| 18 January 2005 | Tuesday | 07 Zilhaj 1425 |
Selective compassion
The terrorist threat
PhD programmes: allaying some fears
The Islamabad declaration signed by the seven Saarc leaders in January 2004 promised to create a free trade area in South Asia by January 2006. This is an ambitious plan given the intense rivalry between India and Pakistan ever since the two attained independence from colonial rule in 1947.
It was not possible for the South Asian region to contemplate any serious economic cooperation among the countries of the region as long as India and Pakistan viewed each other with hostility.
It is important to note that the Islamabad declaration was accompanied by a joint statement by the leaders of India and Pakistan to initiate discussions between their countries to resolve all disputes - including the issue of Kashmir - through a "composite" dialogue.
The use of the word 'composite' indicates that the dialogue would cover all areas of conflict between the two countries, including the long festering problem of Kashmir.
That was almost a year ago and some progress has been made. There is now some travel between the two countries and a slight increase in trade. This seeming rapprochement notwithstanding, the goal to create a free trade area in South Asia within a space of two years remains an ambitious project.
There is a lesson to draw from the history of similar efforts in other parts of the world such arrangements take time to create. Many hurdles need to be crossed before free trade areas can become operational since the interests of both winners and losers have to be balanced in order to create an enabling environment for their evolution.
In this context, it would be very useful for the countries of South Asia to look at the records - successes as well as failures - of similar experiments in other parts of the world.
What are the lessons the countries of South Asia could learn from the experiences of other regional economic and trade arrangements around the world? Over the years countries around the globe have tried to create arrangements for facilitating trade among them and for also improving economic cooperation.
Motives for creating such arrangements have differed as have the ways in which they evolved over time. From the perspective of South Asia, four regional arrangements have some relevance - the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Mercosur, and the North American Free Trade Association.
Each of these experiments at regional integration offers some interesting insights for the leaders of South Asia. In the article today, I will look at the lessons from the EU and the Asean.
The European Union is by far the most successful trading bloc to emerge in the post-Second World War period. Although the EU is a union among developed nations and, therefore, has several characteristics that have little relevance for the developing world, there are many features in its remarkable evolution from which important lessons could be drawn.
The most significant of these, from the perspective of South Asia, is that the move towards European union undoubtedly brought peace to a region that had fought two exceptionally bloody wars within a short span of 30 years.
As The Economist wrote in a recent survey of the European Union, that "the people who run the European Commission in Brussels like to believe that this golden age of peace and prosperity is directly linked to the rise of EU." A sustained move towards South Asian economic cooperation could possibly produce similar results. But that is not all. Most economists believe that the move towards European integration helped the war-torn countries of the continent recover from devastation caused by the Second World War.
Average income in Western Europe rose from about 40 per cent of the American levels in 1950 to just over 70 per cent by 1973. The EU also provided an economic environment in which small countries, once they entered the arrangement, benefited enormously.
The biggest success story is that of Ireland where income per head of the population was only 62 per cent of the EEC average when it joined in 1973, but reached an extraordinary 121 per cent of the EU average by 2002. In other words, before becoming an EU member, Ireland was 38 per cent poorer than the European Union. Now it is 21 per cent richer.
The EU's impact on the member nations was not confined to bringing economic benefits to them. Starting with agreements between six West European nations on the pooling of coal and steel resources and moving on to the creation of a common market in 1957, and the launch of a common currency in 2002, the EU now encompasses a plethora of activities.
Not all of these are strictly in the domain of economics and trade. Some of these belong to a category of policy measures economists call "social harmonization". The attempt is to create a level playing field not only in economics but also in social policies. The need for doing this is not immediately obvious.
While a working trading arrangement requires that the associating governments must follow similar fiscal and monetary policies, it is less obvious why they must subscribe to such social policies as the protection of human rights, enforcing regulations at the workplace, a common immigration and asylum policies, and protection of the environment.
There is a good reason why they should do that. It became apparent as separate nations begin to integrate their economies into one union that creating a level playing field must encompass not only the adoption of the same set of trade policies but also ensure that various social policies are in reasonable harmony as well.
The absence of such harmonization produces what the economists call the "free rider problem". Harmonization is required so that those who prefer a more lax approach would not gain economic advantage at the expense of those who are more concerned with social issues.
From this focus on non-economic issues that have consequence for production systems, the development of a broader social agenda is a small step. There is one other aspect of the evolution of the EU that needs to be underscored for the benefit of those currently engaged in creating a free trade area in South Asia.
This relates to the way the EU expanded its borders by bringing in new members. The expansion in 2004 not only increased the membership to 25 countries but effectively created the world's largest economy and the world's largest trading entity.
With the agreement to begin the process towards the adoption of a new constitution of Europe, the EU may now have set itself on the path to becoming a global economic and political superpower.
The lessons for South Asia of this broad approach towards economic cooperation are clear. An effective trading and economic alliance among the South Asian countries will create a political environment that should discourage armed conflict in the region.
It should encourage the partner countries to settle their disputes peacefully, by using dispute resolution mechanisms as part of the evolving union. A broad economic and trading arrangement in South Asia should add to the rate of economic growth of the region and help to close the widening gap between average incomes between the Asian continent's two parts - east and south.
The region's smaller countries should have the opportunity to benefit from the creation of a large market, much as Ireland was able to do in the European Union. And if the Safta is a success, it should open its doors to other countries in the neighbourhood, starting with Afghanistan to the north and Myanmar in the east. At a later date, it could bring in more countries from Central Asia and also invite the island nation of Mauritius to join the grouping.
What are the lessons for South Asia from another successful regional arrangement - the Asean? The Asean is arguably the most successful regional association in Asia.
Its initial purpose was not trade facilitation but political. It was established to provide the region with a collective voice as America's involvement in dislodging the communists from South Vietnam intensified and developed into a major and destructive military conflict.
The five "original members" - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - established the Asean in August 1967 in Bangkok. The declaration issued following the conclusion of the first meeting placed emphasis on non-economic issues.
It said: "The Association represents the collective will of the nations to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity."
What the Asean experiment teaches is that an economic and trade alliance can be allowed to evolve gradually after a viable forum has been set up within which the leaders of the countries in the region can discuss a host of issues.
The Asean began to bring in new members after it had established itself as a viable forum for discussions and resolution of regional disputes. The aims of the association were spelt out more fully after the conclusion of the war in Vietnam and the withdrawal of American troops from the area.
According to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation signed in February 1974, the Asean countries declared that their relations with one another would be guided by six broad principles.
One, mutual respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity and national identity of all nations. Two, the right of every state to lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion or coercion.
Three, non-interference in the internal affairs of one another. Four, settlement of differences and disputes by peaceful manner. Five, renunciation of the threat or use of force. And, six, effective cooperation among the states.
The Asean brought in new members once it had gained a footing. Brunei Darrussalam joined in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999.
The Asean region now has a population of about 500 million people, a combined GDP of $737 billion, average per capita income of about $1500, and total trade of $720 billion. As such it now has an economic weight, although not as great as that of China, large enough to be taken note of by the Asian economic giant.
While the Asean has been reluctant to offer full membership to China, it has agreed to a close trade relationship with the country in an arrangement called Asean plus one.
The same model is being used to develop relationships with other large regional economic powers including India, Japan and Korea. India's ambition for a close trading arrangement with the Asean, independent of the Safta, would retard the development of the latter.
This is one reason why the leaders of South Asia should work hard to make progress with the rapid establishment of their own arrangement. There are several lessons to be drawn from the experiences of the development of the European Union and the evolution of the Asean.
Three of these are particularly pertinent for South Asia. One, regional arrangements can help to resolve longstanding disputes among nations that have been rivals for power for a long time.
This happened in the case of France and Germany. Second, once a trading arrangement succeeds it creates a momentum that can go beyond trade and reach other areas that affect the lives of the citizens.
This also happened in the case of the European Union. And three, once a regional forum establishes itself, the interests of its member states is noticed by large economic powers in the neighbourhood. This has been the case with Asean.
Selective compassion
There are so many demands on our compassion that we have to ration it out. At the moment it is the tsunami tragedy that is the focus of our attention and we are grief-torn to the exclusion of other suffering.
Ours is a deeply troubled world. The tsunami was a natural calamity, unprecedented within living memory and despite our many skills, to split the atom, to land a man on the moon among them, we are no nearer taming the wrath of nature. But there are man-made calamities that leave behind a comparable trail of death and devastation and over which we should have some control and yet we seem to glory in them.
War is considered a patriotic duty and patriotism is considered a kind of celebration. Yet to demand that our young should not go about killing their young, and a lot others by way of collateral damage is an act of treason and those who are the most vocal can end up in jail.
Some such thoughts went through my mind as I watched the cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. There were 70,000 spectators and what should have been a somber occasion was turned into a festive one, almost like an Irish Wake. There was a bon homie among the players and a togetherness among the crowd, all other sorrows forgotten. For that one day one felt good.
Then I started to think about the war in Iraq and flashes went through my mind of George Bush and Tony Blair and the absolute certainty with which they told the world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and posed an imminent threat and Bush even spoke about a smoking gun arriving as a mushroom cloud.
Before the invasion, during the invasion and after it, this remained the unalterable position until now when it has been officially conceded that there were no weapons of mass destruction. But it has been a costly departure from the truth. We know approximately the casualty count of the American and British dead though we have no idea of the number who have been seriously injured.
Without seeming to be callous, it is a manageable number. The same cannot be said of the Iraqi men, women and children dead. We can only guess at the number but we are sure that we are dealing with big numbers. What is to become of their families and who is going to re-build the homes that have been destroyed.
Some such concern has been shown by Terry Jones in an article in The Guardian and since it is a short article it is worth quoting it in full. He writes: "I am bewildered by the world reaction to the tsunami tragedy.
Why are newspapers, television and politicians making such a fuss? Why has the British public forked out more than 100 million pound to help the survivors, and why is Tony Blair promising 'Hundreds of millions of pounds'? Why has Australia pledged 435m pounds and Germany 360m? And why has Mr. Bush pledged 187m?
"Of course it's wonderful to see the human race rallying to the aid of disaster victims, but it's the inconsistency that has me foxed. Nobody is making this sort of fuss about all the people killed in Iraq, and yet it's human catastrophe of comparable dimensions.
According to the only scientific estimate attempted, Iraqi deaths since the war began number more than 100,000. The tsunami death toll is in the region of 150,000. Yet in the case of Iraq, the media seems reluctant to impress on the public the scale of the carnage.
"I haven't seen many TV reporters standing in the ruins of Fallujah, breathlessly describing how, in 30 years of reporting, they have never seen a human tragedy on this scale.
The Pope has not appealed for everyone to remember the Iraqi dead in their prayers, and MTV has not gone silent in their memory. Nor are Blair and Bush falling over each other to show that they recognize the scale of the disaster in Iraq.
"On the contrary, they have been doing their best to conceal the numbers killed. When the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimate the figure of 100,000 killed in Iraq and published their findings in one of the world's leading scientific journals, The Lancet, Downing Street questioned their methodology, saying 'the researchers used an extrapolation technique, which they considered inappropriate, rather than a detailed body count'.
Of course 'a detailed body count' is the one thing the US military will not allow anyone to do. "What is so odd is the way in which so much of the media has fallen into line, downplaying the only authoritative estimate of casualties in Iraq with the same unanimity with which they have impressed upon us the death toll of the tsunami.
One of the authors of the forenamed report, Dr. Gilbert Burnham, said: 'Our data have been back and forth between many reviewers at The Lancet and here in the School, so we have the scientific strength to say what we have said with great certainty.'
"So, are deaths caused by bombs and gunfire less worthy of our pity than deaths caused by a giant wave? Or are Iraqi lives less worth counting than Indonesian, Thai, Indian and Swedish? Why is not our TV companies and newspapers running fundraisers to help Iraqis whose lives have been wrecked by the invasion? Why are not they screaming with outrage at the man-made tsunami that we have created in the Middle East? It truly is baffling."
Of course, it isn't going to happen. There is a difference between those who are swept away by a tsunami and those who are just gunned down or blown away by bombs. Some dead deserve our compassion and some don't.
The terrorist threat
Since 9/11, terrorism has been the dominant political theme, edging out globalization, the environment, drugs, white slave traffic, Aids and poverty from the agenda at international conferences and meetings.
President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have vowed to fight terror. Bush and President Pervez Musharraf believe it is the main problem confronting the world today. And Musharraf and President Vladimir Putin have signed accords to jointly fight this menace which strikes totally unexpectedly and often without any apparent motive.
In fact, during the last two years a number of books have been published in the United States and Britain on the theme, including the eminently readable No end to war by Walter Laqueur, and by the look of things the subject will continue to intrigue analysts in the years to come.
Two reasons have been generally attributed for the totally unanticipated attacks. The numerous intelligence lapses and the failure of the international media to report and comment on the world wide growth of the terrorist impulse, as a result of which the impression was generated that the phenomenon was localized in the Middle East where Palestinian freedom fighters were locked in a bitter struggle against a vastly superior Israeli military force.
In spite of learned tomes and essays that have surfaced in highly respectable journals in the West and South East Asia, we still don't know exactly what terrorism is, and what has caused the impulse to germinate and spread. The concept has, of course, been carefully defined in the West which has become paranoiac about the danger of sudden attacks.
A distinction has been drawn between what is regarded as an act of terror, like the blowing up of a number of carriages in a train in Madrid without any apparent financial motive, and a straightforward violent crime, like a homicide or a bank robbery, in which people may or may not lose their lives.
Since a terrorist attack does not involve any financial gain and may involve revenge or retribution, it is regarded in some quarters as an honourable act.
Acts of daring motivated by feelings of intense hatred and a desire to see justice done, like the whisking away by the Mossad of Adolf Eichmann from Argentina to Israel to stand trial for the murder of thousands of Jews; even though a country's sovereignty was abused, is not considered a terrorist act.
Nor for that matter was the US air strike, without provocation or warning, against a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, in the belief that the factory was producing harmful biological weapons.
The reasons behind the actions are also a matter of speculation. Poverty has often been cited as a cause for terrorism. But the poorest nations have not recorded cases of terrorist attacks.
Religion has also been cited by secularists, as a cause for terrorism, but aren't there also cases of secular terrorism? Then there are Arabists who point to the injustices committed by Israelis against Palestinians. But analysts in the West are quick to point out that in his earlier pronouncements Osama bin Laden displayed little regard for the struggle of Yasser Arafat's fellaheen or for the belligerent stance taken by the Hamas warriors.
The implication here is that the terrorism unleashed by the Saudi nobleman and his collaborators, is not politically motivated but is fired by missionary zeal devoid of motive or rationality beyond his own ferociously literal interpretation of certain verses in the Holy Bok. It is a neat explanation, but a little hard to swallow.
Walter Laqueur in his chilling book No end to war, points out that while terrorism existed 30 years ago, it was of limited political significance. It was only with the development of weapons of mass destruction and the availability of nukes in the black market that terrorism moved up the political agenda.
Laqueur makes a comparison between the indecipherable threats of what he refers to as Islamic terrorism and Bolshevism and fascism, where unchallengeable truths were employed to mould the minds of young and old. The comparison is a little unfortunate, because the two ideologies, though they had certain similarities, had vastly different leitmotifs.
The ideology of the Bolsheviks was crafted out of the economic theories of Marxism, in which, through the process of dialectical materialism, communism would be the final stage in a society characterized by class conflicts.
The Nazis, on the other hand, had fashioned their ideology on myths of racial superiority and the purity of the Aryan race. There was not even a hint of socialism in the National Socialist Party.
It was pure undiluted nationalism, which harnessed the baser instincts of human beings and moulded them into the largest fighting machine the world had seen. After presenting a thought-provoking analysis of the methods used by terrorists, including suicide bombing, the author ends with a grim conclusion.
Even in the unlikely event that all global conflicts are resolved, terrorism will continue. Fuelled by fanaticism and firm resolve, extremist doctrines will keep it alive.
Anybody who reads The making of a terrorist by Abu Samad Moussaoul and Florence Bouquillat, will learn the story of how the Moroccan Zacarias Moussaqui, who faces charges in the United States for planning 9/11, and who faced racial attacks by the poor whites in France, became a terrorist while living in Britain.
He will also learn the astonishing fact that Britain, with its history of tolerance and indulgent attitudes, seems to be the most fertile breeding ground in the world for Islamic terrorists. In fact, until 9/11, there seemed to be an unwritten agreement that Britain would not be attacked
Though the book is not as sophisticated as the one written by Laqueur, it draws a clear distinction between orthodoxy and modernism, and does describe rather well what often happens when a young Muslim student seeks education in his faith.
As moderate education tends to be academic and expensive, the student often gravitates towards extremist literature. This is obvious in Pakistan where on the walls of certain madressahs were scrawled the terse commands: "hate and kill." Unfortunately for the Pakistan government, a BBC documentary maker picked this up and showed it in a world-wide broadcast.
Masterminds of terror by Yousri Fouda and Nick Fielding, which is essentially an account of the planning and personalities behind 9/11, arrives at a somewhat different conclusion to the one offered by Laqueur.
These authors also believe that the war on terror will continue for years, but things could change if there was a fundamental reassessment of American foreign policy and its unconditional and uncritical support for Israel.
Paul Berman in his book Terror and Liberalism arrives at the novel idea that Ba'ath socialism and 'Islamism' which have nothing to do with Islam as it is generally understood, are modern totalitarian movements. He points out that they respond to the same encroaching liberalism that threatened socialism and fascism.
Benjamin R. Barber's Jihad vs McWorld, which no student of politics in this country should take very seriously, propounds the thesis that the modern world is being torn apart by two opposing forces - McWorld, which is the inadvertent global culture being created by the primacy of economics, and jihad, which the author divorces from Islam to describe political movements grounded in narrowing faiths such as nationalism. In his opinion, both forces are inherently totalitarian and inimical to democracy.
A much better read is Al Qaeda and what it means to be modern by John Gray, which is a brilliant study of the secular faith underpinning western neoliberalism, in which the author argues that a simplistic worldview underpins the current western faith in economics.
But after gleaning all this wisdom about the rise of militant Islam, a citizen of this country is none the wiser. There have been four terrorist attacks against Pakistan's head of state and numerous hits on Muslim clerics, the latest of which took place last week in Gilgit.
The country's intelligence network appears helpless as masked men move about with impunity, selecting targets and unleashing their terror. There is a very thin line that separates terrorism from crime, especially in Pakistan, as criminals have become sophisticated and are now increasingly using methods, tactics and weapons employed by terrorists.
The law enforcement agencies nevertheless keep the two categories distinct, as the Americans, who have poured a lot of money into this country to fight terrorism, like their statistics neat and tidy.
However, irrespective of what the western analysts might say, and the various smoke screens that they throw up, it is reasonable to assume that there is a definite connection between what is happening in both Palestine and Iraq and the terrorist attacks in this country that are taking place. This is the price that Musharraf has to pay for being Bush's most loyal ally.
PhD programmes: allaying some fears
Recently articles have appeared in newspapers on the state of affairs of the universities in Pakistan. Notable among them have been those written by Dr Anis Alam and Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy published in this newspaper. Both are distinguished academicians, and thus better qualified to comment on matters of universities.
In their articles they have laid emphasis on the PhD programmes, which are being vigorously sponsored and pursued by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). Dr Hoodbhoy has also dwelt on the need for administrative and organizational reforms in the universities, and has come up with some pragmatic and practical suggestions.
This surge in the interest of higher education institutions is a welcome sign, for this would only lead to improvement in their working and operational systems. Higher education system in Pakistan is confronted by a myriad of problems, which affect its quality.
While it is acknowledged that the low competence level of faculty, decreasing standards of student intake and lack of up-to-date curricula are the reasons most often cited for this malaise, poor infrastructural facilities, insufficient funding for libraries and laboratories, improper human resource development programme and student support services are also responsible for this poor state of affairs at the level of higher education.
Added to these predicaments is the fact that a bulk of the university budget is consumed by staff salaries and allowances, maintenance of infrastructure, utilities bills and transport. Hitherto, budgetary constraints used to severely affect quality of teaching and research.
However, thanks to the generous funding by the HEC, the financial health of the universities has recently improved significantly (As pointed out by Dr Hoodbhoy that the higher education budget has now increased 12 times). In such a situation, it should be a matter of little surprise that Pakistan has so far one of the lowest per capita higher education enrolments in the world.
At present, the academic qualifications of university teachers present a dismal picture. This is mainly due to inadequate training facilities for university teachers.
The number of teachers with PhD degrees is alarmingly low. Many university teachers require higher qualifications. Realizing the need for a more dynamic approach to research degree training programmes for the university teachers, the HEC has embarked upon a number of ambitious and innovative PhD programmes to overcome the longstanding problem of 'PhD deficit' (borrowing the term from Dr Hoodbhoy).
However, it is equally important to look at the faculty development programmes from another perspective. Having spent a lifetime in academics and currently serving as vice-chancellor of an engineering university, I would like to illustrate the PhD programme being pursued in Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, which is in consonance with the policy guidelines of the HEC.
The prospective candidate for a PhD programme has to appear and clear the local GRE general type test. The candidate has to be a faculty member of a public sector university.
After clearance of the test, short-listed candidates have to appear before a selection team appointed by the HEC, comprising specialists in the area of study in which the candidate intends to pursue the PhD programme.
The committee interviews the candidate to assess his competence and suitability for higher studies/research programme leading to a PhD degree. The candidate is selected for the PhD programme after clearing the interview.
The HEC approves the candidacy and subsequently places funds at the disposal of the university where the research is to be carried out. The funds, so approved by the HEC, would be released only after the approval of the ASRB (Advanced Studies & Research Board) of the university. ASRB is the highest academic forum of the university, which monitors the progress of graduate/postgraduate programmes.
The approval for the topic of the thesis/project of PhD programmes is accorded on the recommendations of two foreign experts in the field of specialization, who belong to and serve in a developed country. The list of experts for peer review is on the website of the HEC.
After obtaining the topic approval, the candidate is required to make a presentation of initial seminar before the ASRB members and experts of the university. On the basis of the performance of the candidate, the ASRB decides the topic approval (of the PhD research programme) and who the supervisor (of the candidate for the said PhD research programme) should be.
Funds (instalments) from the HEC are released on the basis of the progress report of the candidates' performance and statement of expenditures. There is an elaborate monitoring of the quality of research during the course of the programme.
The candidate is required to make a mid-seminar before the ASRB. A successful presentation would allow the candidate to pursue his research programme further. Likewise, the candidate has to make a final seminar before the ASRB.
The dissertation prepared by the candidate initially requires scrutiny and approval from two foreign experts (from the approved panel of the HEC). This would be followed by the placement of the dissertation before the ASRB for final approval.
The ASRB would accord the permission to the candidate to submit the final report. Ultimately the candidate is required to pass the final examination before a panel which includes two foreign experts.
The purpose of the above narration is to highlight the stringent mechanism imposed by the university through which a candidate has to pass successfully in the process of obtaining a PhD degree. The process of PhD programme as implemented in this university could be illustrated by the following example:
About two years back (2002), Mr Mansoor-uz-Zafar Dawood after completing his dissertation for PhD had to defend his research work (in the field of IT) before the panel of experts.
However, his supervisor Professor Dr Murray Smith, from the University of Glasgow, UK, could not manage to come to Pakistan due to certain reasons. Mr Dawood appeared before the panel of examiners, which included Professor Dr Mahmoud Mostafa Shauky from Egypt and others.
The examination/presentation which lasted for two hours was conducted/supervised by Professor Murray through a video conference. Thus, the physical absence of the supervisor was not allowed to impede the due process of the examination.
Dr Hoodbhoy has suggested the setting up of university entrance examinations to separate individuals who can benefit from higher education from those who cannot. Let me point out that the Mehran University has the honour of being the pioneer in such tests in the country, which it started a couple of years earlier.
The tests were conducted initially by the IBA, Karachi and were acclaimed throughout for fairness and transparency. This led to adoption of such entrance tests by other universities.
After gaining experience and skill, the Mehran University managed to conduct the entrance test last year on its own. Foolproof and elaborate arrangements were made which have been appreciated for their high degree of professionalism and honesty.
Similarly, Dr Hoodbhoy has also proposed a test for those who would be university teachers. Again, I would like to inform that the Mehran University has made it a matter of policy for the last several years to conduct tests for the posts of lecturers. So far, no finger has been raised on the fairness of such tests.
The suggestion of Dr Anis Alam that the government should instead concentrate on the few centres of learning to help prospective researchers is already being implemented through setting up of centre of excellence in different universities of the country, depending on the quality of the faculty and the availability of the necessary facilities.
Dr Hoodbhoy has been more sarcastic than realistic when he proclaims that colleges are being turned overnight into universities, thus creating a mushroom of the so-called universities.
He is perhaps unaware of the fact that the HEC is now more stringent than ever in granting charters for the establishment of new universities. Similarly, the weeding out of substandard universities is also an ongoing process.
Further, the public is also informed of these so-called universities through elaborate and extensive media coverage and publicity, lest it be lured into deception of earning a good degree.
There is no denying the fact - which has also been highlighted by both Dr. Anis Alam and Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy - that the present state of universities is far from satisfactory. But it must also be realized that the existing situation on the campus is the result of a colossal disregard for scientific bearing and research by those who remained at the helm of the affairs of the state for too long.
Now, a beginning has been made and hectic and sincere efforts with the support of top echelons of the government are being made, along with generous funds which were unheard of before (and tacitly approved by both learned scholars), being allocated in the higher education sector.
When such high-paced gigantic strides are taken, it is but natural that, few hiccups here and there are encountered, for which we need to be patient to some extent.
The worries and apprehensions of the learned scholars may be justified, looking at the past scenario of our universities. Their reservations may be valid in some localized cases or in some areas of social sciences.
But, I am certain that Dr Attaur Rehman, being himself a great scholar, researcher and one who is conscious of the international standards has taken all measures to make sure that the quality of research work and that of the PhD programme is maintained. At least, I can assure the learned scholars that in the discipline of engineering the quality is standardized according to international level.
The writer is vice chancellor of the Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro.