Education Problems

Group Members
Saad Azhar
Mohsin Mahmood
Waleed Khan
Talha Khan
Ali Leghari
Shijia Rashid
Awais Tanveer

The truth never revealed

Podcast video The truth never revealed by farhan,junaid,shahryar,nida,sabeen,aleen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0buXexdpvlk

Pakistan Changing

Two and a half years of fragile democracy, war against terror, devastating floods, economic slow-downs, millions of displaced people, and now calls from the self-exiled leader of Urdu-speaking community in Karachi, Altaf Hussain, for a French-style "revolution."
Meanwhile,  some of Pakistan's radical television personalities have created an environment on their shows where politicians, retired military generals and pro-establishment politico-religious leaders confront each other-creating a sense of uncertainty and showing complete indifference among Pakistan's elite to the genuine issues of the people. This sense has only been exacerbated by the failure of Pakistan's government to bring about real reform. But will the chaotic internal situation in Pakistan provide another opportunity for the powerful Pakistani military establishment to intervene? 

Indeed, it seems that now it may be, once again, the generals' turn -- but this time the army may not return on the forefront of Pakistani politics, preferring instead to play a role behind the scenes. It is not in the military's interest to further tarnish its image internationally when the whole country is devastated by floods and violence, and badly needs global support to pursue (and fund) its relief, recovery and reconstruction agenda. The meeting this week between Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and the current government leaders has shown the increasing willingness of the army to aggressively push for changes in the government's behavior and composition behind closed doors, rather than through tanks in the street.

Many Pakistanis believe the three ‘As' - Allah, Army and America - are responsible for nearly anything good or bad happening in the country. But while Allah and America are not being discussed this time as much as they were in the past, it is the Army that currently gets much of the focus.

No one wants the generals to take over the government again. But the same time, it seems equally very difficult, if not impossible, to remove the elected government or force real change through  constitutional means.

Under Pakistan's constitution, opposition groups need 172 members in Pakistan's parliament out of 342 seats to bring a ‘No Confidence' motion and reverse the elected government, and with it the prime minister. Yet because the Pakistan People's Party and its allies enjoy a dominant electoral position, this vote seems unlikely to occur. Impeaching the president would be even more difficult, as this vote requires a two-thirds majority (295 votes) to succeed.

A direct intervention from the military, though it can not be ruled out completely, does not seem to be a viable option; not only does the Pakistani army not have a positive image in the west (in particular due to its perceived failure to fully fight militant groups within its borders), but in Pakistan itself the history of past military leaders, such as Pervez Musharraf and Zia ul-Haq, does not leave many pining for the return of a military dictator.

The alternative, in this scenario, is for the army to force the elected president and prime minister to quit, form a national government and arrange another general election, as was done four times in the 1990s. Yet this scenario, too,  would still be the army playing the major and crucial role, though behind the scenes; this is what now-retired Gen.  Abdul Waheed Kakar did with the elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1994. And the current army chief Gen. Kayani essentially forced the government to restore Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to his post during the protests from the so-called "lawyers' movement."

However, even this alternative does not seem to be workable. President Asif Ali Zardari, has been recognized by his allies as a man of strong nerves and willpower, and once told local media that he would not leave the presidential house even if he was threatened with being taken out in an ambulance.

What now?

In the past week and a half three high level and emergency meetings of the government allies have been held following rumors about changes in the government. Former dictator Pervez Musharraf has announced the launching of the manifesto for his own party on October 1 while his previous colleagues of the Pakistan Muslim League, nicknamed the "King's Party" for their support of the country's generals, are forming new alliances to form the "All Pakistan Muslim League."

The main opposition party, run by former premier Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, has severed its ties with the government and started an anti-government drive with increased zeal and enthusiasm. As previously discussed, Altaf Hussain is openly calling for the generals to intervene to reform Pakistani politics. The leaders in poverty-stricken Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan are crying foul over the neglect and slow release of promised aid money from the central government.

Meanwhile, the media also looks increasingly hostile to the civilian government. More air time recently has gone to criticism of the government's policies and blame of the government for the current mess in the country. And the media is saturated with pictures and videos of military officials distributing food items and building bridges and roads. Despite some criticism of the army's very selective approach to the relief and rehabilitation activities in the wake of the disastrous flooding, people on the whole seem to consider the military their only hope for assistance and governance.

All of these indicators point towards some kind of "change" - maybe in the next few months, if not in the days or weeks ahead.

Only time will tell.

Mohammad Omer section H

Youth raid

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Youth Raid
Group Members : Moiz Rafi, Mohammad Omer, Rohail Azam, Qurat ul ain Shahid, Sana Rizwan, Hafiz Sohaib, Hasnain khan,

Is America really the Cause of our misery?

Is America really the Cause of our misery?
Pakistan Struggle:
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who had initially joined the Congress was grossly dissatisfied with the Congress attitude towards Muslims and thus joined the Muslim League in 1913. It was with his efforts that Congress recognized the separate position of the Muslims and the Muslims' demand for a separate electorate as a part of the Lucknow Pact. However the Hindu prejudice against the Muslims could not be hidden for long and the publication of Nehru Report (1928) was a great setback to Lucknow Pact, since the Nehru Report negated all its clauses. It became evident that Congress and Hindus wanted to become the ruler of India on the basis of numerical strength and make Muslims their subjects. This was not acceptable to Muslims since they had ruled India for centuries and after British subjugation, they were again to fall under the Hindus as their subjects. Jinnah therefore refused to accept the report and presented his famous 14 Points to solve the political problems in India.
 The Muslims wished that their separate identity should be recognized and provided constitutional safeguards to protect their rights. It was then that the first proponents of independent Muslim nation began to appear. Among the first of these was writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who felt that a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated subcontinent. The cause found a leader in Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who became known as Father of the Nation and eventually persuaded the British to partition the region into Muslim-majority Pakistan, and Hindu-majority India.
 In the meantime Choudhary Rahmat Ali a ambridge student coined the word "PAKISTAN" for a would-be Muslim country, which was published on 28th January 1933 in the pamphlet "Now or Never."
Pak – US fluctuations in Relations:
The U.S. engagement with Pakistan has been fluctuating and bordering on being fickle. The indispensability of Pakistan for the U.S. has been directly proportional to the latter’s security calculations and threat prognosis. The Cold War witnessed the blossoming of the U.S.’s ties with Pakistan manifested in the form of CENTO and SEATO. Pakistan’s mortal enemy India, with its non-alignment policy, was reason enough for Pakistan to promptly ally with the U.S. The U.S. proved its commitment by tilting towards Pakistan in the 1971 war, but could not prevent the dismemberment of Pakistan. The Soviet Union’s Afghanistan sojourn propelled Pakistan to the forefront of the U.S.’s containment agenda, and there amidst the Soviet Union’s hopeless attempt at expanding its influence was born with the U.S.-Pakistan-Saudi assistance the jihadist phenomena. The decade long ‘jihad’ against the Godless Communists in the eighties was important for another near irreversible development that of the Pakistani-Islamic bomb and the U.S.’s blind eye towards it. Both the creation of the Jihadists and the Pakistani bomb were to have disastrous consequences for the Americans and for a better part of the world.
The 1990’s
The U.S. interests in Pakistan diminished significantly when it went on a ‘holiday from history’, probably inadvertently leaving the recently formed Jihadists to breed and the Pakistani nuclear bomb program to mature. Pakistan’s station as a frontline state in America’s risk analysis dipped, and the U.S., which had so far been feigning innocence about Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear program, slammed the Pressler, Glenn, and Symmington amendments sanctions on it much to the chagrin of Pakistan. The 1998 nuclear tests, the Kargil war, and the Musharaff coup led to further disarray in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. Clinton’s five-day visit to India and five-hour one to Pakistan took the already plummeting ties to their nadir, especially as any overture to Pakistan’s enemy number one was treated with the harshest scrutiny and deemed possibly as betrayal by Islamabad.
2001 and beyond
The U.S. hiatus from close ties with Pakistan was rudely shattered with the terrorist attacks of   September 11 2001. As the U.S. went into its longest war, Pakistan revised its role as the frontline and indispensable albeit temporary ally of the U.S., this time in the “war on terrorism”. It served as the conduit for supplies and safe passage of the U.S. and later NATO troops to Afghanistan, and allowed a U.S. presence on its Durand Line and its sovereign space, thereby accepting that parts of its territory were beyond effective control of Islamabad. Pakistan’s commitment to the war on terrorism was never openly questioned by the U.S. as over 20 billion dollars of aid poured into Pakistan in the past decade, although doubts of its competence arose time and again with little tangible contribution from Pakistan in dismantling, disrupting and destroying terrorism.
Frustration over Pakistan’s inability to deliver on the anti-terrorism front led the U.S. to attach conditions to the aid that it doled out to Pakistan. Growing U.S.-India ties possibly rankled Pakistan. India’s economic appeal, the possibility of it being propped up as a counter to an assertive China and its democratic success made it a ‘natural ally’ of the U.S. As India continued to grow economically, the U.S’s calculations probably showed rationality in forging closer and deeper ties with India, with whom historically the ties have been remote and for periods even bordered on antagonism and open confrontations. For Pakistan, this development probably implied a grave sin committed by the U.S. The Indo-U.S. nuclear deal concluded in 2008 doubtless sealed the relationship between the U.S. and India while Pakistan was left in the cold by its former ally.
The relations were perturbed under President Obama, ever since the Kerry-Lugar bill was passed in 2009, which put riders on the U.S. aid to Pakistan. The relations were further incensed with Obama’s insistence on nuclear non-proliferation and the pressures put on illegitimate nuclear powers like Pakistan to come into the folds of comprehensive test ban treaty and fissile materials cut-off treaty. Then again, President Obama’s visit to India and growing relations between them (November 2010) and his criticism of Pakistan in the Indian Parliament further exasperated the situation of unease and discomfort.
2011 saw the worst of this relationship, beginning with the storm over Raymond Davis, the CIA agent who was arrested (and later released on U.S. insistence and compensation) for killing two Pakistani citizens in late January. In May, U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid in Abbotabad which was barely a few kilometers away from Pakistan’s military academy. The raid, carried out without Pakistan’s knowledge, severely mortified its military and intelligence agencies. The Pakistani government retaliated by expelling 100 U.S. military trainers, it terminated counterinsurgency operations and restricted intelligence sharing with the U.S. and also insisted on an end to the drone attacks. On the other hand, many debates ensued in the U.S. congress to cut aid to Pakistan for following ‘two-faced policies’ towards terrorist outfits.
The detention of Dr. Fai in July 2011 (with established links to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI) only added to the piling problems between the two countries.  Pakistan of late, has also demanded that the U.S. signs a memorandum of understanding with Pakistan specifying and defining U.S. rules of engagement inside Pakistan. The U.S., on the other hand, has refused to sign a binding document on such conditions of engagement. This issue might propel up more trouble for this already troubled relationship in the near future.
Way Forward:
But despite the this ; we cannot blame America for each and every thing as this has become a common excuse for our youth that they just are becoming lazy and putting everything on America.

Moiz Rafi Section H

Education is the key to revival

Education is the backbone of any nation whether that nation is developed or developing education will always play its role in the upbringing of the nation and for it to thrive and prosper.

Being one of the most populated nations in the world the state of Pakistan's education system is devastating. The current literacy rate is at a mere 40% with 56% of the male class educated and a disappointing 36% of the female class coming under the literate part of the nation. This even with the literacy count rate kept at including those people who can read and write their names in Urdu.

The state of the government schools is not very pleasing as well. Shabby buildings with only a few having proper access to electricity and water. Many don't even have chairs and tables to work on. But still children do come there to seek education. This shows us that how much the parents and their children who can't afford education still want their children to receive as much education as they can. While on the other hand the state of private schools is much better compared to government schools with proper classrooms, proper furniture and everything but their fees are so high many people can not afford it.

The quality of education in the schools is not up to mark. Many of them don't provide up to mark education and those who do complain that the syllabus chosen by the government is so outdated and inferior that the students aren't really gaining proper knowledge. This case is seen in both the private and the public sector schools as well. The only exception to the quality difference is where the students gain high school or cambridge international O and A level education. As the schools who provide them have to follow the rules of the international quality the students receiving education here fare differently to the others. But those who do receive this education are among the richest of the population and hence not everyone can be like them.


What the government and the private sector can do to save the country from such low levels of education is firstly to increase the education budget. Education gets a tiny 2% of the total budget of the country. Being one of the most important aspect of providing the country with professionals and working class this small amount just shows how much the education sector is being ignored. For it to function more properly and have better funds the government should allot at least 6-7% of the budget to education.

The higher budget available to education will let the education sector provide better infrastructure, better trained teachers and also more scholarships to the deserving students in the country and abroad. Private schools can be given subsidies to allow more students to gain education there at discounted prices especially to those who can not afford. This will at first increase the students receiving education but over the passage of time this will result in more qualified students up for universities and the job market.

The syllabus of the education sector to be followed by the government and the private sector should be modified to include latest education plus technical knowledge to the students. This will help them not only in their professional lives but daily as well. The international education system followed in some schools providing Cambridge O and A level is a good system but what the country needs is a unified system to rid itself of the gap created by the system between its students.

One thing which is lacking in both the sectors of education is the impairing of students with religious knowledge. Our youth is drifting away from our religion and this is an epidemic in itself. By being a truthful and honest follower of Islam a person gains closeness to ALLAH and that provides success in this world and the next. What the education sector should do is bring in islamic education in the curriculum and keep a proper check and balance on it. This will not only create better muslims but honest and trustworthy working professionals who won't just care about themselves but their country and religion as well.

Saying all these things does seem nice so does the change in policies by the government but what is really needed is implementation and until that isn't followed in the strictest of forms the education sector I am sad to say will go down then its current standard and have a very bleak future.

Ali leghari

Section H

10U0530

How To Improve The Economy Of Pakistan

Pakistan is an agrarian country.70% of its economy is based on agriculture. But only agriculture is not enough for stable economy. Industrialization and mineral resources also play a vital role in building country’s economy, so they also need our special attention and they are in immense need of improvement.
    The agriculture sector’s production can be improved by introducing mechanization and making it common for farmers. Most of the farmers in Pakistan are poor and unable to adopt modern techniques. So they should be provided with (easy to return) loans. The farmer should be educated that they must only use the seeds of good quality; they must use appropriate fertilizers in right quantities. The farmer should be made aware that they should practice collective farming instead of farming on small fragments of land, by doing this they would be able to set up tube wells and buy tractors (of their own)collectively.
    The government should calculate the requirements of the people and then export the rest of rice, cotton, sugar etc.so that it does not have to import the same things at double costs later.
    Pakistan exports great quantities of cotton, leather etc. in their raw form. Instead of this we should establish industries and export these things after processing and converting them to some useful goods. It will increase the foreign exchange two to three times the previous one. Industries should be established near to the resources to save the fuel   used for transporting the raw material .Pakistan imports great quantities of petrol and other fuels .this import can be reduced by discouraging the use of personal vehicles and encouraging the use of public transport.
    Pakistan uses a lot of fuel for the generation of electricity, this fuel and money can be saved if we construct more dams and generate electricity through hydra power stations, this electricity would be very cheap so it will also help a lot to the agricultural and industrial sector
                                                                                                            syed baqar abbas

                                                                                                             10u0281