It was a hot weather in Karachi and hot winds were blowing
but I was unaware of it because I was sitting in a AC coffee bar where we were
having a coffee and was having a debate on the situation of Pakistan from last
2hours. As usual he was against all the traditional political parties and I was
supporting them and was answering his tough questions. I was about to order
another cup of coffee, I don’t know how much cup of coffee I took but my friend
said to me that it’s your seventh cup and I was oh my god!!!
I was very deeply involved in the debate. He came to
Pakistan after a long time of about 10years. We are childhood friends and when we were 10 he left the country
and now when he is 21 he came to Pakistan and call me that I am back and want
to meet you. His name is USMAN SHEIKH, he is doing bachelors in Avionics from
Abu Dhabi university Abu Dhabi. He was ahead of me in the debate and at some
points I was speechless because I cannot close my eyes on the harsh facts of
the country.
During all this political debate we turned to Education and
start talking about education he straight away said to me, ”you cannot correct
education through technocrats and business men he said.”you can see everywhere
in Pakistan no matter which political party is in government, the situation of
education is getting worst and worst day by day”.
I said to him,”Gen.(r)Musharraf established a head institute
called HEC for education which is responsible for the development of
universities and colleges in the country. He said to me,”it’s not a matter of
establishing a head institution but it is a matter of explaining a right rule
to institutes, universities and colleges, it is a matter of helping institution
for research.
I said, “correcting mistakes need time in fact a very long
term time he stopped me and said “don’t you think last 25years was enough to
correct that types of mistakes and I was speech less at that moment”. I said to him “previous
government and new government is giving subsidy to education and allocate a
huge amount for education in both federal and provisional budgets, I continue and
said government is also giving a huge amount of fund to HEC which will be
distributed among government universities and colleges for their betterment in
the research field and for introducing new programs for undergraduate and post
graduates and through these fund universities and colleges will introduce more
chances for new students. He taunts me and said “oh! Come one you better know
where this money will go??” I said “oh! Come on not every government is thieve,
hope for the best. He said “this Hope, this Hope destroy us, this hope destroy
our souls our values”. He become very emotional .
I said to him, “I accept the fact that we didn’t do anything
for education from past 63years but I think after 63years now we have a better
chance to correct these types of mistakes”. I Said to him, “Number of different
government universities and colleges are established which are offering
different new programs for undergraduate and post graduate and also many
different private sector universities and colleges are establish with
collaboration of foreign universities for the betterment of students.
He said,”try to become a man of down to earth some people
distribute education just for one class of the society as far as the private
universities and colleges are concerned a middle class and lower middle class student
cannot get admission in the private college or university due to high fee
structure and when it comes to government universities and colleges one who
have a strong relation with student parties or with admission committee can get
admission in the government college and university and you are the perfect
example of it. At the moment I feel that someone slaps me very badly but I
control my emotions and listen him very carefully. He continue and said, “A
cobbler cannot cut your hairs for this you have to go to a hair dresser, this
is a perfect example for our education system we’ve given the field to
technocrats and business men and we’ve make a impact that if someone wants to
become rich over night he should open a school, we cannot correct our education
system unless or until we got the people who deserve this field, who have a
vast experience in this field, who have a strong intention to correct the
system, who have a sense of responsibility, who wants to see Pakistan a
educated country and if we won’t do this we will be no more in this world and
our coming and younger generation will suffer and suffer”.
I was almost agreed with his point that we have to make a
good decision if we wants to correct the education system.
It was about 4:00PM in the evening and still we haven’t
ordered the lunch and waiter was waiting for it that when we order the lunch.
After a long pause we ordered the lunch. Still there were hot winds blowing
outside the restaurant and it was about 35®C in the evening.
The life was in full swing in the restaurant, everyone was
enjoying their lunch but two people who were sitting on the table near to the
window was not in a mood of doing lunch and it was getting cold and cold with
the passage of time.
We were having a big pause and then I break the ice and said
to him, “what do you think is the solution of the problem?”. After a long pause
he said to me, “All the traditional politicians have the solution regarding
national and security issues but they are not in a mood to implement it in the
country because they knows that if people got educated they will be no more in
the country”.
It was quite a big sentence for me to digest and it sum up
all the debate. He said, “Our traditional politicians are not in a mood of
distributing powers to middle and lower middle classes because they know they
are the real ones which can change the whole country. The world is full of
examples that middle class and lower middle class have vast amount of talent
just like Nelson Mandela, Alex Haley, Art Book wild, Gabriel Marquez, Ahmedi
Nizad, Barack Obama, Mahateer Muhammad, Abdullah Gul, and Rajab Tayyab Urdagan.
These are some examples which belong to middle class and some belongs to lower
middle class families as well. All around the world middle class and lower
middle class students have given a special attention because they know that
they are the real ones who got talent who have a courage to do something for
the nation for country. But here the story is different, Our traditional
politicians and educationist have taken the right from middle class and lower
middle class student to study”.
We were having a good debate and suddenly I received a call
from family that MQM’s MPA Sajid Qureshi is died where are you??? Come home
everything is going to be close in a while transport, shops everything is going
to be close in a while. I just passed this news to my friend with the comment
that it’s the beauty of Karachi he just smiled and said another topic for
another debate come I will drop you at the stop and I said “ok”.
While waiting for the bus at the stop I was thinking about
the discussion we had in the restaurant. I come to the point that whatever he
said is true and a harsh reality which is not easy to digest for someone like
me and that moment many statistics were coming in my mind about education that
about 68% of our children didn’t study after intermediate because of high fee
structure about 35% of our childrens never go to school about 70% of our
population which is living in the urban areas of Pakistan cannot get education
after matric because there is no college and university near their village and
their parents don’t have enough money to send them to the cities like Lahore, Karachi,
Faislabad, Islamabad etc.
I don’t know when I got the bus but in the bus I
was also thinking that we are the real terrorist of our nation we destroy our
generation in fact we will destroy our future generation and my mind stuck on a
point that why why Junaid you are supporting these terrorists?? These are not
your values; these are not your objectives then why???