Legislators don’t need education in Pakistan
By Ibrahim Mahmood • Aug 8th, 2009 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look • 16 CommentsISLAMABAD, Aug 5: The federal cabinet decided on Wednesday to do away with the condition of bachelor’s degree for candidates for the Senate and the national and provincial assemblies, in line with the Supreme Court judgment of April 21 last year. Briefing reporters after a cabinet meeting, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said Pakistan was the only country to have such a condition in a democratic dispensation. (Dawn news)
Now why do legislators need education in Pakistan, as it is certainly an exercise of futility for them and when this exercise spans atleast 14 years, it would certainly seems like a life imprisonment for them. Why would they need education when they can surely confirm parliament seats for their next generations by having this law done away? Do they need to be taught manners which education teaches us? They certainly don’t need it. Why would they need education when their entire world revolves around their huge mansion, their shiny SUV’s and their endless police escorts? Why would their children need education when they are surely to follow in their fathers’ footsteps? What good does education brings when they only have to nod at their party bosses? What good would it do to a legislator by reading this article? We ordinary Pakistanis need ask this first from ourselves and then from our esteemed legislators.
What a great rationale has been given by our Information Minister that as the whole world doesn’t have that condition, therefore Pakistan should follow suit. Do I need to remind the honorable minister that our literacy rate is one of the poorest in the world and by throwing away this a law he is spelling doom for our country? Would he even care about that?
If the same rationale is followed then why do we need education after all? Why do we need to throw away 20 odd years of life after this exercise in futility? If I can become a legislator without having one why can’t I become a doctor or a lawyer without it?
Maybe we need more of such legislators who first hailed the enforcement of Sharia in Swat and within one week turned around and applauded the army operation. Maybe we need more of same kind who termed killing and burial of women in Balochistan as their ‘custom’. Maybe it would do good for all of us if we just let Taliban blowup all the schools allover Pakistan?
Maybe I should immediately take my child off his school and enlist him in a political party as he certainly don’t need the bloody education and I certainly don’t have the spare money to go through his laborious exercise in futility which in the end would do him no good.
Trackback URL
|
|
|
Click For More Articles By Ibrahim Mahmood
All posts by Ibrahim Mahmood
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Disappointing.
President Musharraf wisely introduced this bachelor degree condition for candidates of public office, in the 17th amendment. Looks like the current elected government has scraped this requirement to benefit illiterate scions of wadera/chaudhry class.
Extremely disappointing!
You are right its disappointing
BA pass people had given us idea that parliament should be BA pass so that they feel no humiliation of taking to them,This idea was generated by gen naqvi to his boss so that he might get some educated class in our houses.Gen naqvi was very popular for his strict discipline among his subordinates and even some of his juniors had faced early heart attack under his command and left army before their normal tenure.He never gave anybody any kind of benefit of doubts and punished him with stern actions,,Therefore in early years of his NAB investigation, he showed better scenes of accountability but as Musharf diverted his attention for political deals he moved this inflexible creature toward fauji foundations lucrative offers and handed over accountability procedures to gen munir hafiz who enjoyed all benefit of NAB like his corrupt boss with full powers.
So the reason of giving such details is that naqvi was unaware of ground realities that our BA degree was not any standard of education in our system.it is just a fill in blank degree for majority of people to pass their time without following any standard.This legislation no doubt deprived many of old skin politician to take part in elections but instead of this they throw more duffer characters of their family in assembly who had this cosmetic BA degree.
Some even bought this degree that normal rate in Punjab education board varies from 1 lakh to 2 lakh and all know such criteria very well then Mr naqvi.
So in our area education shouldn’t be criteria of selection of parliamentarians but a clean man/lady with clean background is urgency requirement of time.They have to take political decisions, not technical one so only sincere and devoted people can make change in our system.
@2 our all waderas , feuds and their generation receive education from west or we say UK or US return and all return to this land after completing their education in oxford like universities and here stick to their illiterate stone age values for their people.Your general had given way to all such high profile feuds with knowing all that they are most corrupt icons of our state even granted them NRO , just for helping him so please dont speak lies wiht you again and again.
Thanks for your comments guys….i had written this article in an extremely disturbed state of mind upon seeing this news….and i wanted to see a bigger reaction but i guess, the silent majority will always be silent just like zombies !
nazia, we all know the state of education in Pakistan and i can show you many MBA’s who cant even write an application but thats not the point here….the point is that musharraf enacted this law which was actually a step in right direction as a BA pass person is more intellecually mature than an illeterate….the other point is that the elite class children do go aborad to study but thats usually a time pass for them as they learn some words in english and keep an accent for usually dont complete their education because they dont need to, thats what i have seen…and i see you dont like the general but thats your opinion of him and many people still like him and would wanna see him back….these guys maybe a minority right now but they do have a right to their opinion and its supposedly a democracy over here now !
@5
it is not matter of my likeness or dis likeness to general.Army man cant look beyond his confined barracks that is part of their training.For taking political/social decisions you have to go to roots of your culture.These generals who mostly come from undeprived areas never want to settle even in their ancestors towns as they hated their origin which is surely backward and shabby.I can give you name of 5 to 6 senior army men who constructed their houses near their hometowns and rest of all left their originality as part of their inferiority complex.So they can willingly hire the locals of their origins as bat men and lower staff but never prefer to take them in officers rank so that their bossy impression would not be moved from their poor land as symbol of power.
BA pass parliament was not bad idea
if we have good system of education.
if our boards are not corrupt and even becoming more corrupt with passage of time.
we all know that standard of arts groups is still declining in our system for last many many years.
so first improve the above downfalls and then think like that
now see another aspect of parliament
the major threat to our system is from the feudal groups who are all time in the assemblies in different forms and they have made martial relations with senior army men so both groups have joined hands as corrupt and brutal establishment of Pakistan. Can you stop them passing through this hurdle?
Another threat to our stability is our all time corrupt bureaucracy whose are almost master in qualification.it is their brain that gives variety of corruption procedures to duffer politicians and this way get their heavy share under the name of politics.
So before putting such a trivial hurdle first see the root cause of down fall of parliaments and then waste time on such matters.
I am not in favour of BA or BSc Parliament because only 3 to 4 % of our total population is BA or BSc. It simply means keeping away those interested people who belong to 96% of your population. Secondly this law had least impact on our Parliament. The parliament in this tenure of law was the weakest parliament of our history. Even Junejo was powerful PM as compared to 3 PM in this time.
Secondly, this law was imposed by General and then lifted it back through PCO Zadda S.C to provide path to Zardari. So there was no sincerity at all to impose this law or to lift this law back.
First bring your all population at one level (in qualification) and then impose such laws. Who said that education ensures ethics and decency. I hardly found decency and ethics in the parliament under General rule. If this would be the case then how Mullahs (who read Quran daily) but still don’t practice it, rather totally violate it.
So for me, there should be always open ground without if and but for Politics. Educate your population to select better politicians and bring them in Parliament… don’t impose such restrictions that keep majority away from the basics of humanity. It is not the fault of person who not did BA…it is fault of state who is not providing them better education. Majority is concerned about 2 time ROTI, not for BA. First ensure basic necessity of life for nation and then see how people concentrate on education.
Ibrahim, do forgive the silence, but do not misintrepret the silence for a disrespect for education. Sometimes, it helps to keep silent to avoid cacophony when something as noble as education is the theme. What can one debate about and with who if educated people deny the value of education!
Franklay, I am grateful that no one remembers President Musharraf being for fight against Cancer, Polio, or Tuberculosis otherwise all these ‘intellectuals’ here would be condemning him for this and would start proving how wonderful it is to have cancer or what have you - like in their view now all the terrible things education causes including the chances of us to think and judge - the main traits that make us human.
@ 1,2,3 : pls dnt be disappointed its matter of celebration that at somewhat our assembly is agree on 1 point, they will never agree on points of betterment and welfare of ppl but on the point which could give benefit to them.
@4: Musharraf has gone, pls look forward
thanks for your comments Mr. Aftab and Mr. Asad…..i always try to look forward but it is hard sometimes !
Mr. Saleem Khan, i have reservations on how you use the word ‘your’…i dont know you but i assume that you are not a pakistani or dont consider pakistan as your country…i wish you well whereever you are and i dont even consider your comments relevant simply because pakistan is not your country…….i will however comment on two things you pointed out…..1) you are educated but you are comparing yourself with illeterates, do consider that when you say “Who said that education ensures ethics and decency”, 2) illeterates will never ensure ROTI to anybody other than themselves and thats a fact !…take care of yourself and do leave us pakistanis to our fate, thanks for your concern though !
@4, 6 : As usual, you’re again digressing here by dragging the army, its generals in this discussion despite that the issue raised here isn’t even remotely connected to the army.
Do you really think that Bachelor’s degree made any difference? Does the education system in Pakistan teach any ethics or moral values?
I think it is the education of the voters that will make a difference. If voters don’t chose their vote wisely, no one can stop the corrupt politicians (not the degree condition) coming to power again and again.
Mr. Writer:
I think it is not your job to check my identity or my sincerity to the peoples of Pakistan. Better you concentrate on your own work and bring some thing practical to discuss. After far word “Your” is concerned then tell me what word I should use to call Government or its policies. A professional writer should never be biased in his writing. By professional and then read others comments. Writer should only write by keeping both angles of the story and bring it for discussion, instead of first writing totally biased article and then getting angry on comments like mine.
If you have so much problem with our comments then simply tell me. I don’t have problem to not even read your writing in future. Better to digest others comments and be neutral in discussion. Why it happens that people immediately starts praising those comments that comes from their school of thoughts and never tolerate those comments that are against it. If we would be considering both angles of picture then Pakistan would have never reach to this situation.
For your kind information…Musharf bring this law and then rolled it back. They why you are only appreciating only that he bring this law.. why not discussing that what were the reasons that he took U turn on his step. What were the forces who compelled him to do so. If he bring this law with sincerity then why couldn’t stand with it for few more months. Why he opened opportunity for a person like Zardari to reach Presidency after lifting this law through PCO zadda SC.
You won’t have answers to these questions because your mind is fix at one point and unable to accept few realities.
Saleem Bhai, isn’t it the fact that President Asif Ali Zardari got elected exactly and in accordance with the constitutional requirements as it’s stipulated there in. Didn’t the opposition contest this election by putting up their own candidate by the name Wajihuddin ? PCO Zada SC (Horrible, horrible court!) - very bad. But the SJ is just as PCO Zada or do you think the PCO was then ‘holy’ and later it became so bad. Why?
One more thing I am interested in asking you. Do you consider education a political issue? I curious about your reaction on this article and its author - I honestly think education is pretty much a neutral topic and must interest us all.
aansa, what i am saying that this law was atleast a step in the right direction….voeter dont choose their votes wisely becuase they are mostly illeterate…would you keep on giving the fate of your country in these peoples hands ??
Bhai Saleem Khan Sahib, i have no objections to your comments whatsoever as long they are relevant to me….btw, i am not a professional writer and i never claim that….yes, i have my views and i write because i feel i have a right to air my views….. i have my own style as i see my country and i will keep on writing about it….and you have the right to agree with them or not…..its all upto you….
did i ever i mentioned musharraf in the article ?….i do not advocate musharraf but he was upon us for well over 8 years where were you people when he was enacting such bogus laws ?
Great Article Ibrahim Sb and I agree to every single word of it, education in general has to be improved right from the grass root level especially to women.