PRESIDENT Asif Ali Zardari has said that education is essential for winning all wars, including changing people’s minds. Talking to a British government delegation at the presidency recently, he appreciated the UK’s assistance for the development of education in Pakistan and expressed the hope that now and in future, foreign assistance will continue to help restore peace and resolve different issues. … Referring to the new Department for International Development operational plan 2011 to 2015, Mr Zardari said that the allocation of funds for the improvement of primary education is a commendable step. …

Pakistan had suffered huge losses during its involvement in the ‘war on terror’. … People are facing serious problems due to sabotage acts undertaken by terrorists. Hundreds of educational institutions have been blown up in parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, as a result of which thousands of students — both male and female — have been deprived of educational facilities through no fault of their own. Some of the districts in the Malakand Division and southern parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are very badly affected; there seems no be no end to the sabotage.

Terrorism has badly affected all the people in the region. The task to rebuild the institutions destroyed in the process could not have been undertaken without the generous support of the international community. Reconstruction work on some buildings has been started but the process is so slow that it will take a long time. Meanwhile, poor parents will be unable to make alternative arrangements for their children’s education. It is the government’s duty to use diplomatic resources to obtain assistance from the international community so that the process of rebuilding and rehabilitation can be expedited in militancy-hit areas.—(Aug 15)

Selected and translated by Ali Hazrat Bacha.