Quaid e Azam’s vision: Youth of Pakistan- Leaders of Tomorrow

(A PAPER READ AT THE SEMINAR ON Quaid's Day at AIOU)

First of all I am thankful to the organizers of the event who thought of me as a speaker for the celebration of birthday of the great leader and founder of this lovely homeland that we are living in.

After spending a few years away from my homeland I feel great to be invited to speak to students of today and to share my understanding of Quaid’s ideologies and his vision for a democratic Pakistan.

Here I begin with a quote of Quaid from his address at a public meeting in Dhaka on March 21, 1948

“My young friends, students who are present here, let me tell you as one who has always had love and affection for you, who has served you for ten years faithfully and loyally, let me give you this word of warning: you will be making the greatest mistake if you allow yourself to be exploited by one political party or another and don’t be misled…. Your main occupation should be — in fairness to yourself, in fairness to your parents, in fairness to the state – to devote your attention to your studies.”

Now let me repeat a small piece of it again

“if you allow yourself to be exploited by one political party or another”

Quaid never wanted the youth of the newly born country to be exploited and especially in the age when young boys and girls should be focusing their education only. Political agendas of one direction or the other can only fix you to one ideology and at this age you must not be fixted. You should keep your minds and hearts open to explore and gain knowledge.

My young fellows sitting here today celebrating this day with us I want you to re-learn the the lesson and please get to know what is to be done at certain stage of life. In the coming years of your life there will be a time inshaAllah when you will be standing as a responsible person as well as a leader within your own field, but right now your responsibility only is to focus upon your academic career.

At another occasion addressing the Punjabi Muslim Students Federation at Lahore on October 31, 1947, our quaid notified you of your responsibility as well and he said:

“You are the nation’s leaders of tomorrow and you must fully equip yourself by discipline, education and training for the arduous task lying ahead of you. You should realise the magnitude of your responsibility and be ready to bear it.”

When I read these quotes again today I found them more meaningful and significant than ever before. Pakistan today is at an edge where we need more and more trained and qualified professionals. A person if not prepared and qualified well for his or her field of work will only be a burden on the economy and will ruin the developmental process. Quaid had a long term vision and he knew how hard it will be for the country to stand up and face the rapidly developing world. He knew that the young leaders of tomorrow are the ones who will be able to help and support this newly born country in the coming years. He knew and he was telling in a warning tone about the responsibility of tomorrow. To face the challenges he also gave the key solution to face the future in his address at the All Pakistan Educational Conference in Karachi on November 27, 1948 as he said:

“What we have to do is to mobilize our people and build up the character of our future generation. In short, this means the highest sense of honor, integrity, selfless service to the nation and sense of responsibility, and we have to see that our people are fully qualified and equipped to play their part in the various branches of economic life in a manner which will do honour to Pakistan.”

Building up the character of our future generation was a priority that he set out for the educational planners. He wanted the education system to develop the characteristics that I just now noted above. He wanted education policy makers to have clear goals in their mind. I am telling you that recently doing a detailed policy analysis I have come to the conclusion that the policies of education made in the early years of Pakistan had very clear agenda and very clear vision built in for the coming generations but instead of developing further on these agendas and goals we got lost somewhere when we began to follow the lights of heavy vehicles and lost our direction. Quaid wanted us to built this generation into independent thinkers, workers, and professionals who could have made this country develop at a much faster pace. He wanted us to build the young fellows as leaders of tomorrow but alas the political agendas of many many key parties in this country made them followers and even blind followers.

I do not want to look back and address to those who ruined the Quiad’s philosophies of equality, justice, democracy and development rather I would like to address today to the leaders of tomorrow. Those who are sitting here and those who might be able to read this speech on the net tomorrow or afterwards...you the young girls and boys please keep your lines straight. Please do not follow the directions given by x y z ...keep your goals clear you want to be a doctor, engineer, lawyer, teacher, businessman, artist, journalist, musician, painter, photographer or whatever you must be focusing your study and training within your chosen field, This country needs many more of well trained and learned professionals so seek education of your choice with a goal of becoming an active and responsible citizen of today and a true leader of tomorrow. I shall close this note at my Quaid’s words when he declared Pakistan a moral and intellectual achievement and he called upon Pakistanis on August 31, 1947, to rebuild the nation:

“It is in your hands, we undoubtedly have talents, Pakistan is blessed with enormous resources and potential. Providence has endowed us with all the wealth of nature and now it lies with man to make the best of it.”

پاکستان میں خواتین کے لئے جنت کا ٹکٹ حاصل کرنے کی دس معاشرتی شرائط

آپ نے تمام عمر لڑکوں سے بات نہیں کی، نہ صرف یہ کہ ان سے پردہ کیا بلکہ ان کی طرف کبھی نگاہ بھی نہیں اٹھائی

آپ نے صرف لڑکیوں کے اداروں میں تعلیم حاصل کی، ایسی تمام درسگاہوں کو بری نظر سے دیکھا جہاں لڑکے اورلڑکیاں ایک ساتھ پڑھتے تھے

آپ نے گھر سے درسگاہ تک کا سفر کسی سواری میں یا اکیلے ایسے طے کیا جیسے ارد گرد کی دنیا آپ کی دشمن ہے اور آپ کو ایک خوف نے سارا راستہ گھیرے رکھا

آپ نے اپنی درسگاہ میں موجود مرد ملازمین سے بھی بات نہیں کی اور درسگاہ کے اندر بھی آپ نے کبھی دوپٹہ سر سے سرکنے نہیں دیا

آپ نے تعلیم حاصل کرنے کے بعد نوکری کرنے کا کبھی نہیں سوچا

آپ نے بزرگوں کی پسند پر آنکھیں ناک اور کان سب بند رکھتے ہوءے شادی کی

آپ نے شوہر اور سسرال کی مرضی کے مطابق زندگی بسر کی اور بچے پیدا کیے

آپ نے اپنے بچوں اوربچیوں کی پرورش میں واضح فرق روارکھا

آپ نے کبھی اپنی کسی خواہش کی پیروی نہیں کی اور جو کچھ شوہر نے لا کر دیا اس کو دنیا کی قیمتی ترین چیز جانا

آپ نے تا دمِ مرگ اپنے شوہر کی ہر طرح کی ذیادتی  پر نہ صرف پردہ ڈالا بلکہ اس سے کبھی شکوہ تک نہیں کیا 

میرا گھر میری جنت

جب بھی کوئِ مجھ سے سوال کرتا ہے تو میں ببانگ دہل کہتی ہوں میں یقینا پاکستان واپس جائوں گی اور کوئی وجہ نہیں ہے کہ میں اپنا ملک چھوڑ دوں۔ میں نے تمام تر محنت اپنے ملک اور لوگوں کے لئے کچھ کر پانے کی غرض سے کی ہے۔ ،میرا قطعا کوئی اور مقصد ہی نہیں تھا اس تمام تر کاوش کا۔ 

 لیکن کچھ عرصہ سے میں نے اپنے آپ میں ایک تبدیلی محسوس کی ہے۔ جب بھی میرا کوءی عزیز، دوست یا رشتہ دار مجھ سے مشورہ مانگتا ہے تو میں کہتی ہوں جہاں آپ کے لیے بہتر ہو، جہاں آپ اور آپ کے گھر والوں کی جان،مال اور عزت محفوظ ہوں وہاں رہئے۔ ہم پر سب سے پہلے ہمارے اپنوں کا حق ہوتا ہے۔ 

میں یقینا پاکستان جاءوں گی وہاں رہ کر اپنی سی بھر پورکوشش کروں گی کہ میں اپنی جنت جیسی سر زمین کو ایک بار پھر امن و آشتی کا گہوارا بنائوں ۔۔۔لیکن میں ٹارگٹ کلنگ، دہشت گردی، غنڈہ گردی، ظلم و بربریت،مزہبی اور فرقہ وارانہ فسادات کے بڑھتے ہوءے ان رجحانات سے آنکھیں بند نہیں رکھ سکتی۔ میں اپنے پیاروں کو یہ مشورہ نہیں دے پاتی کہ جاءو اور بغیر کسی قصور کے کسی کی نفرت کی بھینٹ چڑح جاءو۔ 

میری دعا ہے کہ میں اور مجھ جیسے لوگ جو انسانیت سے پیار کرتے ہیں، جو اپنے ساتھ ساتھ اپنے سے مختلف لوگوں کو بھی جینے کا حق دیتے ہیں اس ملک خدا داد کو لوگوں کے لئے سچ میں جنت بنا سکیں۔۔۔اور فخر اور اعتماد سے اپنے پیاروں کو اپنے گھر واپس بلا سکیں۔۔۔ آمین

دیر کتنی لگتی ہے...

موسم بدل رہا تھا شاید بہت بلندی پر اڑنے والے پرندے کسی وہم کا شکار ہوں، مگر زمین پر چلنے والے دیکھ رہے تھے کہ کونپلیں پھونٹ چکی ہیں۔ میں نے گھاس میں اگتے ہوءے چھوٹَے چھوٹے پھولوں کو دیکھا اور بہت دیر تک یہی سوچتی رہی تبدیلی اوپر سے نیچے کی طرف نہیں آتی یہ نیچے سے اوپر کی طرف جاتی ہے۔۔۔ اور پھر ایک رات کی بارش نے سب کچھ ہرا کر دیا۔۔۔ اللہ کرے پاکستان میں بھی آج رات کی بارش کلسب کچھ ہرا کر دے۔۔۔بقول شاعر آگ ہو تو جلنے میں دیر کتنی لگتی ہے برف کے پگھلنے میں دیر کتنی لگتی ہے

Celebrating the Pain

I celebrate all moments of happiness, I love to celebrate the moments of love and I celebrate success... if it is about me being a woman I'd love to celebrate today too. I am a blessed female. I never realized that it was only a blessing that I was born in a home where I was given equal rights, voice and respect as men. Yes it was just a blessing that my father and brothers loved me and gave me the strength to live an independent life. It was a blessing that my mother taught us how to behave and interact with the other gender without considering that one is weaker or stronger. I loved hearing stories of strong women. I thought it will be as easy to become one of them as it was easy for me to grow up. I never knew just outside my home I'll meet a different world. I'll see the women being ashamed of being women. I'll hear the stories of physical violence, rape and sexual harassment at work everyday, I'll witness movements against girls' education and I never knew that my home is just a fantasy world for majority of the women around. I could not imagine women being revengeful, women betraying men, and I could not imaging women being the enemies of women... I don't know what to celebrate today... my success, success of powerful women around the world, success stories of "empowered" women on the records of Government and Non Government Organizations, the revengeful behavior i witnessed in the recent years or should I celebrate the pain of yet powerless educated and non educated, urban and rural, working and non-working women around the third world...???

About Dr.Siddiqui's Book

(Paper read at the seminar titled EDUCATION POLITICS AND POWER, in Comsats on Feb 07) EDUCATION POLITICS AND POWER is a theme for educational seminars that has never been very common in Pakistan. The critical discourse in education has remained foreign for us in Pakistan for long. In an education system that only and only supported subordination and submission, never allowed the students and even controlled teachers’ thinking- phrases like critical thinking and critical pedagogy have been the Jargons that we only found in foreign theories and sometimes appearing in local policy documents, but we never witnessed in our institutional discourse. Thanks to the author of “EDUCATION, INEQUALITIES AND FREEDOM: a sociopolitical critique”- Dr. Shahid Siddiqui who has forced us to bring this theme and similar others on table for discussion and debate. Initially in my PhD, while I was developing my research proposal wished I tried to dig out some useful literature about Education and its issues in Pakistan. I felt heartbroken when I could not find any useful comprehensive materials. I found bits n pieces from here n there in the books and research articles and tried to develop my storyline with the patchwork. Then in 2010 when I was in Lahore I met Dr. Shahid Siddiqui. He gave me two of his books to read. My first introduction to Dr. Siddiqui’s personality was through his urdu novel “Adhey Adhurey Khwab”. I am a poetess myself and I could feel the depth of author’s relation to his profession. Only a passionate teacher and a loving human being like Dr. Siddiqui could produce such piece of literature within Education. I would like to acknowledge the fact that during my proposal writing Dr. Siddiqui’s book “Rethinking Education in Pakistan: perceptions, practices and possibilities” has been one of the key resources to rely upon. Before I talk about “EDUCATION, INEQUALITIES AND FREEDOM- a sociopolitical critique”; I want to thank you sir for writing. Those who say our students do not read much, must also think how much is being written for them to read. I am standing here after spending a few years in the US and UK. Facing all kinds of questions one after another and recently giving explanations and justifications about how “MALALA” became a critical case of inequalities of education and how the 14 years old boys buckle suicide bombs and attack innocent people, how and why this land became an extreme example of intolerance. I want to thank you again Dr.Siddiqui for writing this book and explaining the how and why of the educational issues in sociopolitical perspectives of Pakistan. I am sure the readers of this book will be millions of people who are looking for some piece of writing based upon truth and telling the bitter realities so that they may be changed. Before talking further about the content of the book I must say only a teacher like Dr. Siddiqui who keeps no distance between himself and his students, knows his audience so well that he has broken down all chapters into subsections and does not let any of the sections and sub-sections in the book get longer than what is comprehendible for his readers. He writes in such simple and cohesive manner that the students and scholars as well as teachers will be easily able to understand each n every part of it even if they are not from the “Elite Institutions” that Dr. Siddiqui mentioned and critiqued many a times. Looking at the contents of the book the first striking thing among many others was that Dr. Siddiqui has not just critiqued the current educational scenario but has given a way to resolve the issues discussed in every section. Such as in the very first section of the book he mentions the major problem of education in Pakistan in terms of a “vicious circle”... "The vicious circle of recall based assessment, transmission oriented pedagogy, and monoculture efficiency of students, carry forward the existing power structures and amplify and perpetuate constructed stereotypes" (p.20). And then he offers the alternative scenario when he mentions: "The answer lies in breaking the vicious circle and entering the benign circle of higher order thinking assessment, critical pedagogy and intellectual pluralism" (p.21) Being a scholar in the field of education I appreciate the kind of critique Dr. Siddiqui has presented. He has opened up so many new areas of research for students like myself. As I kept reading the book chapter by chapter I was amazed to see how his stress upon holistic approach is visible in his own writing. He has touched upon every possible aspect of education in Pakistan and has used the sociopolitical lens to review every minute and major issue. He begins with critiquing the industrialization and factory model of education. He has explained and explored the neoliberal philosophy of education and shown his discomfort in a clear cut manner. He has very neatly presented the forms of social inequalities in old and new models of education. He has unfolded how the stratification in education and segregation among institutions has become a source of power interplay within education and society. I am sure like me many other scholars will read this book and will find their own story in one or the other section of it. When Dr. Sahib mentioned the tailored lesson plans I could feel the irritation and aggression how he dislikes the idea. How he feels that this and other trends of making teacher powerless technicians disturbs him. One can easily see through the section like “teachers as intellectuals” that Dr. Sahib has gone through the bitter experiences like many of us where teachers keep suffering until they kill their intellect and then are blamed of not using it. In today’s Pakistan one cannot ignore the role of media in development of public opinion and general social behaviors. But the way Dr. Siddiqui has described the shift it becomes an eye opener for the educational planners and people like me who have been working in distance education through mass media. According to him the disconnection between community and schools gave a space for media to take over the territory. If educational institutions had not broken their relation to homes and society then today we could have had the media as a partner to the transformational change as Dr. Siddiqui suggests. If you ask me sir I personally like the term used by you as “ENGLISHNESS” I really wish everyone to read the section where you discussed the unequal distribution of language capital and how it again relates to Socioeconomic class warfare. Lack of sustainable language policy is one of the issues highlighted by Dr. Sahib and while I was reading it I could imagine and see the whole linguistic and regional warfare going on around us being ignited and re-inforced through out flawed policies and practices. Last but not the least the best thing about this book is the last section where dr. sahib showed his positive thinking and optimistic approach by finding ways to improve, by suggesting alternatives and directions to the transformational role of education and institutions. Dr. Sahib has again and again identified and concluded as well by recommending to revisit educational goals beyond neoliberalism as I quote “Encourage institutions to inculcate critical thinking and enable learners to challenge negative stereotypes” (unquote). And the most difficult part that you suggested sir is “appreciation of oppositional view point” that if read and comprehended by everyone the way you mentioned it can really bring a miraculous change inside and around. I really wish you and other prestigious educators in Pakistan may please write further on each of the subtopics that you have touched upon. This critical discourse may develop further in all higher education institutions and the power now may one day be transferred and shared equally if we all are having the same goal; that is development of human capital regardless of class, creed, gender, religion, language and ethnic discrimination.