Category Archives: History

Always on the road

Archive Edition, Books, Education, Environment, History

By Zubeida Mustafa

MUNIRA GULZAR wanted to be a nurse when she passed out of school. Instead she became a teacher and has loved every minute of it. Those were the times in the early fifties when most girls did not dream of a career. But to young Munira it was inconceivable that she should not work. So even before she had completed her education she started teaching in a school. Since her family was very conservative, there was so much opposition to her taking up a job. But determined as she was, she managed to persuade her father to let her work. Continue reading Always on the road →

A scholar and a gentleman

Administration, Archive Edition, Constitution, History, Information, International Politics, Islamisation, Media, Notable Personalities

By Zubeida Mustafa

Has Pakistan been reduced to such a hopeless state that even the most creative and prolific of intellectuals have run out of ideas on how the country can be redeemed? Hopefully not. But a meeting with Professor Khalid Bin Sayeed provided no reassuring answers. It left me wondering how Pakistan will be saved from certain disaster and who will play the role of the savior. Continue reading A scholar and a gentleman →

A new look at old freedom movement myths

Administration, Archive Edition, Constitution, Development and Poverty, Economy, Education, History, Notable Personalities, Politics

Hamza-Alavi-17-05-1996-1

By Zubeida Mustafa
Professor Hamza Alavi has recently been in town. The suave, soft-spoken scholar, who says he developed a social conscience and became a socialist even before he had ever heard the word, has lived abroad for over three decades in pursuit of his academic career. Now he plans returning permanently to the city of his birth. That is, if he does not change his mind at the eleventh hour as he has done before. Continue reading A new look at old freedom movement myths →

An adversarial relationship

Archive Edition, History, Human Rights, Information, Media

 By Zubelda Mustafa

84-06-09-1994In one of his periodic meetings with newspaper editors , President Ayub Khan tried to draw a reticent Zahoor Husain Choudhury, a senior and eminent journalist and editor of Sangbad, into the discussion. “Choudhury Sahib are you not concerned about freedom of expression in Pakistan?” the Field Marshal enquired.

“Oh yes sir, I am. But I am more worried about freedom after expression,” the witty editor replied. The repartee describes in a nutshell the adversarial state of the Press-government relationship that has been the traditional pattern in this country. Continue reading An adversarial relationship →

The status of Women

Archive Edition, Culture and the Arts, Education, History, Social Issues, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

65-05-06-1992The women’s movement in Pakistan (I use the term for want of a more appropriate one) has lost its earlier vitality. The various organisations which came together under the umbrella of the Women’s Action Forum to take up cudgels against an Establishment determined to supress the female identity, have gone their separate ways.

This is distressing because a lot of work still remains to be done to raise the status of women. Admittedly, enormous progress has been made by a small minority of the female population in the country. In the last decade and a half since the international women’s year in 1975, women have achieved what was unheard of before. The number of girls enrolled in primary schools and in the universities has doubled and the female literacy rate has gone up by five percentage points in the last decade from 16 to 21 per cent. Even the labour force participation ratio of women has risen from three per cent to twelve per cent in 1981-1991. Health-wise women’s status has improved even though marginally, and the sex ratio has risen from 90 (for 100 men) to 92. Continue reading The status of Women →