HEC Direction: Quantity vs Quality in Higher Education

There are several reasons behind low literacy rate in Pakistan like poverty, lack of proper facilities, awareness among people, cultural tendencies and motivation. Lack of motivation seems an odd reason here but it is probably the most important reason these days. When parents see a large number of highly qualified people unemployed they are reluctant to send their children to schools and colleges. They prefer to send them to a place where they can learn some sort of skill which will help them earn a living in future.

Thousands of students graduate from universities in different disciplines every year but few are able to find a job comparable with their qualification. Government is setting up new universities; the existing universities are starting new programs; the intake of students is increasing in the existing programs every year. These factors have led to an abrupt increase in the number of graduates in the country but unfortunately there is no infrastructure and industries to accommodate all these qualified people. Also, quality of these graduates is not according to international standards so they cannot compete for job on international level. It has led to frustration and resentment among the educated youth over the last few years.

Higher education in Pakistan is regulated by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan which evaluates all the higher education institutions every year and then ranks them. Several factors are considered during this ranking process some of which are; the number of PhD professors in a university, the number of research publications published, the number of students successfully graduated and so on. Most of the factors are quantity based. Quality based factors are given little or no consideration in this process.

In order to get high ranking, the universities focus only on their numbers. If a person holds PhD, they will hire him whether s/he has the ability to teach a particular course or not. They increase the students’ intake every year whether they have the requisite facilities or not. Same is the case with research publications. Whether the research is genuine or not, the data is original or manipulated, is it relevant to the conditions and industry of the country or not. They do not care, they just want to publish it in a local journal and add it to their publications’ list.

These factors have severely undermined the higher education. Under these circumstances, what can we expect from the graduates of these universities? They are in no position to apply their knowledge in the practical field.

Some fields are already super saturated like business administration, telecommunication and computer science. Every year thousands of graduates are added up to the already existing unemployed lot. Even the fields of Engineering, medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, agriculture and natural sciences are saturated. Whenever there is an announcement for a few vacancies, there are hundreds of applicants per single post. But still some of these fields are thriving and creating some vacancies from time to time.

However, there are some disciplines started in different universities for which no infrastructure exists in the country. Hundreds of students graduate in the fields of Bioinformatics, Space Technology and Robotics but there is no industry for these disciplines here. These graduates either join the faculty of the same university from where they graduated or go abroad. It clearly shows these programs were started without proper planning.

A limited budget is allocated for higher education every year. The concerned authorities need to spend this budget according to the needs of the country.

But on the bright side, there are few top quality universities in Pakistan where not only quality education is provided but also state of the art research facilities are available. These universities focus both on theoretical and applied aspects and produce high quality graduates. These graduates can outclass their competitors not only at national level but also at international level. Higher Education Commission needs to set these institutions as benchmarks for other universities.

Entrepreneurship seems to be a rare commodity in Pakistan. All the educated people look for jobs but unfortunately job opportunities are limited. The alternative is to start something of your own. It is the duty of educational institutions to infuse awareness among students and prepare them for entrepreneurship. A couple of universities have already started such programs where research projects of the students are evaluated by a team of experts and if they approve the project then the concerned students are trained accordingly. These students also get funding for their startups from the university. All universities need to start such programs. It eases the unemployment situation to some extent.

Government should prioritize quality over quantity. Universities should revisit their admission criteria and only those students should be admitted who show a strong aptitude towards a particular discipline. Technical institutions should be set up at district level for those who cannot get admission at universities where they will learn different skills. Moreover, holding a degree does not make one eligible for teaching so training programs for the teachers should be set up so that they can prepare students for the challenges of contemporary world.

Research in the universities should not be for the sake of completing a degree or getting promotion, rather it should be conducted according to the country’s requirements. These factors will restore the people’s faith on the education system and they will not hesitate to send their children to schools which will help in improving literacy rate of the country.

Suggestions for Improving Literacy Rate of Pakistan

Pakistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world and some of the main reasons behind this low rate are financial constraints faced by the parents, lack of sufficient number of educational institutions in the country, large number of students per teacher, lack of a competitive culture in remote areas, lack of motivation, inconsistent curriculum and many more. If government can provide free quality education to all children it will help in improving the literacy rate but that seems unlikely due to limited resources.

Although provincial governments are providing free education to some extent but that is clearly not enough to equip all the children with the treasures of knowledge. They provide free education up to primary level and that is also limited to some areas. But there are some other measures which may not require huge sums of money but they can help us to improve the country’s literacy rate.

One of such measure is to provide education up to secondary level in the local language with English and Urdu as compulsory subjects. It will encourage all those students to continue their education, who leave the schools just because they are not well versed in English and Urdu and they are forced to study all subjects in one of these two languages. Moreover, it will also be a source of promotion of our dying local languages. We hardly see young renowned scholar, poet or writer of local languages. All those students who have the aptitude to study literature opt for either English or Urdu literature.

However, if we start teaching our children all of their courses in local languages they will not only learn those courses in a better way but it will also help them to develop an interest in these languages. So in future if they want to pursue their higher studies in literature they may opt for their regional language as they already have a firm foundation for that.

Apart from the inclusion of local languages, the ages old curriculum needs to be revisited. Children should be taught only the basic subjects in primary schools. Then in the secondary schools they should be given choice of selection of courses on their own, of course teachers can serve as guide in this matter but subjects should not be imposed on the students. Like in the present education system students are given the choice to either study Humanities or science but still Mathematics of the same level in included in the curriculum for both science and Humanities. Due to which a large number of Humanities students never pass their matric/SSC examination.

One of the other main hindrances in improving our literacy rate is the lack of qualified teachers. Although, it is a fact that recruitment of large number of qualified teachers at once might not be possible due to non-availability of sufficient funds but if the existing teachers are properly trained and motivated, they can play a vital role in improving the literacy rate. They can motivate their students to continue their studies despite the financial hardships they and their parents are facing.

For this purpose services of experienced and retired teachers may also prove handy. Hiring professional trainers is another option. Apart from training, the school teachers need to be motivated through incentives. When they consider themselves as financially stable, they will do their job diligently. Teachers serving in tribal and other rural areas should be given special incentives like special pay and allowances as well as bonuses for those teachers who show promising results.

Another way to ensure provision of education to children without costing huge sums of money is to make the “ghost schools” functional. As we have seen in media reports that there are dozens of ghost schools present in different parts of the country. The infrastructure is already there, the teachers are being paid regularly but the schools are not functional. Instead these schools are used by the influential people as their “Hujras” or dairy farms.

It is very unfortunate that despite the media reports, government has not taken any step to make those schools fully functional except one or two schools in KPK which were made functional by the provincial government in recent past. Government needs to mobilise the concerned authorities to take action against those people who use the government schools for their personal use. Moreover, action should also be taken against those teachers who are not doing their job regularly.

National Book Foundation is doing a very good job by providing books to the readers on low prices. As government already allot a significant amount of money to the NBF every year so if NBF starts providing school books, it will make life easy for all those children and their parents who cannot afford to buy books for their children. Moreover the “Books on Wheels” project can include schools in remote areas in this project. It will help the children of far flung areas to get books on their doorsteps.

Article 25-A of the constitution of Pakistan ensures the provision of free education to all children of the age 5 to 16 years in such manner as may be determined by law. So it is the duty of state to leave no stone unturned in providing education to all children. The process of development is incomplete without education. The secret of development of all the developed countries is that they directed their resources to provision of education to their masses. Our country needs to follow the same route to development.

Kashmir: A Nuclear Flashpoint

There is no denying the fact that the longest lingering and the major issue between Pakistan and India is the Kashmir issue “the unfinished agenda of the partition”. It has often been dubbed as the nuclear flashpoint owing to the fact that it is a constant bone of contention between the two nuclear states of South Asia; India and Pakistan. A wider belief maintains that if there is one problem that has the tendency and potential to make the two nuclear power states come to an exploding threshold that would be the Kashmir problem.

No wonder the first bloody war between India and Pakistan was fought over Kashmir in 1948, which set the precedent for future hostilities, distrust, proxies and battles. The Kargil conflict in 1999, again in the backdrop of Kashmir crisis, brought the most critical circumstances for the two states, where the world saw them positioning their troops along the border and readying their naval forces against each other. It was highly feared that the situation had brought them to the brink of another war, which could have irrevocably disastrous repercussions since the two had overtly gone nuclear by then. However the crisis was stopped short of spiraling into a full blown war by the international mediation, and by the very presence of the nuclear weapons which served as a deterrent.

However, the details mentioned in the book titled “This Unquiet Land: Stories from India’s Fault line” by Barkha Dutt, proclaims that India had not ruled out the possibility of using nuclear weapons against Pakistan during the Kargil crisis. The formal Indian National Security Advisor Brajesh Misra during an interview to the NDTV revealed that a letter given to President Clinton by PM Vajpayee had hinted that India was contemplating crossing the LoC as well as using the nuclear weapons if Pakistan did not pull out the fighters from Kargil.

This revelation while was shocking but highlights a couple of facts: a) The international community only scrambled to its feet when came to know of India’s vile intentions of using nukes, b) going by the confession made in the book, it probably wasn’t the presence of nuclear weapons and their expected deterrent role, but the possibility of their use which made international community put pressure to keep the crisis from going out of control, c) India will not shy from using them despite time and again reiterating its “no first use” policy, d) the Kashmir issue needs a third party facilitation because so far the bilateral efforts have all led to stalemate, e) since the Kashmir issue remains unresolved till today, it may again trigger India to consider exploiting a nuclear option anytime.

The situation in Kashmir is once again calling for world attention amidst the equally critical yet slightly different circumstances. The extrajudicial killing of Burhan Wani reflects India’s disregard to the legal system. Further making the situation worse, India has resorted to the most terrible form of violence and state terrorism against the locals to curb down protests, blinding them with pellets and causing most miserable injuries and deaths. These Indian atrocities merit an immediate intervention especially by the international human right watchdogs.

The responsibility for the present unrest in Kashmir falls solely on India for committing violence against the unarmed civilian population. Even today, India is adamant at using force apparently against its “own people”, as it claims IoK to be its own territory. Seeking a diplomatic solution of this problem doesn’t seem to be on India’s agenda. The ongoing crisis also points to the fact that locals do not accept Indian occupation and the recent havoc that Indian security and police forces have unleashed on the innocent unarmed Kashmiri people, has been their embarrassing failure in keeping the situation under control.

Not just that, but recently when Pakistan showed solidarity with the Kashmiris by observing Black Day on July 20th, India implicated Pakistan for inciting and instigating the present crisis in Kashmir, demanding that it should stop supporting and abetting the insurgents and protesters. A couple of days ago, in her strongest statement against Pakistan till date, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of advancing the “despicable design” of destabilizing South Asia by exporting “dirty money and dangerous terrorists”.

These allegations hurled at Pakistan however do not find endorsement of the international community; but the strong and caustic rhetoric by Indian leadership once again raises alarms regarding its aggressive mindset. The amendments in its nuclear doctrine since 1998, especially the Indian Cold Start doctrine does provide a space for that by aiming for rapid but limited retaliatory incursions into Pakistan by the Indian army in order to seize and hold narrow slices of territory in response to any act of terrorism in India by Pakistan.

Since in the ongoing violence in Kashmir, it strongly incriminates Pakistan for abetting violence on alleged “Indian territory”, no matter how hypothetical it may sound but looking at the past event one cannot rule out the possibility that India might once again be mulling over the nuclear option. Hence, the tactical nuclear weapons become ever more relevant for Pakistan for effective deterrence, so is the active involvement of the international community not just to keep a close watch over the three stake holders but to also work efficiently for the immediate crisis management and later on for its resolution too.

The international community should not wait until India’s jingoism in Kashmir makes it send another letter to the US. The deplorable human atrocities in Kashmir at the hand of Indian state should immediately be put to end and those responsible for it should be held accountable. Kashmir needs attention not just as a political issue or for its tendency to become a nuclear flash point, which it still is and is going to remain for the times to come, but more importantly on the human grounds.

What Makes a Pakistani a Pakistani?

“Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events. Weak minds discuss people”



Pakistan came into existence in 1947 with Islam as an ideological base but with the passage of time and introduction of the western and Indian media in our society, our culture has gone un-islamic and very much confusing for the new generation. What actually this sentence mean “what makes a Pakistani a Pakistani”? It means that by the blessing of Allah and by the efforts of our great heroes, we have our country Pakistan, but we have yet to become good Pakistanis. We have made our wrong image all over the world due to our wrong polices and mistakes done by our immature and uneducated politicians.



Unfortunately, Pakistani media is playing in the hands of outsiders and are hell bent on creating false/confusing information. They are not contributing their efforts towards the true image of the Pakistani social and Islamic values. Now a days, we have divided ourselves into different sectarian classes. We are all involved in Holy Wars. We kill one another on the basis of sects and we play the negative role in our society which gives bad name to Pakistan.



Even during the month Ramadan, a Muslim brother kills another Muslim brother. But then again, since when does terrorists take Ramadan into accounts? They are not even humans, let alone being Muslims.



Due to lawlessness situation which is spoiling the image of Pakistan globally, when ordinary Pakistanis go abroad, then foreigners call them as terrorists. This is what our image has been reduced to. Extremely unfortunate, to say the least.



We are lucky that we have our great army which fights for us every time to save us from terrorists. They never refuse to call whether it’s a natural disaster or saving us from terrorists, or securing our borders. However, a section of our Indian sponsored media is always busy in tainting them with a negative brush.

Following are the measures through which we can reinstate and improve the Pakistani history/Islamic culture.

We should try to teach the Islamic and Pakistan history to new generation. Media should also play a vital role in their daily electronic and print media programs and there should be a complete media access in remote areas of Pakistan. We should introduce our talent in the media so that they can inspire our new generation.

Educated/talented people do not get the appropriate opportunity to employment within Pakistan due to mismanagement and wrong policy of government in this way we are losing our talent as they seek to go overseas in search of better future.

Even students who are well educated and have done their Masters and PhD struggle to get a proper job. The people who have references get the job otherwise ordinary students do not get the job.

At the end, I want to give some suggestions due to which we become the perfect Pakistani and improve the image of Pakistani in the world

We should not indulge ourselves in different sect/groups and treat one another equally. Poverty and violence are unequivocally consuming our youth in different ways and we need to address this issue on a war footing. In this regard, the state should act quickly and bring reforms in public sector educational institutions which at moment are in bad shape.

Similarly, if we are in foreign country, we must follow their rules. Similarly, we should keep our surroundings clean. Show respect to one another especially on internet. Besides all this, we need good governance at central and provincial level which is of course, the most important change that we need at the moment.

Breaking the Stereotypes: An Interview with a Pakistani Hindu

Pakistan is famous for a lot of negative reasons in the world. One of the most pervasive world belief is that the country is plagued with religious intolerance where minorities such as Christians and Hindus find it hard to survive.

Here we present an interview with Dr. Rajesh Kumar, a Pakistani Hindu from Jamshoro, Sindh. He candidly replies various questions asked from him and documents his life as a Hindu in Pakistani.

Q: Could you tell us about you, where you live, a bit about your family, what you do, etc?

I am Dr. Rajesh Kumar, Youth and Minority rights activist, graduated as a Medical Doctor from Liaquat university of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Sindh. Pursuing post graduation in the field of Psychiatric Medicine from the same insitution.

I was born in a town namely Thana Bula Khan, a Hindu Dominant town of Sindh, serving the biggest economy to the country because of most people into Business.

Half of family is into medical profession, so my father inspired me to be a medical Doctor like him. Since very begining of college days, I have been actively participatig in Youth led conferences about Interfaith Harmony, Democracy, Leadership, Peace, Climate Change and Youth empowement in Pakistan, India and United states.

Q: Are there many Hindu families in Pakistan?

In Pakistan, Hindus are living very peacefully since thousands of years around the Indus Valley. Hindus were the real owners of the land. Since ages, Hindus have a very rich background. They are business oriented, educationists, philanthropists who always believed in the message of Humanity, Interfaith Harmony, Tranquility and Peace. Currently Hindus make up around two percent of the country’s 200 million people and they mostly live in southern Sindh province.

People compare pre and post 1971 statistics and assume that the Hindu population in Pakistan has drastically reduced when it is clear that Pakistan was dismembered in 1971 and the statistics would of course be different for only the western part of what was total of east and west Pakistan then.

Q: Have you ever been in a situation where you have been asked to ‘Go to India’ because you are a Hindu?

In my case, answer would be very simple, Just because I have been born into a particular religion, no one has ever told me off that I belong to a certain country.

Infact in cities other than my birth city, I am treated like a celebrity. People are curious about the hindu customs and cultures and ask me a lot of questions. Indeed some people have come to shake hand with me only to see what a Hindu looks like.

But if one were to believe the media, then we are victims of religious extremism, Intolerance, religious discrimination and forceful religious conversion. Despite of having some basic and minor issues, We do celebrate each of our Festival including Dewali, Holi, Thadri, Raksha Bandhan with full Zeal and Zest with our fellow Countrymen.

I vividly remember very few-off situations when during a cricket match I was asked who I supported. By then, I failed to comprehend the mindset behind the question.

I personally believe that there are ignorant people on both sides of the border. Lunatic people using these ‘Go to India’ or ‘Go to Pakistan’ tags and those setting examples of “Ghar Wapsi” and “love jihad” are doing nothing but are only bringing disgrace to their communities and country.

Q: Do you think Hindus and Muslims can live peacefully?

Since I belong to Sindh, I believe in the proposition that Hindus and Muslims can live peacefully. The cultural values of Sindh are mixture of Sufi Islam & Hinduism. Many cities of Sindh are exemplary in that. At times, a number of Muslim friends ask me, if they can join me for holi celebrations and can share the joys. Similarly, I feel no hesitation in celebrating the Eid with my Pakistani brothers and sisters.

I believe that only thing which separates us from each other is the borders which we make in our mind and here I will second the Nelson Mandela that “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite” .

Q: What are your views on the India – Pakistan hatred that has been going on for so long?

It’s the political divide. Politicians, on both sides of the border, have been harboring hatred and mistrust about each other from the last sixty-nine years for their own selfish interests. I went to India last year and was received with a lot of love. I, similarly, have witnessed my Indian friends in Pakistan being received with the same spirit. For no reason on earth should common Indians and Pakistanis hate each other. Also, for me religion is a secondary component of my identity. I am first a Pakistan then a Hindu.

Q: Do you think Pakistanis want peace or want war?

Who wants to go into war? I mean who even likes war like situations? What do wars give us? Bloodshed, loss of loved ones. All religions teach peace, mercy, and love. Religion is a very strong force in the South Asian region and has a great influence on the masses. An average Pakistan wants peace within his/her country as well as with the neighboring countries.

Beheaded Body of Kidnapped Army Personnel Found in Mohmand

MOHMAND AGENCY, June 13: Slaughtered body of a kidnapped army personnel was found early morning in Darwazgai area of Ekkaghund tehsil in Lower Mohmand of Mohmand agency here on Monday, said officials.

Unknown militants had kidnapped a soldier Hayat Khan from Shanow Ghundi area of tehsil Ekkaghund last night. He was on leave from Punjab regiment centre Mardan.

Hayat khan was busy in Isha prayers where unknown militants kidnapped him, according to local residents.

After the incident, security forces conducted a search operation in the adjoining areas but no arrest was made.

Monday morning, the body of Hayat Khan was found in Darwazgai area of Ekkaghund from where it was shifted to Shabqadar hospital and later handed over to his relatives.

Three days ago, unknown militants had kidnapped a Subedar of Khasadar force and another security personnel whose dead bodies had been found later.

Pakistan’s Internal Security Goals and Challenges

The National Action Plan, drafted in the aftermath of tragic Peshawar school carnage, surely was the right move in the right direction. It promised to bring not just an end to the widespread terrorism and terrorist outfits but also aimed at providing the concerned institutions with a mechanism to deal with this menace. The 20 points document was widely accepted and appreciated by one and all across the state. It was also the first time that the civil and military leadership were unanimously agreeing on a plan of action to rid the state and society of extremism. However today, three years onward, the objectives laid out in the document seem to have remained unattainable while the perils of terrorism in various forms appear to have engulfed the society even further.

This is not to undermine the efforts like Zarb-e-Azb, military operation in Karachi and the endeavors being carried out in Balochistan, which definitely restored the faith of a common man back into the sincerity of security forces and institutes, but in the face of recurring suicide blasts, target killings, and ever deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi, one is made to question the status and reasons for the declining internal security situation of the state.

The problem may not necessarily lie in the document itself, even if at times those who drafted it tend to argue that it was conceived in haste and hence may have lot of loopholes. But the fact is that the document is more of a “to-do” list, outlining what exactly needs to be done on immediate basis if one wants avoid Peshawar like terrorist attacks in the future. The document clearly points out “what” needed to be done but doesn’t tell “how” to go about it. Being a “Plan” it is expected that it would also contain some line of action or effective policy options for the smooth implementation of the plan. The fact that it was made in a hurry doesn’t hold much justification today after three years, which is ample enough time for any strategy to be evolved, reviewed, revised and improved intermittently.

At the same time, the operation sweep out against terrorist outfits and large scale hangings of the convicts by the military courts did prove to be an effective deterrent for the time being but could not completely snuff out the nuisance of extremism and terrorism. The need is to delve deeper at the micro level and root out the pro extremism factions from the society, who are found alarmingly in abundance among the so called moderate and liberal stratum of general public. This could only be achieved if the mindset is targeted and overhauled into believing that the security of the state and its people is what matters the most and stands supreme in the face of any ethnic or sectarian based division of the society.

Indeed such an approach will take time and the results should not be expected to be achieved over night, but so far one doesn’t see any efforts or mechanism being devised to deal with the psychological aspect of this problem. One possibility could be to establish rehabilitation centers for those people, especially the youth who readily becomes an easy target at the hands of extremist elements. Policies at providing employment opportunities could positively supplement the military operations. Crackdown against the institutions/madressah found to be involved in spreading and hatred would have been strictly dealt with, without any concessions.

Unfortunately in a recent turn of events, the PTI leadership has donated a huge amount of RS. 300 million to a privately run madressah Darul-Uloom Haqqania, which has also been notorious for having close links with Afghan Taliban. Key Taliban leaders Mullah Omer, Mullah Mansour and Jalaluddin Haqqani graduated from Darul Uloom Haqqania and so did Asim Umar, the head of al-Qaeda’s South Asia chapter. Its graduates were also allegedly involved in Benazir’s killing.

Such an action causes a direct damage to the very spirit National Action Plan, which clearly disallows the funding of any terrorist and terrorist outfit, and rather seeks for the freezing of all their assets. The sad part is that when criticized for this action, the opposition leader not only justified his motives but also tried to slap convincing arguments that it was done only in the best interest of the state, where it is being aimed at integrating such elements into the mainstream of the society. One fails to understand how can the evil of terrorism be eradicated when its supporters are sitting among the higher echelons of the state directly involved in the policy making process.

It also highlights the fact that as long as the sympathizers are allowed to provide for such organizations, there will be no hope for clean society free from such elements. Such organizations will continue to inculcate extremism among the youth. The money will only be used as a bait to attract more fragile minds which can be easily radicalized too.

How can then one even hopes to curb external security detractors who are always on a look out. The recent statement by COAS General Raheel shows a firm resolve where he whemently conveys that proxies will not be allowed on the Pakistani soil. However one is left to wonder how one can possibly disallow proxies in a society which is riddled with radicalized mindset that can be taken advantage of and may be used any time against one’s own state and citizens.

Another important area which is constantly being neglected is that there is a tendency of denial and procrastination towards the harsh reality unfolding in front of eyes. The state leadership has time and again denying the presence of ISIS in Pakistan. However they tend to forget that there is a substantial number of people who sympathies and support ISIS agenda and ideology. Only recently it was reported that 3 Daesh members were held in Lahore. Also LeJ was reportedly seeking to build affiliation with ISIS, before the chief Malik Ishaq was killed last July. However the Pakistani officials have generally denied that Islamic State has gained a foothold in the country, though there are occasional reports of arrests or killing of people affiliated with the group.

The need of the time is that more dedicated and concerted efforts should be invested not just at the state level but at the personal level too if one needs to get rid of the widespread extremism and radical elements in the society. More than anything the NAP needs to be updated to include long term objectives such as devising rehabilitation program that may help in bringing long lasting and durable stability to the internal security landscape of the state.

Time to Take Rural-Urban Disparities Seriously

Every year billions of rupees are allocated for the development of rural areas which gives a ray of hope to the rural population that it will change their fate this year. People who hardly manage to eat one meal per day expect that this year they will be able to get enough food for their families. They expect that this might be the year their government will improve the condition of local hospitals so that they will not have to go to the big cities for medical treatment. They expect that government will build roads and bridges.

The school kids expect the roofs and walls of their schools will be repaired so that they will not take a day off when it is raining. They also expect that they can finally get clean drinking water and toilet facility in their schools. Similarly girls expect that government will arrange impeccable security for their schools so that they will not study in a state of fear and uncertainty. The rural farmers expect that they will get subsidies from the government and get modern farming appliances. Common people expect that this year there will be a reduction in their sufferings, but every year all of these great expectations remain unfulfilled. It is the story of about seven decades of our history.

Neither the present nor the previous governments have ever taken the rural urban disparities into consideration. All of the successive governments have spent their development funds in urban areas. Even so, some of these projects are not even directed for the public good but only for the political gains. On one hand, some of the cities in Pakistan have a dozen fully equipped large hospitals while on the other hand even the small dispensaries in rural areas are not fully functional.

A couple of cities have metro bus service worth more than 50 billion rupees but in some rural areas people do not even have access to clean drinking water. Often animals and humans drink from the same ponds and wells. Government concentrates on urban areas because development projects in these areas are visible to everyone. Media also cover these areas which is a source of publicity for the politicians. People in rural areas are often uneducated. They do not know anything about what is going on in the country. They have no political awareness. They vote for the local landlords and influential people either due to their pressure or due to their ancestral loyalty to those families.

Pakistan’s first ever Multidim­ensional Poverty Index (MPI) was launched earlier this week in which progress regarding poverty reduction across different regions of the country was analyzed. A broader concept of poverty was used in the process in which not only income and wealth were taken into consideration but also the deprivations people experience with respect to health, education and standard of living. According to MPI there is a huge difference between Poverty level in urban and rural areas. In urban areas it is 9.3% as compared to 54.6% in rural areas. These figures should serve as a wakeup call for our leadership.

According to World Bank, 62% of population in Pakistan lives in rural areas and more than half of these people are living in extreme poverty. The aforementioned index has also pointed out the fact that over two-thirds of people in Fata (73%) and Baluchistan (71%) live in multidimensional poverty. They only manage to get one meal per day and cannot afford to send their children to schools. Poverty is directly related to literacy rate and that is the reason that literacy rate in rural areas is very low as compared to urban areas.

Low literacy rate leads to poor law and order situation which is obvious in this case. Rural urban disparities give rise to hatred and animosities between different sections of society. Foreign elements exploit this situation as it is ideal for those forces to fuel this fire and turn the underprivileged rural youth against the state.

Such a big difference of living standards between rural and urban areas have led to migration of millions of people from rural to urban areas which has given rise to congestion of the major cities. Rural people migrate to cities in search of employment opportunities and better standard of living. However, if government can provide them these facilities in their native areas they will not migrate to cities.

It is high time for the government and concerned departments to pay special attention to the development of rural areas. They need to spend at least the already allocated amount of money on development projects in these areas. Government need to provide incentives for the doctors and school teachers who are serving in remote areas. There is dire need to overhaul the condition of existing schools and hospitals. New schools and hospitals should also be constructed at the union council level.

As more than two third of rural population is dependent on agriculture so farmers should be given special attention. Vocational training institutes should be setup for the youth so that they have a fair chance in the job market. Setting aside their political interests, federal government should make the local politicians accountable for all the issues in their constituencies. In this way we can hope for some improvement in the current state of affairs.

The Endangered Urdu

I cannot recall my last “pure” Urdu conversation with someone, not even with a person who has a university degree in Urdu literature. It is very unfortunate that most of the times we struggle to find appropriate Urdu words for a situation, although we know English words for the said situation. Our conversations are a mix of Urdu, English and regional languages. The more a person uses English words in his or her conversation, the highly educated he is considered. I have also seen people get into a fit of laughter because someone used a common Urdu idiom; it was like meeting entitled tourists.

Same is the case with Urdu writing. More than two third of the young generation are not proficient in Urdu writing due to the excessive use of Roman Urdu. This generation has actively helped blur the distinction between Urdu and English in Pakistan. At first, they started sneaking in an English noun or two despite the presence of perfectly serviceable Urdu words. We went from skipping some words, to fading them out, all the way to practically revolting against the language.

English language is considered as a social status symbol in big cities. In small cities and remote areas, regional languages dominate Urdu. Whenever we meet a person from our native region we switch from Urdu to our shared regional language which means we do not feel comfortable in communicating in Urdu and always wait for a chance to switch to our mother tongue or English. It is like we do not want to communicate in Urdu unless we are forced to do so. Same is the case with our national media.

We hardly see a TV program in “pure” Urdu. Dialogues in Urdu drama are a mix of Urdu and English and the proportion of English words is increasing with time. Programs related to the promotion of Urdu literature have disappeared from TV, even from the state owned Pakistan Television. PTV was not able to build on the platform given by the likes of Zia Mohyeddin, Obaidullah Baig, Qureshpur, Ghazi Salahuddin, Mustansar Hussain Tarar, Tariq Aziz and many other renowned figures.

Our national television used to celebrate the birthdays and death anniversaries of renowned Urdu writers and poets and telecast programs related to their contribution to Urdu language. These programs were a great source of information and inspiration for our young generation but for the last decade or so we haven’t seen such programs.

Unfortunately, the younger lot failed to continue the legacy of the aforementioned legends amid commercialization and competition. We have subconsciously declared Urdu incompatible in the modern world. It has been presumed that Urdu language was meant to lose its legacy with technological revolution but in reality we created an unfavorable environment for it.

Importance of English language cannot be denied. In order to survive in an international environment, English is considered as the lifeline. Our education system is mostly based on the aforementioned notion. In schools all of the courses are taught in English except a few, which is why Pakistani students and professionals do not face any trouble in communication when they go abroad. However, this proficiency in English comes at the expense of gradual extinction of Urdu.

Previously Urdu used to be the medium of instruction in public schools and that was one of the reason parents hesitates to send their children to those schools. Reason behind this state of affairs was that education system in colleges and universities is in English. It was not an easy task for these students to survive in that English dominated environment. Secondly, our civil services structure, judicial system and corporate sector are all based on English. If one is not proficient in English, he or she cannot compete in civil service exams or other competitive examinations. Now most of the government schools have switched to English as medium of instruction and only a couple of subjects are taught in Urdu.

In short, the Urdu language is in a crisis. We have not taught properly our younger generation about our national language. We failed to inculcate an affinity for our national language in them. They are not aware of the works of Ghalib, Yusufi, Insha, or at the very least have not gone over Zia Mohiuddin’s readings. There are those who have developed an affinity towards Saadat Hussain Manto of late, thanks to Sarmad Sultan Khoosa’s movie on Manto’s life. But Manto’s popularity is because of the subject matter of his writings more than his literary style.

Specifically, it is the lack of interest in its preservation which is disturbing. We have not tried seriously to promote and develop Urdu as a language. As a consequence of all the lack of effort towards helping it grows, its progress has stagnated. Now we are at the mercy of whoever decides to write whatever they like in the language and subject the public to read it.

We are coming dangerously close to “illiteracy” in our own national language. But apart from lamenting its decline, there is, perhaps, nothing much we can do with educational authorities like ours. Like in all other cases, our priorities are misplaced here as well. There are no incentives for the writers, poets and people engaged in Urdu language promotion from the government. Students are reluctant to major in Urdu literature because they don’t see any future in this field. Some of legendary Urdu writers and poets are living miserable lives.

Urdu is the insignia of our culture. The unfortunate dilemma is that we find it ‘cool’ or trendy to dissociate ourselves from it. If we want to preserve and promote our cultural values, we need to pay due attention to the dismal state of Urdu language but if we continue as we are today, Urdu, along with our identity may eventually cease to exist.

Edhi’s Funeral Did Not Depict What He Lived For

National Stadium Karachi was surrounded by armed personnel on 9th July at Pakistan’s greatest philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi. Everyone had to go through several security barriers to enter the stadium. Thousands of common people, who wanted to attend this great man’s funeral were not allowed to enter the stadium. The so called reason was, VVIP protocol.

The people were barred from attending the funeral because a few national dignitaries were attending the funeral. Thus the farewell of a great person was hijacked by VVIPS. The person who dedicated his entire life to the welfare of poor people and always resisted the idea of VIP protocol, was at the mercy of the same VVIPS on his death.

Edhi always lived among the masses and never carried a guard or any other security with him. The common people should’ve been at the front rows and the VIPs at the back but it was unfortunate that VIPs pushed some of the poor back and most of them out of the stadium.

If these VIPs were adamant to attend this funeral they could have arranged a separate VIP funeral and let the common people attend the “common” funeral. But what’s done is done. Now that we have forgotten Edhi’s ideology immediately after his death, it is also a worrying factor to see whether our system will allow his heirs to carry forward his legacy? Will Edhi foundation be the same after his death? Only time will tell the answers of these questions. Let’s hope for the best.