 Informed consent is such an important tool in research for the social scientists that we refer back towards its nitty-gritties again and again. And form consent is one of the founding principle of research ethics because, it is given here we actually, in any research, formally or informally enter, it is an intent that the participant can enter research freely with full information about his risk and benefits and they give consent before they enter into research. So, now looking at the different stages of informed consent, we all know that informed consent is between two parties where one is informing about the status of the research and other one is committing that yes, he or she would be the part of that research. But here comes different stages as well. There is a process that began with recruitment and screening of participants like our sampling criteria either they are fulfilling or not, either they are going to be the potential participants or not and continues throughout the participants' involvement in the research. Once they have been identified as the potential participants, after that, their continuity will continue throughout the research in our data collection phase. It includes providing specific information about study to participants in a comprehensible manner. So, whatever would be the study plan, either it is a black and white paper pencil test, it is going to be some interview, it is going to be some focus group technique, it is going to be probably a detailed interview, so whatever it is we have to explain the procedure, we have to explain the process through which the participants might have to go through. So, we are getting questions to explain research and role of participants in it. Ketna time lagega, participant ka exactly uskin the role kya hoga, what he or she is supposed to do in that, that should be given in a very brief and concise manner into informed consent. Then giving adequate time to participants to consider their decisions, like when we give informed consent to someone, it is ethically very much appropriate that you give some time to the participants to think about it, that either they are going to be the part of that research happily or not, aur agar unke kuch reservations se, we can communicate over them aur pere unne resolve kane ke baad unse consent sign-sign kar wakar unko hum apni research ke protocols desh sakte hain. And by protocol I mean, whatever the type of the questionnaires you are going to use for your research, our effort back as protocols including your demographic information. Can obtain voluntary agreement by the participants to take part in the study and can decline the answer specific questions or withdraw at any time. So, you know, we have to give them that opportunity to the participants that if they want to question anything during the process and if they want to withdraw that whole exercise, they are free to do that. However, we can politely tell them, ke agar aap isko bheesh me chode nenge, to usse humari research ko potentially kya nukhsaan ho sakta hain, to usse bachne ke liye aap pehle se ye decide karne. Answering questions to explain research and role of the participant in it, this is very much important because from top to bottom at all stages you are obliged to give answers to the participants. Then informed consent procedures. Some consent procedures involve informing respondents either orally or in writing as well as getting their oral or written consent. So, in some situation where we see that we are going to do a convenient sampling, probably the researcher is standing outside the gate of the Pepsi challenge context and people are coming and going inside and you are just going to ask about the attitude of the people about drinking a certain cola. So here, it's not important that you are going to get the written informed consent. You can just orally ask them that what is your opinion about that certain thing, so are you okay to give answer for that, so the oral consent would be fine enough in that situation. Depending on the type of the research, different ways of obtaining informed consent are possible as I just mentioned. In what situations written informed consent is important? It is used when reading and signing forms is not problematic, it's a proper protocol of a research. The research is complex and it has to be gone through multiple stages and first access to the research participants is by providing writing information. So, where protocols are high, research complex and written informed consent is also important. Coming towards the oral informed consent, an oral consent is going to be processed where literacy is a problem, you know in Pakistan, literacy is a big problem. There are a lot of people who are not literate, who cannot read your written informed consent form, you can read and tell them and you can get oral consent. Then there are cultural and political concerns with signing the contract like documents. You know, there are the different geopolitical situations going on and in that, we are trying to take an opinion from the people of Kashmir, that if Indian forces come into their territory, how do they feel? And we also tell them to write in writing, so they may not be comfortable enough to give you that document in writing. There we can ask people's opinions and attitudes of oral consent. Then time for consent is limited, for example, a charge interaction between researcher and participant is limited. Like if there is any happening in a situation where we cannot ask them, let's say we have a traumatic event, a natural disaster and researchers and teams go there and the victims ask them questions, collect data from them. Oral consent can only be taken there. In that situation, we cannot enter a written bond. So basically it seems to be a very simple thing, but it seems to be a technical side by side because we have to see that in what situations we are going to opt for the written consent and in what situations we are going to go for the oral consent.