By Rabia Ahmed Pakistan Today 15 November 2011
The fact that an educated class of persons, those other than the ‘great unwashed’ had a prominent presence at Imran Khan’s rally in Lahore appears to give heart to the millions longing for social and political change in Pakistan.
It is interesting though. Who, after all, are these educated persons amongst us who are supposed to enable change in our society? Are they the lawyers? The judges? The doctors?
In a country where up to ten percent of the parliament is said to be composed of persons holding fake degrees, where many schools exist only on paper, where academic excellence is assessed on the basis of the best memory for useless, tedious facts, what difference can this education and those who possess it, make?
Musharraf overreached himself in many ways, but it was when he messed with the judiciary back in 2007 that things became tough for him. Lawyers, mobilised by Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, began protests, including a Long March. There is little doubt that the judiciary found its voice once again as a result of their efforts. It is quite another matter that the judiciary has used this voice since with a degree of disorientation, appearing at times to confuse itself with the police, at others with various political and government departments and often simply issuing mystifying statements.
The hero of the piece, Chaudhry Iftikhar, presumably the most learned of them all given his position as Chief Justice, was responsible for a court ruling in 2002 because of which Musharraf got to keep both his uniform and the presidency simultaneously. As for the lawyers who attain their status after years of study, many violent protests, tantrums and unreasonable displays of pique have arisen from that quarter.
In September, this newspaper reported that ‘a group of lawyers thrashed two motorway police inspectors for confiscating a lawyer’s car on the motorway and imposing a fine for violations of traffic rules.’
The following month, ‘dozens of furious lawyers ransacked the courtroom of the judge who passed a verdict against Salmaan Taseer’s killer Mumtaz Qadri, smashing windows to protest against the judgment.’ Earlier on these same lawyers had garlanded Mr Qadri for assassinating the Governor.
Maybe these supposedly educated professionals are simply, as Ambrose Bierce says, “persons skilled in the circumvention of the law,” and nothing more.
Another bastion of professional, educated society is the medical brotherhood, which in recent years has also proceeded to spit the dummy several times. Doctors on strike do not need to be violent to cause grievous bodily harm; when doctors go on strike people die, as in May of this year, when several people died as a result of young doctors’ strike. In Quetta, it was said that striking doctors were also preventing senior doctors from working.
Recently, doctors in Lahore’s teaching hospitals went on strike to protest against a murder case lodged against one of their colleagues, causing untold hardship to those requiring medical care. In the midst of a dengue epidemic, dengue centres of some hospitals failed to function as a result of this strike.
It makes one ponder the distinction between being ‘educated’ and being merely ‘instructed’ in a certain field alone, law, medicine, or any other field of science, commerce, or humanities. If educated persons are supposed to make such a difference, why have they not done so already in Pakistan? Where is the research or the inventions? Where is the application of this education in our lives, social, political, religious, or any other?
Some 36 percent of Pakistan’s total population lives in its cities. For the rest of the 64 percent the real power lies with the wealthy feudals, who in the main are notorious for not having personal education, nor for the support of education for others. The educated therefore constitute a small fraction of the population.
If our education is poor and is restricted to only a few persons, it is perplexing why the fact that these limited people have finally emerged from their turpitude to take interest in political issues is perceived as being cause to celebrate?
And yet life is full of tantalising contradictions. A great change for us as a nation was wrought by a wealthy, urbane lawyer comfortable mainly in English, extremely ill versed in any ‘native’ language.
The other change with far greater consequences, of course, was wrought by a man who was not educated in the academic sense of the word, who had amassed no personal wealth whatsoever, and was illiterate to boot.
It is a puzzle. Clearly, other factors do and are expected to come into play. So, let us wait for the elections to see what effect his ‘educated’ supporters have on Imran’s campaign, if any.
It is interesting though. Who, after all, are these educated persons amongst us who are supposed to enable change in our society? Are they the lawyers? The judges? The doctors?
In a country where up to ten percent of the parliament is said to be composed of persons holding fake degrees, where many schools exist only on paper, where academic excellence is assessed on the basis of the best memory for useless, tedious facts, what difference can this education and those who possess it, make?
Musharraf overreached himself in many ways, but it was when he messed with the judiciary back in 2007 that things became tough for him. Lawyers, mobilised by Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, began protests, including a Long March. There is little doubt that the judiciary found its voice once again as a result of their efforts. It is quite another matter that the judiciary has used this voice since with a degree of disorientation, appearing at times to confuse itself with the police, at others with various political and government departments and often simply issuing mystifying statements.
The hero of the piece, Chaudhry Iftikhar, presumably the most learned of them all given his position as Chief Justice, was responsible for a court ruling in 2002 because of which Musharraf got to keep both his uniform and the presidency simultaneously. As for the lawyers who attain their status after years of study, many violent protests, tantrums and unreasonable displays of pique have arisen from that quarter.
In September, this newspaper reported that ‘a group of lawyers thrashed two motorway police inspectors for confiscating a lawyer’s car on the motorway and imposing a fine for violations of traffic rules.’
The following month, ‘dozens of furious lawyers ransacked the courtroom of the judge who passed a verdict against Salmaan Taseer’s killer Mumtaz Qadri, smashing windows to protest against the judgment.’ Earlier on these same lawyers had garlanded Mr Qadri for assassinating the Governor.
Maybe these supposedly educated professionals are simply, as Ambrose Bierce says, “persons skilled in the circumvention of the law,” and nothing more.
Another bastion of professional, educated society is the medical brotherhood, which in recent years has also proceeded to spit the dummy several times. Doctors on strike do not need to be violent to cause grievous bodily harm; when doctors go on strike people die, as in May of this year, when several people died as a result of young doctors’ strike. In Quetta, it was said that striking doctors were also preventing senior doctors from working.
Recently, doctors in Lahore’s teaching hospitals went on strike to protest against a murder case lodged against one of their colleagues, causing untold hardship to those requiring medical care. In the midst of a dengue epidemic, dengue centres of some hospitals failed to function as a result of this strike.
It makes one ponder the distinction between being ‘educated’ and being merely ‘instructed’ in a certain field alone, law, medicine, or any other field of science, commerce, or humanities. If educated persons are supposed to make such a difference, why have they not done so already in Pakistan? Where is the research or the inventions? Where is the application of this education in our lives, social, political, religious, or any other?
Some 36 percent of Pakistan’s total population lives in its cities. For the rest of the 64 percent the real power lies with the wealthy feudals, who in the main are notorious for not having personal education, nor for the support of education for others. The educated therefore constitute a small fraction of the population.
If our education is poor and is restricted to only a few persons, it is perplexing why the fact that these limited people have finally emerged from their turpitude to take interest in political issues is perceived as being cause to celebrate?
And yet life is full of tantalising contradictions. A great change for us as a nation was wrought by a wealthy, urbane lawyer comfortable mainly in English, extremely ill versed in any ‘native’ language.
The other change with far greater consequences, of course, was wrought by a man who was not educated in the academic sense of the word, who had amassed no personal wealth whatsoever, and was illiterate to boot.
It is a puzzle. Clearly, other factors do and are expected to come into play. So, let us wait for the elections to see what effect his ‘educated’ supporters have on Imran’s campaign, if any.
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