THIS is with reference to Zubeida Mustafa's article, ‘Death of social sciences’ (July 10).
The mythology that has been sold to the entire Muslim world and especially in Pakistan is that our ills stem from our backwardness in science and technology. Hence, science and technology in Pakistan has become the holy grail for progress and development, shunting out the social sciences.
Everyone is willing to invest in science and technology whether it has been Zia’s government or Dr. Mahbubul Haq’s drive for S&T scholarships, or whether it is the political governments of the 1990s or the Musharraf era (1999-2008) when Dr Ataur Rahman was at the helm of Science & Technology and the HEC.
Funds were lavished on science and technology. The underlying assumption behind this myth was that society would magically transform itself when we have X,000 S&T PhDs; Y,000 professors with high-impact factor publications and zillion state of the art labs spread all over the country.
After spending billions of tax payers’ money we find ourselves back to square one.
We have made the atom bomb, we have made missiles, but we have not been able to ensure that the plug for a mobile charger fits snugly in the wall socket.
Each one of us goes around from one power point to another trying to find a socket wherein the plug will snugly fit without sparks.
But, this deterioration in plug's quality has happened only over the last 20 years despite all the funds lavished on science and technology.
I can recall my school days 40 years ago when the plugs of that time used to fit snugly in sockets, any socket! And the plugs and the sockets would last forever.
Another example is that of covered drains. We studied in our history books that 5,000 years ago cities of the ancient civilisations of Harrapa and Moenjodaro used to have covered drains and streets bisecting at right angles.
We have been successful in making atom bombs and missiles but have not been able to master the technology that can build or maintain covered drains or build cities with streets bisecting at right angles.
Why? What time-saving would the computer technology make in speeding up the businesses of the shopping centres when shopkeepers and buyers sleep late till noon and do not open their shops till afternoon.
The majority is then eager and ready to close its shops at 8pm.
What would a saving of a few nanosecond here and a few nanoseconds there would buy us when we are not willing to start work early!
I think the reason for our backwardness is not that we are backward in science and technology but because we are backward in our social ethics:
We are backward because we lack principles, such as honesty, commitment, fairness, integrity… We are backward because we lack ‘principles-centred leadership’
We are backward because we de-emphasise social sciences, at the cost of emphasising science and technology.
We need to emphasise healthy and productive lifestyles. We need to emphasise character-building, societal change movements and mobilisations for justice, honesty, integrity, commitment, etc.
Only by becoming a better human being, a better citizen who is socially interactive, can we get out of the malaise that afflicts us. Let us go for promotion of social sciences.
DR IRFAN HYDERDean CBMInstitute of Business ManagementKarachi