By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
PAKISTAN, indeed, has a split personality. A dualism in our life is most prominent in our education system How else would you describe a country which has 46 million adults who cannot read or write, and probably will never be able to learn. On the other hand, only a few thousand children receive the best education in high quality institutions with the best of facilities.
Continue reading Where do the drop-do the drop-outs go?
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
THE current tussle in Islamabad on the Legal Framework Order has left the people in a state of bewilderment. The common man perceives the happenings in the federal capital as a struggle for power between the elite groups with none of them having any concern for the welfare of the masses.
Continue reading The state of our democracy
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
THE bon-homie witnessed between visiting delegates from India and their counterparts from Pakistan generally gives one a good feeling. Last week was one such occasion when 34 Indian parliamentarians who were in Islamabad on the umpteenth round of Track-II diplomacy received a rousing welcome.
Continue reading On bumpy road to peace
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
AT the envoys’ conference in Islamabad last week, the president asked the ambassadors to project Pakistan as a pivotal state in South Asia. It is to be shown as being engaged in the task of shaping a tolerant society seeking peace with its neighbours and making strides in the economic sphere. Such a positive image would help Islamabad’s standing in foreign affairs and facilitate the achievement of its foreign policy goals and attracting foreign investment.
Continue reading A challenge for the envoys
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
AFTER a long period of despair there is light at the end of the tunnel in the library sector. A library support group has been set up by Saiban, an NGO, with the aim of strengthening school and community libraries in Karachi.
The group has already begun its work by collecting and distributing 816 books among five schools and one community library in Orangi. In one year it plans to reach out to 50 Orangi schools, which have already been earmarked. In the absence of a book reading culture in our society, one would consider it courageous on the part of Saiban to have undertaken this venture. Sceptics might find the move to be ambitious and expect it to run out of steam soon. But what gives rise to hope is the fact that the driving force behind the library support group is the untiring Tasneem Siddiqui, the non-bureaucratic bureaucrat who is the director-general of the Sindh Kachchi Abadi Authority and chairman of Saiban.
Continue reading New hope for the libraries