This study aims to evaluate the mediating role of sustainability in the relationship between environmental-accounting (EA) disclosures and audit quality (AQ) and firm performance (FP) by using GDP and firm size as the controlled variables. Data were collected from the annual and sustainability reports of 80 manufacturing firms that were listed on the PSX during the last 10 years (2011–2020). STATA 13 software and a multiple-regression model were used. The findings that were deduced from the empirical results indicate that EA with sustainability has a significant negative effect on both proxies of the FP (ROA and ROE). By contrast, AQ with sustainability has an insignificant negative impact on firm performance. This research contributes to the scarce literature and compares the level of EA with sustainability reporting and its impact on the FP with the controlled variables GDP and firm size. This study also contributes to the execution of the reporting and the assurance of sustainability, and it helps regulatory bodies with the integral development of reporting and the assurance of EA.

The socio-economic conditions of the world’s underprivileged people have been a matter of concern to the whole world for over three decades. Not-for-profit human development institutes helping this sector have financial sustainability as an important issue due to their usual dependence principally on funding from donors to operate and fund their tasks. This research has adopted a two-fold examination method. Primarily, the financial sustainability of the not-for-profit human development institutes working in Pakistan have been investigated by conducting ratio analysis grounded on donor dependence ratio (DDR), and using constructive grounded theory, a FinTech-enabled financial sustainable model, has been proposed for NPHDIs. Results of the initial phase demonstrated a heavy reliance on donors’ funding, with the DDR varying between 91.73% and 100% based on 10 randomly selected NPHDIs working in Pakistan as a sample. Furthermore, four key themes have been categorized during the subsequent phase, which have been articulated collectively to outline the FinTech-enabled endowment—a proposed financially sustainable model. The DDR for the selected NPHDIs have been found to be greater than 25%, so they are regarded as financially unsustainable. FinTech-empowered endowment is considered as an alternative to donor fundings, as such endowments based on social finance can provide income streams that are considered sustainable for these NPHDIs. The overview and implications lead to new knowledge of tackling the biggest challenges of providing sustainable finance to the social sector. This perspective of ethical finance helps to address the issues faced by this world’s underprivileged segment and address the problems of poverty and inequality elimination.

This study examines the impact of research and development (R&D) expenditures on economic growth, with a focus on industrial development in Pakistan and a comparative analysis with developed countries. Despite being the sixth most populous country, Pakistan faces significant challenges in achieving sustained growth. Using a panel least squares regression model, this study analyzes the data of eight countries over a period of 25 years, including Pakistan and seven G7 nations i.e. France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada. The correlation results reveal that R&D expenditures positively and significantly impact GDP across these countries. The GDPs of the G7 countries are significantly higher to Pakistan, highlighting the potential for substantial economic gains through increased R&D investment. The model shows a high R² and adjusted R², explaining 88.79% of the variation in GDP, with significant predictors including research expenditures and the lagged GDP into R&D expenditure. These findings suggest that for Pakistan, increasing R&D expenditure could lead to notable improvements in GDP and overall economic performance. Recommendations to increase government allocation to R&D, focusing on key industries such as textiles, automobile, electronics, technological advancement and infrastructure, and implementing policies that encourage private sector investment in R&D. Additionally, enhancing academic research and providing a roadmap for policymakers to foster industrial and economic development in Pakistan.

The reliance on debt is not only essential but also a key factor in economic growth of poor countries like Pakistan because of a meager tax base and an annuity of fiscal deficit. Trade surplus is a common tool that covers the budget deficit but twin deficit makes the economic conditions worst. The excessive borrowing can stimulate the economic cycle in the short run but in the in the long-run it creates the issues of debt-overhang. This timely study is an attempt to investigate the short-run and long-run dynamics of debt on the economy of Pakistan. The empirical results (ARDL co-integration) suggests that long-run relationships exist among the variables under consideration such as Exports and Remittances have negative effects on debt, while other variables have positive effects. The Error-Correction-Model (ECM) analysis indicates mean-reverting behavior, where the dependent variable returns to its long-run equilibrium. Post-estimation tests support the model's assumptions. The Jarque–Bera test shows that residuals exhibit normal distribution. CUSUM and CUSUMsq tests indicate reliability and stability of the regression model. There is a long-run relationship between exports of goods and services (EGS), imports of goods and services (IGS), gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), net official development assistance (NOD), personal remittances (PRR), and debt in Pakistan. In the long-run, Exports of goods and services have a negative impact, Imports of goods and services have a significantly positive impact, Gross fixed capital formation has a positive impact, Net official development assistance has a positive impact, Personal remittances have a negative impact on debt respectively. However, Trade as a percentage of GDP has an insignificant impact on debt in the long run. The study also found that the impact of each variable on Debt is different in the short run. Overall, the study provides valuable insights into the factors that affect Debt in Pakistan.

Pakistan is an Islamic republic country where political situation is always on a roller coaster drive. The rivalry for dominance between military establishment and politicians negatively affected the ailing economy. Being a developing country, political institutions are not strong enough to handle a bumpy ride of governance. Politicians as well as the people of Pakistan always look forward towards military in both political and non-political disasters. In this context, we tried to unveil the relationship between the style of governance and development in this paper. Our results indicate that economic growth was much higher in non-democratic governments. Also, it shows the importance of institutional strength for the development of any country because the military is one of the strongest institutions in Pakistan. It is proposed that other sociopolitical institutions must get strength just like our military and work together to achieve sustainable economic growth that is a main ingredient of development for any country.