The tale of two woes
Will the issue of Karachi be solved after the local government election? This question has captured the imagination of various minds, from low to high intellect, in both the public and the private sectors, ever since Karachi’s fault-lines have been exposed in the downpour, which may have affected any metropolis because of its sheer scale and ferocity. But had it been obliterated, the answer is: No. Karachi has sunk not because of the rain. It has sunk because of the devious and politically expedient policies of its administrators.
It goes without saying that local government is the right method to govern a city. It also goes without saying that the elected governments in Pakistan have been reluctant to establish a local government system. And if there ever is a local government, it usually remains toothless with no power to execute even as minor a job as replacing the cover of a pothole. In Karachi or elsewhere, the unwillingness to have a local system is linked to the power of the turf. There are many contenders of power in the metropolitan city, starting from political parties, to rangers, to courts and to the police itself.
Blaming the ruling party, the PPP in this case, to have turned the city into wreckage is not the best way to find the transgressor.
One of the fiercest wounds from which Karachi bled incessantly for decades was target killing. People were killed like flies out of animosity, for failing to pay ransom money, for declining to align with a particular political party’s agenda, for refusing to oblige an insignia, etc. The mask from the faces of those involved in this gory act was lifted when the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the security situation in Karachi, in 2011, on the persistent demand of the people of the city. The five-member bench of the apex court heard the city’s woes without interruption. The helplessness of the police and the literal enforcement of power of the rangers were some of the few staggering revelations, not to talk of the compromised bureaucracy. The then chief secretary Sindh raised his hands in utter disappointment for failing to influence policymakers involved in turning the city into an organised crime machinery. Basically, Karachi is a case of negligence, the victim of a system deliberately designed to foster incompetency and produce a low-skilled workforce — to have in a typical colonial pattern, a master-slave relationship between the government and the governed.
That brings me to the meeting of a few journalists on August 27, 2020, with the newly inducted vice-chancellor of the Government College Lahore University, Dr Asghar Zaidi. He started his conversation with a statement that was enough to make our heads hang in shame. He said, “Our universities are manufacturing idles.” It was a clear reference to the education system that has failed to give direction to the students. Generating a crowd and not citizens has been an enigma, which has cost Pakistan dearly in the shape of incompetency.
Donald Rumsfeld in his memoir, Known and Unknown, quotes a speech that Adlai Stevenson, the former governor of Illinois and a Princeton alumnus, made at the senior class banquet in Princeton. The speech, according to Rumsfeld, “put my future into an important and new context.” What did Stevenson say? “He talked about the responsibility of citizenship in whatever path we might choose and the stark consequences awaiting us if we failed in our responsibilities.” His precise words were: “If those young Americans who have the advantage of education, perspective, and self-discipline do not participate to the fullest extent of their ability, America will stumble and if America stumbles the world falls.” Interpreting his speech further, Rumsfeld said: “He (Stevenson) reflected on the weighty responsibility of the American people in our democracy to be involved in helping to guide and direct their government.”
In a functioning democracy, the development and the nurturing of citizens are integral parts of the nation-building plan. Governments are responsible for assisting students to get education, building perspective and developing self-discipline. Have we planned nation-building on this pattern? The answer is “no”. However, people like Dr Asghar Zaidi are trying, in their individual capacity, to reform and recast the academic structure in universities.
He has a plan to connect academia with policymakers and develop a nexus among research scholars and the industries. He has the plan to unwind the mental prowess of his students by opening doors to developmental sciences and building in them the temperament and the desire to seek new avenues through research, and to import knowledge through collaboration with foreign universities.
In a developed country, these plans would form the foundational structure of any university. In Pakistan, however, we have yet to measure the height of this Everest.
The overriding question is: will Dr Zaidi be able to implement his plans? Unless the following pre-requisites are on his sides, his plans will fail to take a flight leave alone make sorties to explore new pathways.
1. Policy alignment: The GCU’s objective should be drawn from the overall higher education policy of the government.
2. Financial support: An uninterrupted stream of cash flow from the government is critical for the implementation of the plan.
3. Industrial development: The demand for the numbers and quality of scientists, sociologists, psychologists, engineers, etc should come from the manufacturing sector and their associated service organisations.
4. Freethinking: A learning environment that encourages comprehension, reasoning, problem-solving and the freedom to question the system and the prevailing ideologies.
It will be a daunting task for Mr Zaidi to overcome these challenges. According to Dr Tariq Banuri, Chairman of the Higher Education Commission, public sector universities get Rs50,000 from the government for each student whereas the universities spend Rs150,000 in this regard. This is only a glimpse of the dismal situation. It verifies the statement that our universities are producing idles.
With the philanthropy model in Pakistan tilted towards spending charity mostly on providing eatables and Madrasah education, with little or no investment in higher education from industries, because we have none literally, and with journalists following the beaten path of the defined narrative, Dr Zaidi will write history if he manages to bring about what he calls the “Disruptive Change”.
Prime Minister Imran Khan will be equally making history if he manages to implement the Karachi Transformation Plan, for which he would have to disrupt the link between crime and politics and between elites and financial institutions.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2020.
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