Another senior journalist Zubeida Mustafa touched upon the bleak state of education, and said that Pakistan is the second country after Nigeria which has the highest rate of children who are out of schools. PHOTO: REUTERS
Paying tribute to Malala Yousafzai, speakers at a seminar on Women’s Education and Terrorism said on Friday that had the government taken immediate action against the Taliban when the girl was shot, they would have been able to control the extremists’ ideology seeping quickly in our society.
Senior Journalist Ghazi Salahuddin, speaking at the seminar organised by the South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) and South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) at the Karachi Press Club, said, “The government should have carried out an operation against the Taliban when the incident had taken place.”
Another senior journalist Zubeida Mustafa touched upon the bleak state of education, and said that Pakistan is the second country after Nigeria which has the highest rate of children who are out of schools.
She asked the new provincial education minister Nisar Khuhro that even though Taliban had blown up 500 schools, what was being done about the 12,000 ghost schools in the country, of which 7,000 schools were just in Sindh.
On the other hand, provincial education minister Nisar Khuhro, instead of speaking about Malala, attacked the former military dictator Pervez Musharraf and his regime.
“It is very easy to criticise the government. But why not anyone speaks about from where terrorism and its menace started,” he asked.
Earlier, PMA’s president Samrina Hashmi called for a secular syllabus which would help control Talibanisation in society. “Why are naats taught as part of the Urdu syllabus?” she asked.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2013.
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@afzaal khan: Khan Sahib, I am a PUNJABI, and I arranged that my kids learn it, as best. I do pay couple of best teacher, who are teaching them Sindhi, beside English. Very certainly Arabic is has not part, as that creates mess in real life.
Hardly a tribute if the minister doesn't even mention Malala. Anyway, by exposing the hypocrisy Malala wins again. And we know where sympathy and support for Taliban lies.
I accept and don't get surprised by Mullah's stupid announcement, uneducated, unsophisticated, lack of intellect etc etc is part of problem. Madrassa's old fashioned only produced bots so its useless to get outraged.
What is the excuse of educated class, does PMA’s president Samrina Hashmi, who is objecting on Naat in urdu syllabus understand its a form of poetry? Urdu adab has Naat, Hamd, Marsiya, Ghazal, Nazam which are all to be taught?
Statement like this shows "education" doesn't equals Intelligence and extremism comes in all forms and shapes. And in battle of extremism Mullah going to win hands down.
May be just may be, educated liberal class should take a moment and try learning urdu to communicated with targeted audience?
May God bless Malala. May she achieve what she strives for. As for the event, no need for secular education. Don't contaminate the thinking of pakistani children with secularism.