THIS is apropos of S. Akbar Zaidi’s article, ‘The new intellectuals’ (April 9). It bemoans the lack of genuine intellectuals in Pakistan. I would like to take his argument further. His comment that ‘intellectuals emerge through an understanding of history, philosophy, theory and much more’ is very apt indeed.

I think the absence of such intellectuals in Pakistan has historical reasons. The first is that the political party which inherited Pakistan did not have leaders of high intellectual acumen which was the hallmark of its rival, the Indian National Congress, in India.

The Muslim League of 1947 had no one in its ranks who could match the intellectual brilliance of Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Mohammad Azad. The duo, together, as prime minister and education minister, respectively, established an education system which not only enabled the post-colonial India to decolonise itself, but also put the nation on the right academic track.

Today, take any academic field of study, from literary theory to neuroscience, Indian intellectuals and scientists shine noticeably.

The equation is really not that hard to decipher. The premier politicians of the country possessed cerebral shrewdness to put in place systems that enabled ‘intellectuals’ to ‘emerge through an understanding of history, philosophy, theory and much more’.

Here in Pakistan, the earlier politicians did not have the required knowledge and wisdom to put the country on the right track.

The gap was thus filled by bureaucrats trained by the erstwhile colonisers. “These bureaucrats had their shortcomings,” the wise would say.

Their hegemony in the intellectual space and also that of the ‘new intellectuals’ could be understood as a temporary arrangement.

As soon as Antonio Gramsci’s ‘organic’ intellectuals will emerge, these amateur ones will surely fade away. When will this emergence begin, that remains to be seen!

SHAHZEB KHAN Lahore