Military education — II

If I were a naval officer, I would be cursing myself for not having joined the army. The GHQ is where the power lies and not in the naval headquarters. In fact, a folk song rhyme in the armed forces goes like this: “Army hey fauj, air force hey mauj, aur navy hey bojh” (army is military, air force is fun and navy is a burden). Had it not been for the army’s power, it might not have managed to force the political government to change the command and control structure of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) through a presidential ordinance, which inserted the army chief as the chairman of NUML’s board of governors, instead of the president. This would certainly ensure that the next time there is rebellion in NUML it could be dealt with properly.

Unfortunately, the navy does not have the strategic clout to have such a rule for its Bahria University, which is something that the navy’s top bosses would probably want in order to cover the scandalous behaviour of the management of Bahria. There is absolutely no accountability of the rector, who was known for his behaviour even when in active service and has reportedly made about 11 foreign trips in the past one year. But the worst part of his behaviour is the manner in which he sacked two professors of the university — all for their sin of not giving in to the questionable orders and behaviour of the university management. Furthermore, he tried to sack two women employees for refusing illegal orders. The higher court recently decided in their favour.

According to a recently done investigative article on the institution by journalist Umer Cheema, it seems that the university management forces students to keep quiet about the performance of its management. This gives the semblance of the university being very good and up to the mark. This is probably what would be called superior discipline ensured only by military personnel. I am sure the retired admiral-turned-rector is not familiar with the concept of the rights of paying students. Not to forget the rights of the faculty. However, what might please him is the fact that the only institution which would respect his navy link and that of the university, is the Higher Education Commission (HEC). The HEC has never done anything to discipline any private university, least of all a military-controlled one.

In the past couple of decades, the military has very aggressively come into the business of education. To be fair, they are not the only ones. Education, especially higher education, has become a strange business where no questions are asked as long as you have the power, clout and money. But what the military universities must appreciate is that having a particular rank is no qualification for managing a university. It is more about discipline. Universities are places where the youth learns to interact with society and learns about social and political discourse. There can be no learning or intellectual growth in an environment where the emphasis is totally on accepting commands from the top. So the Bahria University professor was right when he questioned the capacity of his university to impart education, when its management gagged freethinking. Unfortunately, he was sacked, along with another professor, for his sin of not accommodating the children of senior naval officers. The reaction of the university management is that it tends to use brute force through naval intelligence goons, which in itself indicates that the management of the navy and that of the university are hand-in-glove. So, there is no truth in the claim made by a retired naval officer that after taking off his uniform, a military officer becomes a civilian. In our environment this doesn’t happen, as is obvious from the Bahria University case where the rector retired from service about nine years ago and has been in his current position since.

Surely, Bahria University’s management will use all methods so that a NUML kind of situation does not occur, where the civilian professor won his battle. But as mentioned earlier, the army then went ahead and changed its by-laws. The rector of Bahria is made of a mettle that deserves to have joined the army instead of being in the weakest of the three services. In the past, the navy’s pride was sacrificed by holding Admiral Mansoorul Haq accountable and putting him in jail. Probably, the rector may be better off mending his behaviour than being unnecessarily offensive.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2011.