By Zubeida Mustafa
THE Federal Finance Minister has described Budget 1986-87 as being designed to provide relief to all sections of society in need of it.
Although there is greater emphasis on the social sectors and on welfare measures than before — their allocation having risen from 12 per cent of the budget in 1982-83 to 20 per cent in 1986-87 — the increase has been less than what was envisaged in the Sixth Plan. Continue reading The social sector: What the budget was likely to achieve
By Zubeida Mustafa
THE villages of Sind are experiencing a new awakening. The people — both men and women — in rural areas of the province are developing a keen awareness of their deprivation and backwardness. Gone are the centuries old fatalism, complacency and submissiveness of yore. The people now want a change and more significantly they are prepared to work for it on a selfhelp basis. Continue reading A new stirring in rural Sind
By Zubeida Mustafa
IS the International Women’s Day on March 8 to be dismissed as one of those occasions for the annual round of rituals and rhetorics which come to nought? The cynics are quick to point out that fiery speeches notwithstnding, the plight of women continues to be as dismal as ever.
True, the struggle for equality of status and the emancipation of women in Pakistan still has a long way to go. Women have not be accorded the basic rights or given the social recognition that are their due as human beings. They have not been integrated in the mainstream of national development. Hence Continue reading Women’s rights: Greater awareness than before
By Zubeida Mustafa
Universities are the future of the nation. The gloom in the university today looks like a forecast for the future of the country.
Nothing sums up more poignantly the state of affairs at the University of Karachi and its ominous implications for society as these words uttered despairingly by an eminent educationist.
What should be perturbing is that the death-like stillness which has pervaded the campus in the last few weeks since it was abruptly closed for an indefinite period in mid-January has become a normal pattern of university life in Karachi. The NED and the professional colleges have not escaped the malaise of frequent unscheduled closures either. Continue reading Empty corridors
By Zubeida Mustafa
AT one time the Muslim world was a storehouse of knowledge and education. It produced philosophers, scholars and scientists whose contributions in their own fields gained international recognition. Where do the Muslims stand today in terms of educational advancement?
The collective picture which emerges from the statistics on literacy and school enrolment in individual countries is on the whole not too satisfactory. In some respect it is appalling. A London-based magazine has released the basic data for Third World countries in 1983 from which the following has been compiled. Continue reading Over-all literacv rate in the Muslim world is 49.9 per cent