Sad Event — Death of our National Cricket Coach - Bob Woolmer:

Sad Event — Death of our National Cricket Coach - Bob Woolmer:
Written on: March 19, 2007

Before the news about Bob Woolmer’s initial unconsciousness, Geo TV was constantly presenting very bad insulting remarks of common audiance about Bob Woolmer, Inzimam and others, including the team as a whole. Those remarks were not making any proper sense and sounded very bad to me. I didn’t watch the match with Ireland, but the highlights were showing that Ireland, although was a new team, but was not any bad team at all. One factor behind our losing the match might be that we under-estimated a good team. Now try to think about all those who were putting insulting remarks against individuals, including Inzimam and Bom Woolmer; were they also not committing the same mistake…??? Were they mistakenly not under-estimating a good Iresh team…??? Then for why they were so badly criticizing the team with third-rate insulting remarks. And why Geo TV was presenting those third-rate comments? I did not see other TV channels, but Geo TV’s behaviour was really very immature.

If we lost the match, then it means that we as a Nation also had lost the match. Why to blame only team? We should try to evaluate our own behaviours and attitudes also. If we are not mature in our thinking and we openly present third-rate comments against our own individuals before International media, then how can we be mature in stadium…??? What International audiance might have got the message out of such remarks that our team was better model than players? Obviously, we do not pay any proper respect to our ownselves. Why should others respect us then…???

Bob Woolmer, our Coach, has died. Now we should stop our useless criticism on individuals. We should take some care of self-esteem of those individuals whose talents have been internationally recognized. If their own nation treats them so badly then how it is possible that they can get any psychological strength, which is vital for their performance…???

Bring the best player before me. I shall tell him, “You are bad player. You cannot play well. You are out of form. Your good days have gone. Your Coach is alien. He may not be sincere with you. Instead of playing, you should retire, etc. etc.” … and then let that player participate in World Cup match. My question is: What shall be his performance…???

How to eradicate Poverty from our Country? And can our Education sector make any Progress if we just Increase Education Budget?

Mahatir Muhammad’s “Case of Asia” is a good book to understand how practically poverty can be eradicated within few decades from a poor country. Although he expressed his concerns about the setbacks to the Economies of East Asian Countries in late 1990s, but on the whole, he showed his satisfaction over the achievements of his government. Malaysia was a poor country in early 1960’s when Mahatir assumed power. He has discussed his long term planning aimed at how to eradicate poverty from the country. His people were mostly uneducated and did not know even how to do small businesses. His government first tried to understand the composition of country’s society with respect to their economic activities and level of incomes. They found that there was vast disparity in the type of Economic activities and distribution of Income. A sizable population of Malaysia consisted of alien people. Indigenous Malaysian people were in majority however but most Economic resources were in the hands of alien people. Mahatir discusses that his government could adopt such policies as to just re-distribute the economic resources among population through various indirect means such as through progressive taxation etc. But they thought it was wrong to deprive wealthy people off their hard earned resources. They realized that actual problem was not to just redistribute the resources. The issue was to generate new resources. The majority poor population was so ignorant and didn’t even know how to start a small business. Then Mahatir discusses how his government endeavored to introduce business culture in the society. In fact, his strategy was to introduce entrepreneurial culture in the society. His government first encouraged small enterprises through small loan schemes. His government launched a campaign to promote awareness among small business owners about the adoptation and utilization of modern techniques of Accounting and Finance. In this way, at first his government successfully made a sizable number of people the owner of their own businesses. All the economic activities boosted with increased business activities. Secondly his government did concrete efforts for the promotion of Foreign Investment in his country.

The difference between such a strategy and our policy is something like that we also study Accounting and Finance. But in our country, these subject are taught with the view to enable the students to find some clerical or so called Managerial job. Whereas Mahatir’s government launched campaign to make these modern techniques of doing business as part of business culture of country.

And I do not think that education sector can make progress only with the help of additional finance. We are having far more Economic resources than our own ancient ancestors. If they could make many achievements in educational, intellectual and scientific fields, then why we have been unable to do the same things while having far more Economic resources than our those ancestors could have? Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy considers it just a baseless excuse that we are backward in education sector just because of lack of some Economic resources. The question is, after all what we shall do of additional money if we double or triple our Education budget? Obviously we shall open some new substandard schools and universities. As a result, there shall be some more addition of half educated unemployed or under-employed degree-holder youth. There is actually need of many qualitative type reforms in our education system. Dr. Hoodhbhoy says ok that many types of Scientific research studies do require expensive laboratory equipment, but he says that laboratory equipment is not the necessary condition for all types of scientific research. For example, he has classified science into (i) Practical Sciences and; (ii) Theoretical Sciences. He tells us that research work in theoretical sciences do not require the usage of any expensive laboratory equipment. So we would rightfully blame our so called poverty only if we have shown any positive achievement in the area of at least theoretical sciences.

Furthermore, neither our education system is aware of any utility of theoretical sciences, nor our university syllabi include any theoretical science at all. Only emphasis is on just a minor aspect of practical sciences. My friend who did Masters in Botany told me that once university imported some expensive lab equipment from Japan. But that equipment was never used because if during its application some fault comes, it could only be removed by Japanese. So University management thought it better to not use that equipment at all…!!!

So how our education sector can make any progress if we successfully find many oil wells in our country but pay no attention to the qualitative aspects of education system?

How a Punjabi can feel over Bugti’s Assassination……!!!!

How a Punjabi can feel over Bugti’s Assassination……!!!!
(Written on September 01, 2006)

Mr. Bugti has died in an encounter, so shall be remembered for his bravery and commitment to his cause. Though his cause had little to do with the welfare of his people and more to do with his personal prestige and powerful position, yet his death has been resulted in generating more sympathies for the cause of Baloch people.

It is necessary that we must investigate the cause of Economic and educational backwardness of Baloch people. These are my feelings as being a Punjabi. On the other hand, Mr. Irshad Ahmed Haqqani, in his column, has copied a letter of a Punjabi who is resident of Balochistan. Punjabi people are the victim of target killing and Robbery in Balochistan province. There is general environment of hatred for Punjabis among the Baloch people, or at least among the ‘nationalist’ Balochis. The slogan of Balochi ‘nationalists’ is: “Balochistan – the graveyard of Punjabis”. It is important to mention that if Baloch people are poor or backward, then so is the case with those Punjabi victims of target killing … because mostly they also happened to be poor labour class people. So they are becoming victim of a blind form of hatred. It is also important to mention that Punjabis do not hate Balochis or any other in this type of manner or any other manner whatsoever.

Rights of Balochistan have to do with the affairs of federal government and not with the people of Punjab. But indirect role of Punjab does come because of such reasons as: (i) More representation of Punjabis in federal government, (ii) Economic prosperity of common Punjabi as compared to common Balochi. etc.

Federal government allocates resources to different provinces on the basis of population data alone. As being a Punjabi, in my honest assessment, this is a wrong policy. Balochistan is the largest province of country in terms of its area but smallest in terms of population. While allocating the resources to this province, federal government takes decision solely on the basis of population data and simply ignores the implications of vast land area of this province. The simple implication of such vast land area is that it gives the result of very high per capita infrastructure cost. With the view to provide the facility of lets say, a road to less number of people, a long road of many hundred kilometers would be required. So the per capita infrastructure cost has to be very much high in this province as compared to lets say Punjab where far more number of people get the benefit of relatively very short road. So first of all in my opinion, resources should be allocated not just on the basis of population data but should be allocated on the basis of per capita infrastructure cost. Representation of Baloch people also should be increased in federal government due to similar reasons.

Punjabis are generally well off because they have been gifted by nature with five big rivers and fertile agriculture land. Punjabi people are lucky in the sense that they can exercise their proprietary rights over the fertile lands of the province. It means that Punjabi people are lucky because they can exercise proprietary rights over the naturally occurring natural resources of their province.

Balochi people have been unlucky because they have been deprived off to exercise their proprietary rights over the natural resources (natural gas) of their province. Bugti’s assassination has diverted our attention (Punjabi’s attention) towards this form of injustice as well. Balochistan is poor in water resources and fertility of land but it is rich in other form of natural resources as natural gas. If Punjab has the right to take full benefit of its natural resources, then Balochistan also should have full right to take benefits of its natural resources. But just like Punjabi people take the benefit of their natural resources, so it should be the Baloch people who should take the benefit of their natural resources and this benefit should not go in the pockets of their Sardars.

It is also important to mention that Punjabis do not act as parasite for Baloch people in any sense. They make payment for the gas, which they use. This payment however should go to provincial government of Balochistan for the benefit of Baloch people, and should not go to federal government or even the personal treasures of Baloch Sardars. Federal government should take just her taxation out of this income and nothing more.

It is also necessary that constitutional set up should be like a federation with the greatest possible autonomy to Provinces. There should not be any form of injustice by any province towards any other. People of one province should not hate with people of other province on just baseless things like that since Punjabis take ‘electricity’ out of waters of rivers so the water which reaches to next province would lack some important ingredient which is crucial for agriculture etc. etc. If people of other provinces hate with Punjabis on the basis of this type of reasons, then they are also committing injustice towards Punjabis.