Journal of Development and Social Sciences

Environmental Pollution and Industrialization in Pakistani Short Fiction: An Eco-Stylistic Analysis

2025-07-02T00:03:39+05:00

The objective of this research is to analyze selected Pakistani short fiction which depicts environmental pollution and industrialization through a combined lens of ecocriticism and stylistics which is referred to as eco-stylistics. The research examines the language and narrative devices used by selected fiction writers for describing ecological and human-related issues. This research highlights the significant use of words and the employment of symbols in analyzing conflict between characters and nature. The arrangement of sentences spoken by the individuals and the character’s voice both portray the environmental conflict as well as the political side of it. A close reading of the selected stories by Tariq Rahman, Daniyal Mueenuddin, and Mohammed Hanif reveal that the environmental pollution is sometimes described in literal sense and sometimes is seen as a symbol of troubles in the society. The research shows that the novels and short stories also criticize industrial growth and the treatment of people towards nature. The research further focuses on the social and economic differences among individuals. The research is significant in adding to the growth of eco-stylistics as a theoretical and methodological strategy in South Asian literature. The study also gives fresh outlook on the ecological awareness from the perspective of Anglophone Pakistani fiction.

Impact of Corporate Governance on Firm Performance with Moderating Role of Leverage: A Study of Non-Financial Listed Firms on Pakistan Stock Exchange

2025-07-05T18:59:22+05:00

This study investigates the moderating role of leverage in the link between corporate governance variables and business performance using data from non-financial companies registered on the Pakistan Stock Exchange for the years 2018–2023. The findings show that performance is much enhanced by board size, independence, and experience, with firm size also having a substantial impact. As a moderating variable, leverage has a direct negative influence on performance, but it also mitigates the effects of governance variables like company age, board independence, and board meetings. The study emphasizes how crucial sound corporate governance is, as well as how leverage plays a complicated moderating role in influencing business performance. These results offer valuable perspectives for scholarly investigations and business operations in developing economies such as Pakistan.

Selling Authority: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Power Dynamics in Language Used in Pakistani Advertising Captions

2025-07-10T00:02:30+05:00

In today’s fast-moving consumer culture, advertising isn’t just about selling products—it’s about shaping minds. In Pakistan, the language used in advertising captions often goes unnoticed, yet it carries weight in how people see themselves, others, and the world around them. This study sets out to understand the hidden power dynamics in the language of Pakistani advertising and moreover,the choice of pronouns, emotional hooks, and cultural references that resonate with Pakistani audience. In a world where advertising shows not only what we buy but also how we think, the language in advertising captions has more than just a marketing message—related to power. This study explains how linguistic choices in contemporary Pakistani advertising captions overtly construct and reinforce power relations. For this study, we have taken a qualitative approach, using Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis model to closely examine advertising captions from Pakistani TV, print, and social media. Instead of just reading the words, we have focused on how they were used—looking at tone, pronouns, and cultural hints—to understand how power and influence quietly operate through language. Taking Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the research investigates how these brief but persuasive captions use authority, social positioning, gendered language, and cultural symbolism to influence consumer behavior and identity. By interpreting a diverse range of Urdu and English advertisements from television, social media, and billboards, this study puts light on the silent but potent strategies advertisers use to command attention and obedience. In doing so, it enlightens the ways language becomes a vehicle for power in everyday consumer culture. Moreover, the findings of this study reveal that even the simplest advertising captions carry subtle layers of power. Undoubtedly, Brands often use friendly, familiar language to sound close to the audience, but underneath, they maintain authority—shaping how people think, feel, and respond through culturally loaded and emotionally charged words.

Work Motivation and Organizational Commitment in Retail Market: Moderating Role of Personality Traits

2025-07-10T00:26:42+05:00

Retail is a thriving economic sector that boosts industry and organization development, economic stability, and success. Retail has become Pakistan's main economic asset. Pakistani industry shunned retail a few years ago. Retailers face obstacles, problems, and fierce rivalry. Any firm or industry succeeds due to its employees' motivation, involvement, loyalty, honesty, hard work, and performance. A correlational research design has been used to examine the moderating relationship among the variables. A cross-sectional survey methodology was used to obtain data from participants using questionnaires. The sample included N = 212 persons from the retail industry, including male and female employees aged 20 to 60 years. The purposive sampling method was used because it is suitable for research with specific objectives related to the population. Organizational commitment, recognized regulation, and external regulation were strongly correlated with extraversion. Agreement was strongly correlated with commitment, internal, integrated, recognizable, introjected, and external regulation. Awareness was linked to commitment, internal, integrated, recognizable, introjected, and external regulation. Neuroticism correlated strongly with regulation discovery. Openness influenced internal, integrated, acknowledged, introjected, and external regulation. Internal regulation, integrated, identified, introjected, external regulation, and amotivation were strongly correlated with commitment. Extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness strongly interact to affect job motivation. The findings revealed significant mean differences in agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, commitment, and work motivation across various age groups. Research has shown that work motivation positively correlates with organizational commitment.

A Cross-Regional Study of Built Heritage Conservation in South Asia within the Global Heritage Discourse

2025-07-11T16:08:18+05:00

This paper explores the built heritage conservation perspectives around the globe while analysing the international charters and local practices in the South Asian region.The international charters provided extensive guidelines for the protection of heritage while following procedures. The implementation in diverse regional and cultural context still requires additional research and formulation of procedures. The study employed two phase qualitative methodology starting from the literature mapping for the synthesis of key trends and paradigms in global heritage discourse, highlighting the material-centric conservation to inclusive community engaged approaches for sustainability. The second stage analysis of global case studies to explore the operational challenges within the South Asian context. The finding reveals that in this part of the world the global heritage frameworks are embedded in conservation practice but facing severe issue due to the socio-cultural, political and historical factors in addition to the economic instability. The paper concludes with the recommendations for application of context-sensitive approach embedded with the traditional aspect and the global construct.

Impact of Good Governance on Dividend Payout Ratio: Moderated Mediation Effect of legal Origin and Corporate Reputation

2025-07-12T22:02:24+05:00

This study investigates whether legal origin moderates the relationship between corporate governance and dividend payout policies, mediated by corporate reputation, among Fortune 500 firms (2014–2022). Corporate governance, reputation, and dividend payout significantly impact corporate finance. Nevertheless, their combined influence across legal systems, especially common-law versus civil-law jurisdictions, remains underexplored. This quantitative study analyzed panel data of 324 Fortune 500 companies, yielding 2,808 firm-year observations across common-law and civil-law countries. Corporate governance and financial data were collected from Bloomberg, reputation rankings from Fortune, and country-level controls from the World Bank. Statistical analysis involved panel regressions and moderated mediation models. Robustness checks employed alternative dividend measurements and verification tests. Common-law countries exhibited strong governance enhancing corporate reputation and subsequently increasing dividends. Conversely, civil-law jurisdictions demonstrated weaker governance impacts, diminished reputational influence, and lower dividend payouts. Common-law regulators and managers should reinforce governance standards to sustain dividends via reputation. Civil-law jurisdictions must improve investor protections and governance frameworks for similar effectiveness.

Investigating Environmental Performance and Competitive Advantage with the perspective of Green Supply Chain Management

2025-07-13T13:25:34+05:00

Green supply chain management is a modern practice adopted by manufacturing firms having greater influence on environmental sustainability. This study, based on the resource-based view theory, determine the impact of GSCM practices and moderating role of environment management system and firm size on environmental performance by leading towards the competitive advantage. Due to emerging demand of sustainable performance, organizations are struggling to improve their supply chain for getting competitive advantage Therefore, different parameters of supply chain along with implemented management systems is critically important to review. By quantitative cross-sectional approach and using questionnaire as a tool, purposive sample of 209 organizations of Punjab, Pakistan was taken to investigate the impact. It revealed that GSCM dimensions influence directly to the environmental performance and indirectly to the competitive advantage for large sized firms while this response is dull in case of small size firms while effective environment management system accelerates the strength of these relationships. This study contributes theoretically by providing a lens to judge the GSCM and EP relationship in the context of firm size and provide guidelines to industrial practitioners for implementing GSCM strategies in order to get long-term competitive advantage under the umbrella of environmental sustainability.

Demographic Moderators in the Work–Family Conflict and Cognitive Bandwidth Relationship: Evidence from Dual-Career Married Adults in Pakistan

2025-07-19T11:46:30+05:00

This study investigates how the relationship between work-family conflict (WFC) and cognitive bandwidth (CB) is moderated by gender, family system, employment type, years of marriage, and number of children among dual-career married adults in Pakistan.
Cognitive bandwidth is the limited mental capacity available to manage daily demands. In dual-career households, especially in collectivist societies like Pakistan, family dynamics can influence how WFC affects mental resources. However, limited research addresses these effects contextually. Using a cross-sectional quantitative design, 400 married dual-career individuals were surveyed through purposive sampling. Standardized tools included the WFC Scale (Haslam et al., 2015) and a newly developed cognitive bandwidth scale. Demographic data were also collected. OLS regression with interaction terms tested moderation effects. Family system and number of children significantly moderated the WFC-CB relationship. Nuclear families and more children intensified the negative impact. Gender, employment type, and years of marriage were not significant. Culturally tailored workplace policies should support nuclear families with caregiving loads to preserve cognitive capacity and reduce burnout.

Impact of US Dollar Exchange Rate and Interest Rate Volatility on Stock Market Capitalization in Pakistan: Empirical Evidence from 2007 to 2016

2025-07-21T09:29:29+05:00

This study examines the impact of US dollar exchange rate and interest rate volatility on Pakistan’s stock market capitalization during 2007–2016, focusing solely on annual macroeconomic indicators. In emerging economies like Pakistan, fluctuations in key macroeconomic indicators can significantly shape stock market performance. Despite extensive global research, limited evidence exists on their combined long- and short-run effects in the Pakistani context. The research adopts a quantitative time-series design using annual data from the Pakistan Stock Exchange (market capitalization), the State Bank of Pakistan (interest rates), and international financial databases (PKR/USD exchange rate). Key statistical tools include the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test for stationarity, Johansen cointegration for long-run relationships, Error Correction Model (ECM) for short-run dynamics, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), and Granger causality tests. The study models log-transformed variables and ensures robust diagnostics through multicollinearity and residual testing. Exchange rate volatility had a significant positive long-term impact on market capitalization, while interest rate volatility showed a weaker, negative effect. In the short run, only exchange rate movements were significant. Granger causality confirmed that both variables influence market capitalization, with 22% of disequilibrium corrected annually. Policymakers should prioritize exchange rate stability and adopt measured interest rate policies to support stock market growth and investor confidence.

From Occupation to Accountability: International Legal Remedies for the Kashmir Crisis

2025-07-21T11:34:09+05:00

This study critically examines the legal status of the Kashmir conflict through the lens of international law, emphasizing the right to self-determination, the role of international legal instruments, and the failure of global institutions, particularly the United Nations, in addressing this prolonged dispute. The research adopts systematic doctrinal legal approach to critically analyze the legal standing of Kashmir dispute under international law. The study intends to develop a legal case in support of the right to self-determination of people of Kashmir and evaluate the degree to which international legal norms have been respected, disregarded or infringed in this context. The study after detailed deliberation concludes that the revocation of Article 370 and ongoing military occupation by India in Jammu and Kashmir violate jus cogens norms, including the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, and the Genocide Convention. It not only highlights systemic human rights abuses and alleged crimes against humanity, but also advocates for legal recourse through the International Criminal Court and other judicial bodies. The work underscores that the Kashmir issue should be re-framed as a humanitarian crisis rather than a bilateral or territorial dispute. A forward-looking legal strategy is recommended, urging international judicial intervention to ensure accountability, uphold human dignity, and support the Kashmiri people's inalienable right to self-determination.

Human Capital and Labour Productivity: An Analytical Study

2025-07-22T19:40:29+05:00

Any business tends to improve its human resources in an attempt to get the most of its employees. The major interests of an entrepreneur include long-term survival and sustainability besides the attainment of the corporate goals. This paper aims to review how human capital contributes to labor productivity with particular respect to Pakistan. The age of employees, training, working time, wages and education you want to define are using to determine the human capital, which is one of the independent variables of our research, whereas the productivity of labour is the dependent one. To analyse this relationship, a cross-sectional study is conducted and 40 businesses in Multan are surveyed to obtain information. The paper applies Generalized Method Moments (GMM) approach in the study of influence of human capital on labor productivity. The results of the study showed that the coefficient in the labour productivity and employee education shows that the relationship between the two is good. The coefficient of Employee Wage is 0.006543 implying that the wages has a positive and significantly influence on labor productivity. The coefficient of training employees informs us that when there is an increase in one percent in the investment in training, results in a 0.10 percent increase in labor productivity. There is a negative relationship far as the variable of age among the employees and productivity of labour is concerned. Based on findings of the study the study recommends that both the government and business need to invest more in human capital to enable workers to exploit their talents and become more productive.

Social Workers’ Medical Social Services Units Practices: Challenges and Opportunities to Medical Social Officers in Sargodha Division

2025-07-22T19:52:17+05:00

This study aims to examine the challenges and opportunities to Medical Social Officers (MSOs) in Sargodha Division. MSOs are considered to be an integral part of healthcare system by providing clinical, social and emotional support to patients. This qualitative research was carried out by using interview guide and participants were selected using purposive sampling to assure relevance to the study goal. Data was collected from 12 MSOs when it reached to saturation. It has identifies key themes of Multiple faces of Challenges in Medical Services Units, Trainings or Capacity Building opportunities and Ethical Dilemmas and Medical Social Services Units Practices. It concludes that confronted challenges move around background education of MSOs, lack of collaboration of hospital administration, resources constraints and their professional growth. It is recommended that MSOs practices can be improved through advance training programs in alliance with current needs of the patients.

College Student Suicidal Ideation: Perceived Burden Someness, Thwarted Belongingness, and Hopelessness

2025-07-22T19:54:57+05:00

Students subjected to academic stress, social isolation, and other mental health problems work together to increase the vulnerability for suicidal ideation. Current research examined the burdensomeness, combined with belongingness and hopelessness, serving as a link between risk factors and suicidal thoughts among students. Using a convenient sampling technique, a sample of 522 college students (n=259 females and n=263 males) was selected from Mansehra, Haripur, and Abbottabad. Data were gathered using the interpersonal need questionnaire with two subscales(i.e., Perceived Burdensomeness and Thwarted Belongingness), Beck Hopelessness scale, and suicidal ideation scale. The study results demonstrated that burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and hopelessness function as critical factors that link risk factors to suicidal ideation. Research results showed that perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and hopelessness displayed positive connections with suicidal thoughts. Research conclusions create critical requirements for developing programs that aim to eliminate suicidal thoughts among students. Education policy makers, along with other mental health professionals, should focus on solving problems with burdensomeness along with issues related to belongingness and feelings of hopelessness to support student mental health and overall well-being.

Evaluation of the Career Guidance Facilities in Secondary Schools of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

2025-07-24T11:53:29+05:00

Career guidance assists students in effective career planning at secondary level. It ensures the successful entry of secondary level students into future aspired careers. Therefore the study aimed to evaluate the career guidance facilities in secondary schools of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Objectives of the study were to evaluate the career guidance facilities in secondary schools and to develop strategies for development of career guidance facilities in secondary schools. Study’s design was quantitative nature. Its population was 30439 students. Study’s sample was 380 students, selected with simple random sampling. A questionnaire about career guidance facilities was developed, validated and pilot tested for the collection of data. Data were gathered with self-administered questionnaires and analyzed with using mean scores, standard deviations and the chi-square test. The study found the non-availability of career guidance facilities in schools. Services of trained career guides and assistance in subjects’ selection was not available. Career support, career planning mechanism and ssessment mechanism for identification of students’ interests was missing. The study recommended the provision of career guidance facilities in schools. Trained career guides may be appointed. Moreover, assistance in subjects’ selections for students and career orientations may be provided to students in secondary schools.

Psychological Detachment in Relation with Social Cyberloafing and Creativity among Higher Education Employees

2025-07-24T12:12:42+05:00

This study aimed to find out the relationship between social cyberloafing, psychological detachment, and creativity among higher education employees. Second objective was to find out mediating role of psychological detachment between social cyberloafing and creativity. Employees' various online behaviours have drawn more attention to social cyberloafing, which is the practice of using workplace internet resources for non-work-related, personal purposes. Therefore current study intended to explore social cyberloafing in the workplace, particularly among higher education employees who frequently deal with high levels of stress and cognitive demands. Quantitative research design along with the correlational survey research method was used. Sample of 322 faculty and administrative staff from the Hazara Division , were selected using convenient sampling technique. Standardized measures including the Social Cyberloafing Scale, Psychological Detachment Scale, and Self-Rated Creativity Scale were used to collect responses. Results revealed a significant positive correlation among the three variables. Psychological detachment was found to partially mediate the link between social cyberloafing and creativity. The findings highlight social cyberloafing as a potentially restorative activity that supports psychological wellbeing, social interaction, and workplace productivity.

Muted Voices and Omitted Truths: A Social Constructivist Analysis of Child Rape in Pakistani Media

2025-07-24T12:26:49+05:00

This research study on child rape is conducted from the social constructivist perspective about gender and sex in connection with the dynamics of power relations in the Pakistani social system. The study is conducted with intersectional methodology using the discourse theory to analyze media texts. CDA is conducted through textual-linguistic analysis and the media texts consists of all the opinion columns and editorials about the selected case study. Zainab Ansari rape case in January 2018 was selected for study. Newspaper articles (editorials and opinion columns) were selected for analysis because these texts present detailed discussion (nature of the problem, causes, effects, solutions and value judgments) about the phenomenon contrary to the news items in which the reporter is supposed to maintain neutrality about the factual description of the event. In our reviewed case, the victim girl was raped and murdered but media made prominent the murder more than the rape. Findings and results of the study lead to outline a new theory called Chance-Adventure-Complex (CAC) Theory of Child Rape. This theory transcends existing theoretical frameworks of rape and provides starting points for further sociological investigations in the phenomenon. Findings revealed that media discourses mainly remain superficial and hollow when describing child rape cases. The perpetrators’ descriptive details are dominantly omitted and the survived victims are muted in the media discourses.

AI Driven Defense in Europe: Shaping the Future of Military

2025-07-24T12:38:51+05:00

This research examines the way Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing defense strategies among prominent European players France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, and the EU, with a focus on its military uses. The research confines its examination to state-level and EU-level. AI integration within European defense reflects evolving geopolitical priorities, ethical challenges, and new regulatory demands. Employing qualitative case study approach grounded in Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT), the research draws on official policy briefs and reports. Results show Germany and France dominating AI defense innovation, while the UK emphasizes ethical AI and NATO interoperability. Italy and Spain are emerging powers with growing public-private partnerships. The EU, lacking military capability, exerts normative influence through regulatory tools like the AI Act. These dynamics reshape regional defense cohesion and power relations. Future efforts will have to be focused on cooperative regulatory strategies, ethically sound innovation, and collective defense policies to optimize ethical AI militarization and strategic autonomy in Europe. Cooperative European defense initiatives and testing regulation frameworks need to be investigated in future research. Comparative analysis with Asia or North America like regional complexes would better convey how regional systems determine AI governance, innovation, and military integration worldwide.