| 21 June 2004 | Monday | 02 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Unemployed graduates
Children of a lesser god?
Is there or is there not a political crisis in the country? Since most of us can hardly ever remember a time when we have not been in a state of crisis, perhaps the question should be reworded: Is the country's political crisis deepening? Is there a change in the offing? Why are responsible leaders saying contradictory things? While the country wallows in a mire of economic and social problems and the state is confronted with organized armed resistance in the north and terrorist attacks in the south, politicians are engaged in a guessing game about the life of the present government.
There's no move for a change, Qazi Hussain Ahmad says after meeting Prime Minister Jamali, who had earlier met the president and was apparently assured that there was no move to replace him.
General Pervez Musharraf has now taken to going to the president's chamber in the National Assembly. It is welcome that the chamber, long ignored by previous presidents, is being inhabited.
But the president goes there in his army chief's uniform, which to that extent devalues what might have been seen as a democratic exercise and which can be interpreted as a step to signal the military's position of dominance. He has so far met groups only of the ruling party although he is supposed to be non-partisan.
In his meetings, he is reported to have expressed his dissatisfaction with the performance of the PML legislators and believes that they are not doing enough to counter the opposition.
News like this trickling out from the president's sessions can only further fuel rumours about something going on behind the scenes. Even far-away (or too-close-for-comfort?) Washington has made its contribution to the general debate.
In reply to questions, State Department officials briefing South Asian journalists are reported to have said that a change of government in Islamabad would not destabilize Pakistan.
People will immediately pounce upon this as suggesting that the US is not opposed to a change. Politicians like Chaudhry Shujaat and others in the PML also keep shooting from the hip: one day they appear to be on the best of terms with the prime minister, the next they make remarks loaded with innuendoes.
The first thing to do is for everyone to lay off. We are all so much in love with our own voices that we cannot resist the temptation of holding forth in public on every conceivable subject.
The PML should gag itself. Second, all this speculation about a change again exposes the fragility of our system which depends on the will of one man. The subject is not being discussed quietly in party conclaves; all eyes are on the presidency.
In the absence of a meaningful democratic structure, governments tend to be run whimsically. And when we talk of change, we usually mean a change of faces rather than a change in policies - as the example of Sindh shows - which in effect means that there is no change.
It's just a question of a tussle between various political groups brought together to muster a majority. More important, such internecine struggles for power divert attention from basic tasks.
They lead to government run ad hoc, on a day-to-day basis, without a sense of purpose or direction. Let's recognize the sovereignty of parliament, and then let the natural dynamics of democracy take over.
Unemployed graduates
The unemployment situation in Pakistan is truly grim. According to the Economic Survey, 3.7 million people are unemployed in the country. Now the federal minister for labour and manpower has informed the National Assembly that over 33,000 jobless youth are graduates.
Governments in civilized countries treat unemployment as a very serious problem, in view of its economic and human dimensions. Apart from the fact that a large unemployed labour force reflects poorly on the national economy, it also indicates that there are thousands of families which are facing immense hardship as they are without an assured livelihood.
At a deeper level, such a situation affects society by playing havoc with youth's morale and self-esteem. The minister who passed on the information to the house did not say what the government planned doing about this problem.
Sporadic statements emanate from various quarters about new jobs that are to be created. But such ad hoc measures will not ease the problem, given its magnitude. What is really called for - at least for the educated unemployed - is that a closer link be created between the higher education sector and the national economy.
There is need to monitor the trends in the economy and the areas where jobs are being created and the nature of these jobs. The colleges and universities should direct the flow of new entrants into the areas where greater demand is being generated.
This would do away with the anomaly of saturation in one sector where jobs are few and tackle dearth of suitably trained applicants in areas where jobs exist. It is also important that the government should pay attention to labour training measures as have been adopted by Sweden and Britain.
By monitoring the markets the governments know where labour is needed which they provide by training the unemployed who may not have the skills for the jobs that are available.
Having said this, we cannot but emphasize the need for the government to address the unemployment problem seriously. Until the economy grows sufficiently to throw up jobs, the bane of unemployment will continue to stare us in the face.
Children of a lesser god?
While there has been much talk in government circles of reforming the country's estimated 70,000 madressahs and bringing them into mainstream education, little attention has been focused on the harsh, often inhuman, treatment meted out to the young students of these seminaries.
The latest such case to be reported in the press is that of 13-year-old Adil Raza, a resident of Manki village in the NWFP, who was mercilessly beaten by his teacher for failing to recite religious verses.
So grievous were his injuries that at one point doctors feared they would have to amputate his leg. Strangely enough, even though an FIR has been lodged, the police, according to Raza's father, are reluctant to arrest the teacher who administered the cruel punishment.
While similar cases keep cropping up from time to time and are documented in reports over the years, the bulk continue to go unreported, owing to the pressure exerted on the victim's family by madressah staff.
The latter, because of their traditional status in society, wield enormous influence over the generally uneducated and largely superstitious masses. Thus, while it is known that some madressahs routinely keep their students in fetters and teachers beat them black and blue for minor faults such as failing to memorize texts, the general unwillingness to get entangled in situations with religious overtones has resulted in deficient accountability for errant teachers.
It is time the government decided once and for all whether some of these self-appointed custodians of faith are above the law of the land and whether they have to be left free to abuse our children.
If not, then inspection teams, comprising members of human rights bodies, should be constituted to review the condition of pupils in at least the registered madressahs.
Meanwhile, one would like to exhort those who donate generously to seminaries to be more discriminating and restrict their contributions only to those madressahs that treat their pupils humanely and not in the cruel manner common to many of the madressahs in the country.