Sajid Opines

  Kashmore has always been famous for dacoit culture since time immemorial, or at least since when I personally started comprehending things around me. This time frame is around 2009 onwards. Back then, I failed to understand when my friends or teachers used to ask me about dacoits, and I would divert them by saying that these things happen in the riverine areas and not in city. Kashmore is being ruled by feudal lords belonging to Pakistan Peoples Party, as is the case with entire Sindh. They have been in power for more than a decade now. Given this context, there is some kind of a hidden relationship between dacoit culture and the perpetual lawlessness in Kashmore. It appears just when the feudal lords feel that their uncontrolled power is being questioned by various factions of the society, the lawlessness situation increases in intensity and frequency. Take for example the recent lawlessness situation, when people belonging to Hindu community were made hostages for want of money, as

  Voter turnout is referred to the percentage of people who actually voted on a certain polling day out of the total eligible voters. A higher percentage of it indicates a higher degree of faith in the democratic system. The more the faith in the system, the better for democracy. Although voter turnout has not been so good in Pakistan, but the continuous decline of it is worrisome. It has declined for the third consecutive term from 55% in 2013 to 52% in 2018 and eventually 48% in 2024. It seems no political party nor even an institution is worried about this situation. We do not see a discourse going on to explore the reasons why some people do not vote. Besides, lower turnouts open the gates for ballot box stuffing and rigging in favor of a certain party.

  Pakistanis voted for their favorite leader/party for national as well as provincial assemblies on February 08. These polls were already delayed due to the finalization of census data. Before almost every general election, there is crackdown on a certain political party, this time it was PTI. Experts call this pre poll rigging. Simply put, the party which mismanages its relations with the military would be on the target list and every trick would be applied to discourage the winning probability of it. This time, PTI members were picked, made to announce their departure from the party by addressing a press conference or giving an interview. Some were even put in jail, again and again. Their electoral symbol was snatched from them through a controversial supreme court decision. Their websites were denied access through public networks and their virtual rallies were continuously disrupted by internet shutdowns across the country. Despite all this, PTI backed independents won more seats t

  At cursory level, it seems our rulers are not competent enough to formulate pro people policies. They do not seem to be qualified enough to lead us and so the argument that people provide is to bring forward some learned people at key positions. But, we have had learned people at key positions in both elected as well as military governments. What is more, we have also seen some good policy decisions in our chequered history. The reason we have failed to progress at a desired rate is that we continuously fail to be consistent in our policies. A good policy in one government is not followed with the same zeal and sometimes even completely discarded in other government. The reason they do this is because the credit to continue with the policy will not go to their government. There is also a reason why each successive government repeats this cycle of stupidity. The reason being, policies are not formulated with consensus but composed and imposed without much debate. And hence, the incomi

Elections are a vital part of any democracy. It is a process to dilute the power accumulating in few hands. It makes sure that people who are governed are heard in true faith. It enables the people of a state to show their wrath for those who did not govern them well in the preceding years. However, elections in Pakistan do not serve this function well. The prime reason is the interference of military establishment in favouring a certain party over others and creating obstacles in the way of certain other party. This means elections in Pakistan do not reflect their true essence. People are not given free hand to decide their rulers. If politicians were given free chance to fight each other electorally, we could have evolved a better democracy over time. However, nothing has changed.

  Out of the many problems that our education system is facing, one is how we educate our children at the primary level. The problem is, we force students to write the answers in a language that is not their own. Irrespective of the fact wether they can speak that language of not, writing in it is a bit different. Since they cannot write on their own, they put their efforts on memorizing what teachers make them to write in classes. This is how our examination system is boosting rote learning. If our policy makers had brains, this was not something impossible to change. We could take oral examination of students up till primary level and put efforts to teach them English and Urdu as language subjects. This way we can give them a good start.

21st century is well on its way, disrupting everything around us: from how we get information to how we can spread it. Education is also being disrupted by the many forces that are driving the 21st century. There is no doubt that education of any kind is going to be central to the meaning of a 21st century person's life. Unfortunately, our young generation is busy in watching one-minute videos on TikTok or like that and spending hours playing video games. In this backdrop, it is our responsibility to direction to them and tune them for self study at home. This is not possible without building our houses keeping in view the 21st century demands. Our houses should have a separate room where no noise should be allowed. It should be like a personal library, where one can study in peace.