Category Archives: Archive Edition

Guess who came for breakfast?

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Culture and the Arts, Economy, Education, Human Rights, Law & Order, Social Issues

By Zubeida Mustafa

64-26-05-1992  A few weeks ago we had some jninvited guests for breakfast. They were masked and armed and the breakfast they took was most unhealthy — gulab jamuns and Coca Cola. They also took away whatever cash they could lay their hands on and some valuables — to use the crime reporter’s terminology. But the most precious thing they stole was my peace of mind.

If there is one word to describe my experience of this armed robbery, it is “bizarre”. Of course I also felt terrified, but that came much later.

It all happened early in the morning, which is the worst time for such unwholesome intrusions — not that other times are better. In the morning your senses are not fully awake — apart from the fact that one is not even properly dressed to receive visitors, including the unwanted ones. Continue reading Guess who came for breakfast? →

Privatisation of higher education

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Economy, Education

By Zubeida Mustafa

The Pakistan government is considering the privatisation of the universities. The new education policy, which has been on the anvil for an inexplicably long time, is expected to lay down the guidelines for the establishment of private universities and colleges.

This step is being taken at the prodding of the World Bank which perceives privatisation as the magic cure for all economic ills. Being totally dependent on the loans it receives from the aid-giving agencies, the Pakistan government feels it has no other option but to obey the Bank’s edict. But will this solve the problems the country faces in the higher education sector? Continue reading Privatisation of higher education →

The private sector in higher education

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Development and Poverty, Education, Health

By Zubeida Mustafa

61-14-01-1992aTen years ago there was not a single private university in Pakistan. Today there are three. The policy of inducting the private sector in education in a big way has begun to produce a visible impact.

The Aga Khan University in Karachi which was chartered in 1983 and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (founded two years later) today enjoy a prestige in the field of higher education in Pakistan that no other institution in the country has ever known.

The Hamdard University which received its charter in 1990 still has some time to go before it becomes functional. In characteristic Pakistani style, the university failed to respond to some basic queries to which the other private universities were prompt in providing information. Continue reading The private sector in higher education →

To go nuclear or not is the question

Archive Edition, Defence and Disarmament, Development and Poverty, Economy, Education, Foreign Policy of Pakistan, Health, Human Rights, International Politics, Nuclear weapons, Social Issues, War and Peace

By Zubeida Mustafa

THE suspension of American aid to Pakistan has produced one positive result. It has for the first time brought into the open the nuclear debate in this country.

Given the categorical linkage Washington instituted between the flow of economic assistance to Pakistan and nuclear non-prolif eration, Islamabad never encouraged a public discussion on the atom bomb.

To use Stephen Cohen’s term, a policy of ‘designed ambiguity’ was adopted. In other words, the capacity and the will of the government to go nuclear are deliberately kept ambivalent. Continue reading To go nuclear or not is the question →

From Urdu Bazar to 5-star hotels

Archive Edition, Books, Economy, Information

By Zubeida Mustafa

Christina Lamb’s Waiting for Allah is been pirated vithin days of its arrival in Pakistan. The special low-cost Indian edition produced by the publishgers for the South Asian market is selling for Rs 290.

But the pirates, six of whom are in the field, have managed to beat the price down to Rs 175. What is more, piracy in Pakistan has moved out of the dusty lanes of Urdu Bazar to the prestigious bookstalls of the five-star hotels. They are unabashedly selling the counterfeited edition of the Lamb book. Continue reading From Urdu Bazar to 5-star hotels →