Dumbing Down Parliament....Again!

With the Supreme Court's decision to do away with the educational requirement for legislators, Pakistan will continue to have a brand of law-makers that at best can be called intellectual pygmies. Them's fightin' words and I fully intend to stand by them.

The argument that the Supreme Court upheld is that this requirement discrimanates against the vast majority of Pakistanis who do not have a Bachelors degree and thus is an unfair requirement. I have to agree that this is a valid objection to a certain extent but this objection also serves as a painful reminder of how far we as a nation have to go. Also, I would be far more able to accept this objection if this was in fact the reasoning. Almost every Pakistani knows that this requirement has been overturned to allow Mr.Z to contest a by-election whenever he so chooses,

I might be completely off base for some readers but I firmly believe that having an educational requirement for Parliament will attempt to ensure that only our best and brightest can sit in that august house. Granted we will have guys like Amir Liaqat who buy their degrees online from the University of Upper Mongolia at Ulan Bator or wherever, but I strongly feel such a requirement will serve to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

I personally would like to believe that the people making the decisions that govern my life are intellectually well rounded. I sincerely would like my leaders to be more intelligent and better qualified than me. I agree that in many cased unlettered men and women have risen to command the respect and admiration of millions (the Propher Mohammad being the most obvious case in point) but these are exceptions to the rule. I am in no way stating that having a bachelor's degree brings one sage wisdom, but I strongly feel that in general, someone with a degree from an accredited University will be a little better equipped to make policy decisions than someone who does not.

I grew up around countless men and women who were completely unlettered yet had made a success of their lives. However they always considered their lack of education as a handicap to their development. My argument remains that they could arguably have scaled new heights if only they had an education to compliment their God given skills.

The people who sit in Parliament should be our best and our brightest, the so-called flower of society. By allowing people without a degree to shape policy affecting all Pakistanis is irresponsible and naive. I realize this opinion will rub many the wrong way, however I am convinced that an educated individual will be better equipped to deal with the challenges of a modern world than one who is not.

Education illuminates minds and enables us as individuals to see what we previously could not. It allows us to comprehend and respect alternate points of opinion and discourages extremeist and rigid schools of thought. We as a nation will refuse to be taken for a ride if we as a people can spot the jalopy.

Additionally, what kind of message are we sending our youth? "Beta, it's ok if you flunked out of B.A and cannot be a Banker or an Engineer or a Lawyer. You can still be Minister of Industry!"