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24. Have mercy on our children.
I grew up in the land of the pure with
hope , will and determination . What happened from 1947 onwards is written on
the face of each person that inhabits
here -a bitter story of betrayal except who enjoyed good times as never before . I am
dwelling on its political history . Suffice to say that each period of army
regime , except for a brief period when General Yahya Khan was in power ,
brought new hope .
A headline
appeared in yesterday’s daily DAWN that
another health project “ falls prey to ‘ Q’ tag” . The subtitle was that the Government
has failed to release funds for the completion of Fatima Jinnah dental
institute package . The meaning of the news item is that the Government was
playing politics with the education and dental health of the people of the
Punjab for not fault of the latter .
The
political government in 2008 decreased the allocation of the Higher
Education Commission with the result that those Pakistan students studying abroad were forced to beg at the entrances of
the mosques till the Government realized that it was embarrassing for it .
Ironically the military government of General Musharraf which made the
Commission hyper active and appointed a learned man to be the Chairman . It was
never fund starved and showed results . During this period , the number of PhDs
were doubled . More students were sent abroad for higher studies . More
universities were opened . Incidentally sending scholars for higher education was
too initiated by a military government .
Two of my
favourite pictures are a person absorbed in offering prayers and children going
and coming from school . I wish to gaze at each picture for hours very intently
if I had the time .Childhood is a golden period . It was a treat for me to
watch young boys and girls coming and going from school : girls in their tidy
dresses and boys with uniform and hair disheveled playing pranks with each
other
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When I was
at school and at College , there was no concept of tuition . My school fees (
Rs 35/-) were affordable . Even the Gordon College fees (Rs 35/-) were
affordable . In the Cadet College , Hasan Abdal , I enjoyed a scholarship of Rs
100/- per month . That meant that my late father had to pay only Rs 50/- per
month as fees for his son to be educated in the finest College . The common
schools charged a quarter rupee as fees .
A couple years ago , there were news that
tutors for children of kindergarten
classes were demanding Rs 4000/- per
child as tuition fees . I labeled it
“Education Genocide “ .A lady ,a mother , who was also an employee of the UN, told my wife that.
There were two option for her . She decided for an easier option than to
sacrifice her well paid job .
Malala was “
guilty “ of espousing female education by the opponents . The Tehreek Taliban
Pakistan claimed that they had shot her . She was awarded the Nobel Prize last
year for the same guilt . But what about those influential people , the
feudal lords , the landlords who deny education to their menials , serfs , the
kammies . This is another form of ‘Education Genocide ‘. Young boys and girls of
ages nine or ten , who have the rights given by Islam and the Holy Prophet (
Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him ) to go to school and be educated , are forced to work as domestic servants and
bear the cruelty of their masters and mistresses . Boys are engaged at garages
. The same treatment are meted out to them by the garage owners .
The Holy
Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him ) paid particular emphasis to
knowledge . There are sayings attributed to him about the importance of knowledge
. Yet the common people , the villagers , serfs , the menials are denied this right .
Before Partition ,
the children were taught good behavior .
Those included to respect
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1.
their
parents
2.
The
people older to you
3.
Others
( relatives ,neighbours and even servants )
4.
Not
challenge elders even if they were wrong .
5.
Not
to humiliate who those were inferior to
them.
6.
They
were taught the different modes of salutations
while writing letters viz. father
, mother , grandparents , uncles and aunts , the principal/ headmaster , to the
teacher .The details are found in Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi’s priceless book ’Behishati Zaivar’ . With the
country’s economic development , the
values which we cherished for centuries
,have eroded . This is the price
we are paying .
The
children were taught good behaviour as a part of the curriculum and both at
school as well as at home . Since I was
taught in missionary school , Muslims were taught “ Moral Science “, a form of
Catechism for eg. Did man make himself . To which , the answer was no . man did
not make himself . God , the Maker of the entire universe made him .
However , a few belonging to the old
school remain . I am an old fashioned man . I like old fashioned things and
ideas . When we were young , the fathers would leave homes for work while
mothers would remain behind in the home . The mothers would tell their children
stories having morals in them or stories of the Muslims warriors of old so that
the young ones would emulate them . My wife , an educated lady , took great
interest in the education and upbringing of our children particularly our
daughters .While our daughters did masters in the fields of their choice , my
wife took pains that the daughters should be conversant with the Holy Quran and
Tahfeem ul Quran , a scholarly and explanatory commentary on the Quran spread
over 10 volumes by Maulana Maududi , an eminent Islamic Scholar . This
was another form of education which the newer generation lacks . Economic
compulsions are forcing both parents to
work to ease the pressure on the husband or the wife alone .This is left to the
servants , the maids or the drivers to impart this form of training to the
young ones .
Mahfooz ur Rahman
Islamabad
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March 5, 2015
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