KARACHI: The Director of Education, Karachi, Mr Ghulam Mustafa Shah, said that students’ participation in demonstrations and strike has become a constant painful phenomenon “leading the nation nowhere and giving a bad name to the country”.

Mr Shah, in a statement, said, “I cannot over-emphasise the damage these activities are doing to the education and discipline of the youth. It is a very dangerous atmosphere … and it is time our society as a whole realised the consequences of this continued dislocation of studies.” He appealed to the parents and students to think of the future and to soften their emotions with some thinking and to remember what the Quaid-i-Azam had said about the great virtue of “sense of proportion”.

“Those who are indulging in these activities should know the dangers to which our society is being exposed. Only in this realisation lies our salvation and good,” the Director said. “Our young men and students”, he said, “do not appear to realise that the biggest losers as a result of these activities are the students themselves.” He added that it was time that the parents and responsible sections of the community did some hard thinking on this malaise and irresponsibility of the youth — without any regard to the interest of the nation, the interest of their parents and their own interests.

Published in Dawn, November 25th , 2014