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Domination of the tobacco industry's innovative business models has forced many countries to develop defensive tobacco control strategies. Pakistan has been routinely adopting new legislation for this industry for the past several decades. However, constant tension exists between the legislative/policy development process and the transnational tobacco industry trying to outpace and evade new regulations. Expanding on the 'Disruptive Industry Technological Model' adopted by the transnational tobacco industry, this paper posits that the business model adopted during the previous century was radically disruptive, focusing on selling a product designed to kill almost half of its customers (WHO 2020). Subsequently, during the first two decades of the 21st Century, the tobacco industry adopted the 'Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS)' to displace its traditional cigarette sales. This paper deconstructs the adoption of such radically disruptive technological models by the tobacco industry and finds concord between both. It recommends the development of broad-spectrum proactive and preventive policies for Pakistan instead of reactive ones in the tobacco control regime.

Tobacco taxation is the most effective way to control the spread of tobacco use and reduce demand for it (WHO, 2019). Governments in low-middle income countries face a serious dilemma in earning revenue without annoying the high taxpayers such as the tobacco industry. The government in Pakistan, also burdened by the public pressure, finds it politically challenging to implement new taxes, and is revenue starved. The situation gets further compounded by the fears and sometimes ill-founded claims by the tobacco industry, for example, excessive restrictions on tobacco industry resulting in unemployment, expanding uncontrolled illicit/illegal/smuggled cigarettes market, burden on the national economy, and consequent unfair burden on poor. Contrary to these claims, tobacco taxation has been used around the globe as the most appropriate tool for utilizing the earned revenues to meet issues such as health burden. Tobacco Industry claims to be one of the largest, tax contributors in Pakistan – a claim made by pharmaceutical, cement, fertilizer, and beverages industries as well. Literature shows that raising the tobacco tax is the most cost-effective way for reducing tobacco use. Over 100 studies, including a significant number of studies from the Low and Middle Incomes Countries (LMICs), clearly demonstrate that tobacco taxes are a powerful tool for the reduction in tobacco consumption, simultaneously providing for a steady stream of revenues for the government (Chaloupka, Yurekli, & Fong, 2012). Yet another study involving 490 million male smokers from 13 LMICs revealed that an increase in tax causing a price increase of 50%, would result in 67 million men quitting smoking (Consortium, 2018). The study further revealed that 449 million years of life would be gained across all participants, and the health and financial gains for the poor will be 20% more as compared to the wealthy participants of the study.

Tobacco Industry (TI) is constantly evolving strategies to outwit all the efforts to make this world tobacco-free4, 12. Under the garb of 'harm reduction', the tobacco companies have been attempting to rehabilitate their reputation to influence the government to soften their policies or create exemptions for products such as HTPs. Such efforts are intended at renormalization of the tobacco products and increase social acceptability. The industry is more actively yet discretely exploiting the policy gaps, regulatory loopholes, and enactment of stricter laws especially in those countries where the implementation of such laws is weak, or non-existent. Pakistan continues to be an example where multiple laws exist, however, its sluggish implementation as well as excessive TI influence in taxation adds to the defiance space. Pursuant to these developments in the tobacco market, WHO in a report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic in 2019,13 claimed that there is 'insufficient independent evidence to support the use of [E-Cigarettes] as a population-level tobacco cessation intervention to help people quit conventional tobacco use'; these products are 'undoubtedly harmful'. This report further concluded that there is a similarity between the toxic chemicals emitted through regular smoking and HTPs, and there is no evidence that these products will reduce tobacco-related diseases.13 Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) shares the commonality of the views with the authentic opinion and positions taken by the leading international health experts, including WHO and The Union, and aspires to highlight the localized context concerning Pakistan. This is our first study in this regard and we intend to contextualize the issue of ENDS/ENNDS with specific problems and the tobacco control environment in Pakistan. We also intend to highlight that the current studies and policy proposals are focused on the evidence generated/collected and analyzed concerning the High-Income Countries (HICs) whereas there are evidence and policy void related to the LMICs. The urgency to address this gap is further hastened by the fact that the TI is aggressively and consciously introducing these products in the market. Many policymakers and legislators and those proposing the policies lack the comprehensive understanding, capacity, and requisite knowledge about the health, social and cultural effects of these products on the youth, existing smokers and beginners. In the presence of such a murky environment with conflicting interests of multiple segments of the society and government, SDPI recommends an urgent need for discussion and policy development in handling the E-Cigarettes and HTPs.

Water scarcity is connected to food, health and other life-security issues. More importantly, water is the most basic human need and also a key to eradicating poverty and bringing economic growth. This article will focuses on how water scarcity has had a big impact on the social well-being of the people in the Makran region of Balochistan. The main purpose of this article is to help policymakers and leaders better understand the perceptions of people about how drought has impacted households in the Gwadar region. The research for this article was conducted using a qualitative research design in which in-depth semi-structured interviews were used for data collection.

International practicum, or international field placements, create opportunities for social work students to address global social challenges in an international setting and prepare for social work practice. The landscape of international practica in social work has evolved and shifted over the last two decades. This article reports on the findings of a literature review that was conducted to understand how international practicum has changed over time. The study established search criteria that led to the inclusion of 70 publications, 16 in the first decade (2000 to 2010) and 54 in the second decade (2011 to 2020) utilizing the web of Science and Social Work Abstracts, as well as specific searches conducted on the University of Calgary Library Database, EBSCO host, ProQuest, and Google Scholar. The results of the literature review show that there were fewer publications in the first decade and the emphasis was on understanding international practicum and field models. During the second decade, the published literature on international practicum tripled, focusing predominantly on developing new field education models, engaging in critical reflection and theory, and how to create successful field placements for students through preparation, teaching, and discussion. International practicum opportunities are critical to fostering transformative learning in social work students, and post-secondary institutions will need to re-establish international field education programs after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose
This study aims to examine the associations between socioeconomic status, types of rigging (pre- polling-day and post-), politics and voting behavior, vote casting and perceptions of rigging in Pakistan's most recent elections, and attitudes toward electoral integrity.

Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from students at three different universities. In all, 748 units of analysis (488 male and 260 female) recorded their responses by means of a self-structured questionnaire. Linear regression was applied to measure the associations between variables, and the reliability and validity of the scales were tested.

Findings
A significant relationship was found between pre-poll rigging, post-poll rigging, politics and voting behavior, socioeconomic characteristics (i.e. age, education, father's education, background or place of residence and monthly household incomes), the perception of rigging in the last elections and attitudes toward electoral integrity.

Practical implications
Pakistan's history has been blemished by electoral malpractices during both de facto and de jure regimes. Attention has formerly been paid to either polling-day or post-election rigging. The relationship of electoral integrity with different factors explored in this study have usually been ignored or overlooked. The findings of this study would help policy-makers, youth experts and academicians to reorient their behaviors to strengthen political stability, the rule of law and the continuation of democracy via their participation in the system.

Originality/value
To the researchers' best knowledge, there has not been a single peer-reviewed study of Pakistan which has explored the associations between the variables examined for this study. The main academic challenge the researchers faced was to find a standardized and contextualized scale or tool to explore how different types of vote-rigging affected attitudes toward electoral integrity. Thus, the structured scales for types of rigging and electoral integrity developed here would be useful for future studies in the field of electoral integrity in democratic countries.