Congratulations to the Pakistani Nation and Judges

March 16th 2009 marked a new day in the history of Pakistan. This was the day when a two year struggle by the civil society, lawyers, media and politicians produced significant gains. Judges who refused to accept illegal demands of civil and military dictators were reinstated through an executive order. Earlier lawyers from the PPP who were leading figures in the lawyers movement from 9th March 2007 took a u turn regarding their stance on the restoration of the judiciary. After getting senior positions in the government they started propogating their own views. They claimed that the deposed judges cannot be restored through an executive order. According to them the parliment has to pass a bill regarding the restoration of judges. However, lawyers like Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmed Kurd, Munir Malik etc. claimed that a simple executive order is enough for their restoration. The government adopted a divide and conquer strategy for restoring the judges of their choice. They asked some judges to take fresh oath. Majority of the PPP legislators decided not restore some of the judges. Even a few hours before the announcement those legislators kept on claiming that restoration of the CJ was out of question. Alas, truth prevailed and the judges are being restored through an executive order.

This did not deter the civil society, lawyers and media from fighting for establishing the rule of law. They fought relentlessly and were not scared of detentions, teargassing and other state atrocities. Hats off to them for thei valour and determination. This movement could not have succeeded without them. This movement would not have produced the desired results if either one of them had backed out.

At the same time I would like to express my gratitude to General Ashfaq Kiani and Lt.Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha who did not let the sytem collapse. They gave confidence to the Prime Minister and civil leadership that they can handle the affairs themselves. Ofcourse the played their role and perhaps even guided the leadership. However, they did not take things into their own hands. They have set a trend for the future military leadership who will only focus on their professional responsibilities.

Perhaps this was the most popular movement after the creation of Pakistan in 1947. We have proved to the world that we are not a failed state or a bunch of extremists. We believe in the rule of law and will fight peacefully to achieve our goal. Our success today does not mean that this is the end and law will be supreme. This is just the beginning. We’ll have to keep fighting with the same spirit and valour. We have realized that this is OUR country and only WE can put it on the path of prosperity. With a sincere desire to fight we can easily achieve our goals very peacefully.

Do we need Roti or Justice?

Since 9th March 2007  the concept of Independent Judiciary has become very popular. Some people say our country cannot prosper without an independent judiciary some say it is not needed, there are other things that we need more. An independent judiciary is always needed to strengthen a country. Without justice people feel insecure and are not able to fulfil their responsibilities towards the state with the required dedication and enthusiasm.

Pakistan is a country where “Doctrine of Necessity” has allowed every tom, dick and harry to do anything he wants. What was the necessity here?Corruption, abuse of power, politically motivated kidnappings and murders? Isn’t the judiciary responsible for ensuring such things dont happen? After all justice delayed is justice denied.

Last year the country witnessed the worst ever inflation. At the same time one group was talking about an independent judiciary as well. Another group said we are fine as long as we can afford two meals a day. Both groups blame each other for working on their own vested interests without caring for the masses.

If we look into the recent history of Pakistan we will see that inflation has also occurred due to hoarding. I dont remember from which class I’ve studied in different subjects that agriculture is Pakistan’s main source of revenue. Lets look at the stock market crisis of March 2005. The market crashed all of a sudden even though Pakistan was one of the world’s fastest growing economies. What happened then is beyond my understanding. Who suffered in the end? Small investors, pensioners who were trading just to support their expenses. A supposed inquiry by SECP did not yield any results. All those actively trading know what happened. Back in 2006 a sugar crisis erupted. The crisis led to the increase in sugar prices from Rs.22 o a little over Rs.40. The then government supposedly took very quick action and imported sugar. What I fail to understand over here is how can we rely on agriculture if we are importing sugar? NAB had started an inquiry against some sugar mills but it was ordered by the then President Musharraf to stop. What I fail to understand is why did the President stop the inquiry? After all he wanted to establish good governance in the country. The wheat crisis is another example. We initially exported wheat and then imported it back. Will such things happen if perpetrators of these crimes are dealt with an iron hand? Will anybody have the courage to hoard any commodity if he knows that he will be punished for his crime? Why is it so that influential people get away because of NRO yet the common man has to go around in courts and prove his innocence just because he cant buy witnesses or influence somebody’s election?

In the past few years we have seen many state entities getting privatized. Most of them were generating good revenues and were sold at throwaway prices. After all they were state property and belonged to the tax payers of this country. However, only one such entity was saved by the Supreme Court. Who will investigate their sale at such low prices and punish those who sold them at such low rates? Isn’t this corruption as well?

People often blame CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry and his associates for the murder of 40 innocent citizens in Karachi on 12th May 2007. How can you blame them? Did they go out on the streets with guns in their hands and kill people? Or did they hire mercenaries who did the job? If they are guilty for those deaths how about putting them in a court of law and proving their link with those murders? At the same time it is necessary that those responsible for the murder of innocent children in Lal Masjid should also be tried.

This reminds me of a great statement by Winston Churchill “All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. ” In Pakistan what is the one great thing a common man gets. A common man here only gets frustration. Being a tax payer it is my right to be given justice, dignity, freedom of speech. Yet I dont get anything. If I go into a government department for getting something done I will not be helped unless and until I dont empty my pocket. As a consumer what rights do I have? Who will compensate me if I buy a new car which turns out to be crap? What is the use of paying so many taxes? Wouldn’t it be better if I gave the money to an ngo which has a trackrecord of using the donations efficiently. Taxes are benefitting those who have huge properties and armies of guards.

We have to make a choice here.Do we need roti or justice? What will we fight for?Which fight will give us a better result in the long term?The choice is yours.

Pakistan’s biggest problem:Illiteracy

Pakistan became a free country in August 1947.Ever since we’ve faced alot of problems. Initially we didn’t get our share of money and weapons from the British. Alot of countries refused to recognize
Pakistan as an independent state. Not to forget India, occupied some states which were meant to be a part of
Pakistan. Then there were refugees coming in who had to be given food ,clothing, shelter etc. A year later Quaid-e-Azam died and we needed a leader who could handle the delicate situation boldly. A few years later we needed a constitution. And the list goes on.
Pakistan’s problems have never ended. Successive governments paid attention to different things like economy ,constitution, law and order, foreign policy etc .But none looked at illiteracy as a problem. Governments thought that all we need to do is align ourselves with the Americans, buy weapons for armed forces, take blessings from the GHQ etc but none thought of making
Pakistan an educated country. Everybody chose to ignore the fact that
Pakistan can never prosper if the masses aren’t educated. The fact is that they thought that educated masses would never let them carry out their personal agendas.Various scholars, politicians, analysts have identified a number of problems. Each claiming that this is the root cause for all the problems in our country. Some claim it is dictatorship, mismanagement of economy, wastage of funds, wrong foreign policies, lack of genuine leadership etc. But I don’t remember hearing anybody say its illiteracy. I believe illiteracy and our current education system are the root cause of all our problems.It is a miracle that despite such a pathetic state of affairs
Pakistan has produced scientists like Dr.Abdus Salam, Dr. A Q Khan etc. But the sad thing is nobody recognized their talent over here. When they went abroad and started excelling in their fields they started gaining prominence. But their own country had nothing for them.Until the 1990’s we did not have a lot of universities which were producing world class MBA’s, engineers, IT professionals etc. Most of the universities then offered programs from Bachelors to Doctorate in physics, chemistry, mathematics etc. A person having a Masters degree in some subject was considered very educated. Those who could afford went to
USA, Europe etc for higher studies. This started the brain drain in our country. Now most of them are well known or settled in their respective fields. Some want to come back and help
Pakistan but know that it wont be easy at all. The primary reason being lack of opportunities in various fields of science and technology.The military government appointed a prominent chemist Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman as minister of science and technology in early 2000. Currently he is the chairman of HEC(Higher Education Commission). He introduced some good reforms in higher education. A number of universities have been given charter and the students have been given alot of incentives to do research in various fields of science and technology. Now we have 4-5 universities in almost every city which are offering degree programs in various fields of management, information technology, engineering etc. But the question is how many are producing MBA’s who are employed by top multinational companies? How many IT professionals are we producing who are needed in silicon valley? I’m afraid the answer is very few. Most of the universities are producing degree holders and not competent professionals. Very few universities are offering world class degree programs. In this regard HEC has introduced ranking system for all the universities. Universities have been rated for their laboratories, libraries, student facilities, teacher to students ratio etc. But so far the ranking system has not helped. HEC should help universities in introducing better curriculum, give modern equipment to laboratories etc. Universities should be penalized for not improving their rankings. And HEC should work with them accordingly. In rural areas the situation is pathetic. Alot of schools don’t have proper class rooms, furniture, buildings etc. Children have to walk hundreds of kilometers to go to school. The result being children don’t get any benefit from going to school. It is more of a burden. Government of
Punjab has launched “Parha Likha Punjab” program but what has it done to appoint more qualified teachers, improve learning conditions for children? I guess nothing. Such programs are just a waste of time and resources. Waiving of fee, providing stipends, giving free books aren’t enough. It is better not to do anything like that unless there’s a proper vision, plan.In
Pakistan there are three different education systems running in parallel. One is the British Cambridge System, second is our own Matriculation System and third is our Madressa System. People who belong to the affluent class send their children to schools which offer the British system. People from middle class send their children to schools which follow our system. The poor and down trodden who can barely make both ends meet send their children to madrassas. The result we are producing a confused generation who look down towards people who come from different systems. We have to streamline our education system. There can be only one system which has the good features of all the three systems mentioned above.

The government needs to take concrete steps for promoting education in our country. The ministers of education, science and technology need to be competent professionals of their fields. A retired general cannot do anything about it. They need to produce world class brains that can help
Pakistan in achieving Quaid’s dreams. The current brain drain has to end. Bringing in foreign investment in industries is useless if you have illiterate masses. If you talk about best investment climate, also talk about the best available research facilities in various fields of science and technology. We need to do something about education fast, before its too late.