By Zubeida Mustafa
A FEW months ago, I attended a seminar on education where the Sindh education minister was the chief guest. When he rose to speak, a mob of demonstrators gatecrashed the premises to register their protest. The government had conducted a test to fill teacher vacancies in schools. Very few had passed the test and been recruited. Those who failed to qualify were demanding a job as their entitlement. In the melee, the right of the child did not figure even once.
By Zubeida Mustafa
MORE than 91 years ago a child was born to an enlightened and highly literary family. He himself grew up to make a worthy contribution to society as a public intellectual. Apart from his inherited love for Urdu literature, he also loved the profession he had chosen to enter, namely, law.
By Zubeida Mustafa
AS Pakistan goes through turbulent times on the political and economic fronts, women sink deeper and deeper into poverty. No one seems to care, least of all those leaders who are responsible for the public chaos, the economic uncertainty and insecurity they have created by their casual stance on serious issues.
Continue reading Women in povertyBy Zubeida Mustafa
ORANGI Pilot Project, the internationally acclaimed development model founded by iconic social scientist Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan, is in trouble. Charges of corruption, misappropriation of funds and violations of its by-laws have been levelled against its current management. Some 36 employees, many of them trained by its founder, have been sacked. Most worrisome is the accusation that there is a deliberate attempt to obliterate Dr Sahib’s (as he was reverently called) name as founder and conceptualiser of the OPP. If true, this is no less than a moral crime amounting to the theft of intellectual property.
Continue reading Whither OPP?By Zubeida Mustafa
THE contradiction is intriguing. It is a story of a woman of royal lineage who passed away recently and will be remembered fondly for her services to the poor. Her work should be seen in the context of ‘social security’. That is what made ‘Rajkumari’ Kaniz Sakina Wajid Khan (1920-2021) exceptional.
It was not charity she was doling out, as social work is often considered to imply today, but a service she saw herself providing to the indigent. It additionally had the underpinnings of old-time values.
Continue reading Serving society