiple other factors, an increase in the economic status of women is an effective hedge against the risk of spousal violence.

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To ensure successful accomplishment of projects, quality performance of the project team is required to be maintained. The existing literature declares scope, time, cost and quality as quadruple constraints for project's success while management of human resource (HR) communication, procurement and risk are declared support functions. Literature further acknowledges that HR management functions are dealt with low precedence in actual practices of project management as they are rendered secondary or support functions. In real practices the project manager is delegated certain HR functions like team formation, training and HR performance management. However, these HR functions are not considered the primary tasks of the project manager during the project's life cycle as these are practiced for specific time period without regular iteration. From July 2007 to April 2009, this study discovered that in the Information Technology (IT) industry working in Islamabad, Pakistan, project managers were required to manage performance of their teams at least by monitoring their performance. It discovered that compromise in the quality of HR performance management affected the results of heterogeneous IT projects. The study therefore focused on HR performance management to identify its actual significance and precedence for the projects. It hypothesized that the outcome of project is associated with the quality of performance management of project team and is affected by it. Employing stratified sampling technique, 70 heterogeneous IT projects in 24 different software houses were identified and selected that were reported to have been affected by the quality of HR performance management. Using a reliable and valid instrument, data were collected in a cross sectional manner. Analyses of results were made using frequency distribution, Pearson correlation, and Partial Least Square (PLS) regression. The findings confirmed a correlation and dependency of project outcome on HR performance management by the project manager through quality of performance monitoring. The study concluded to consider HR management function performance management as one of the tools for ensuring project success giving its significant precedence. The study has contributed guidelines and templates to help project managers exercise 360 degree performance management where applicable.

Globalization demands dynamism in English as a Second Language (ESL) pedagogy to address the needs of students from diverse cultural, educational and linguistic backgrounds. Students hailing from different countries with varied levels of English proficiency present a serious challenge to instructors. The challenge to meet the needs of diverse students from Afghanistan and Pakistan, for instance, within the same teaching faculty, prompted this study. It attempts to explore Afghan and Pakistani students’ expectations of the first module of English introduced at undergraduate level, i.e., English Comprehension and Composition (ECC) at a Pakistani university, by applying the Expectancy Disconfirmation Model of Satisfaction (Oliver 2015,120). Students’ expectations have been a neglected area of research despite being a significant factor in behavior and performance. This study aims to find out how far the Pakistani and Afghan students’ expectations have been met with Negative Disconfirmation (non-fulfillment), Zero Disconfirmation (fulfillment) or Positive Disconfirmation (enhanced fulfillment). The findings reveal that the Afghan students were enrolled in the Pakistani university as a result of a mutual agreement between the Pakistani and Afghan governments under the Higher Education Commission (HEC)scholarship “Award of 3000 Scholarships to Students from Afghanistan under the Prime Minister’s Directive” had concerns with the advanced level grammar and reading exercises, while Pakistani students complained about insufficient class time, consecutive lectures and lack of adequate practice provided in the classroom. The study suggests a pedagogical framework for the students focusing on Contextualized Task Based Language Teaching (CTBLT) method in combination with Input-oriented approach for the desired academic outputmentioned in the objectives of the course/module.