The Culture of Research and Learning
Murtaza Haider May 28, 2004
#127 Posted by sadna on June 5, 2004 8:34:07 pm
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/books/books1.htm
``...As a college teacher of political science I was interested more in learning about the state of higher education and research particularly in social sciences and the intellectual activity in general in Pakistan. I read a number of articles on these issues during my five months stay in Pakistan, which gave vent to two major grievances in higher education. The first was about the dismal state of research in Pakistan. The dimension and quality of research appeared to be the major cause of concern of the writers of these articles.
Very often the writers indulged in comparison with India. Pakistanis generally believe that the system of higher education and quality of research in India is superior. There is an appreciation of the fact that thousands of Indians earn doctoral degrees in different disciplines of study annually. Sometimes the authors of articles asked why Pakistan did not start institutions like IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and IIM (Indian Institute of Management). Many of the senior university teachers in Pakistan have their doctoral degrees from foreign, mostly American and British, universities.
Things are changing now and many of the younger teachers have doctoral degrees from Pakistani universities. Musharraf`s regime has undertaken major programmes with a view to removing this lacuna. While I was in Pakistan I had read the news report stating that the government of Pakistan had planned to send a hundred teachers and researchers from Pakistan to universities abroad for research at the cost of more than Rs800 million.
It had also decided to disburse grants of over Rs600 million to the QAU to encourage research leading to the doctoral degree. Science teachers with PhDs were to become eligible for extra allowances. I read about the Punjab University at Lahore deciding to get 100 theses evaluated from foreign universities. The other scheme announced by this university would make Indian researchers and research guides envious of their counterparts in Punjab University. Every candidate obtaining a PhD from the university would get an award of Rs50,000 and his guide Rs100,000. On reading this, how much I wished that I got at least two candidates from Punjab University working with me for PhD before returning to India!
The second grievance was about the state of social sciences and the treatment meted out to social scientists in Pakistan. Most Pakistani universities neglect the social sciences. Though this is a part of the global trend, Pakistan`s social and political systems are responsible for this maltreatment of social sciences. There are certain conditions for the development of knowledge in any society; the intellectual and ideological ethos of the society, the extant value system, the class divisions and the pattern of power distribution.
In the process of Islamization of Pakistan even social sciences have been Islamized. `Islam pasand` groups have cultivated traditional and puritanical values in society and have discouraged and rejected scientific rationalism. Social sciences and humanities deal with ideas. They have a potential to encourage individual thinking, to formulate and express opinions irrespective of the prevalent opinion in society. They encourage people to defy authority, if necessary, be it political or religious and lay the foundations of open society.
Any political regime founded on exclusive ideology tends to suppress the expression of independent opinion, and critical assessment of ideas. Moreover long praetorian interventions are not conducive for free promotion and expression of ideas, which is the basic function of social sciences and humanities. Therefore social sciences in Pakistan have been forced to rediscover their `relevance through Islam`.
Pakistani intellectuals are aware of the `dismal state of social sciences` in their country. I recall reading a newspaper article by a Pakistani writer, a few years ago, which said Pakistan had become an `intellectual wasteland`. Akbar Zaidi`s analytical article on the subject of the ``State of Social Sciences in Pakistan``, published in the Economic and Political Weekly, comprehensively deals with all issues regarding the subject from the number of `active` social scientists, publications, institutions of research, to finances and accountability.
Zaidi`s lament is that no Pakistani social scientist in the last three decades, `has developed, reconstructed, reformulated, expanded upon, disputed or rejected, any theory or theoretical formulation, qua theory, in the specific context of Pakistan`. This is corroborated by Inayatullah who wrote that most socio-scientific literature in Pakistan was not oriented to the growth of knowledge and that generally it lacked theoretical orientation and theoretical research in a volume titled The State of Social Sciences in Pakistan.
This is because social sciences as academic disciplines have declined in universities. In the QAU, which was developed as the centre for excellence, there are no departments of philosophy, political science or sociology. Going through the academic publications in Pakistan, I discovered that many of them were in the nature of empirical studies (data collection), documentation or applied research produced by those working in various professional research institutions and NGOs, heavily funded by foreign donors who lay down their preferences and priorities in the area of research.
I was amused reading a small news item in Dawn on August 21, 2001 that said that the NWFP government had decided to banish social sciences and humanities from college curricula. Disciplines of political science, philosophy, history and literature were deemed to be worthless and, hence, could not be funded by the government that faced a severe resource crunch. The government had further decided not to fill the posts vacated on retirement of the teachers of the said disciplines. I have no idea if this policy was finally implemented.
Pakistani intellectuals are fighting pitched battles against Islamists. In the summer of 2003 it was reported that the teachers of the English department of the oldest and the most prestigious university in Pakistan, the Punjab University in Lahore, discovered that a junior member of the department, Shahbaz Arif, was recruited by the university administration apparently to `purge` the syllabus of `vulgar, obscene, and morally corrupt` elements.
An internal memo circulated by Arif, who is said to hold a PhD in linguistics from Essex University in Britain, pointed his finger to Alexander Pope`s The Rape of the Lock, for the vulgarity of the title of the book and Jonathan Swift`s Gulliver Travels for its description of a `monstrous breast`. Ernest Hemingway`s The Sun Also Rises was nothing but anathema, for all characters in Hemingway`s work were sexually astray: men homosexuals; women lesbians or promiscuous and Brett Ashley nymphomaniac. Sean O` Casey`s play The End of the Beginning was targeted for the sentence, `When the song ended, Darry cocks his ear and listens.`
As the controversy intensified, university authorities hurriedly issued clarifications and denials. But even the department held on firmly to its ground. The department`s chair Shaista Sirajuddin is known to be outspoken, progressive and secular and has kept Islamists at bay. And there are others like her. If Pakistan has become an `intellectual wasteland` it is not for want of intellectuals, but for the intellectual culture that has been deliberately and systematically decimated by certain social, political and religious forces discussed in this book.
This is not to absolve the intellectual class of its responsibility but to stress the challenges encountered by it. Some among them have accepted the challenge and taken these forces by the horns as has been indicated by the proliferation of dissent literature in Pakistan during the Zia rule. Some like Mehdi Hasan, former professor of journalism at Punjab University, have faced serious accusations, while others call the truce with those forces and seek refuge in self censorship professed in the name of national interest and Islam.
Maneesha Tikekar is a reader in politics in SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai.
This book is an Indian university teacher`s account of her five-month stay in Pakistan. It captures her perception of our society and culture.
Excerpted with permission from Across the Wagah: An Indian`s Sojourn in Pakistan
By Maneesha Tikekar
Promilla & Co Publishers in association with Bibliophile South Asia,
C-127 Sarvodaya Enclave, New Delhi-110 017, India
Website: www.biblioasia.com
ISBN 81-85002-34-7
360pp. Indian Rs750
``...As a college teacher of political science I was interested more in learning about the state of higher education and research particularly in social sciences and the intellectual activity in general in Pakistan. I read a number of articles on these issues during my five months stay in Pakistan, which gave vent to two major grievances in higher education. The first was about the dismal state of research in Pakistan. The dimension and quality of research appeared to be the major cause of concern of the writers of these articles.
Very often the writers indulged in comparison with India. Pakistanis generally believe that the system of higher education and quality of research in India is superior. There is an appreciation of the fact that thousands of Indians earn doctoral degrees in different disciplines of study annually. Sometimes the authors of articles asked why Pakistan did not start institutions like IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and IIM (Indian Institute of Management). Many of the senior university teachers in Pakistan have their doctoral degrees from foreign, mostly American and British, universities.
Things are changing now and many of the younger teachers have doctoral degrees from Pakistani universities. Musharraf`s regime has undertaken major programmes with a view to removing this lacuna. While I was in Pakistan I had read the news report stating that the government of Pakistan had planned to send a hundred teachers and researchers from Pakistan to universities abroad for research at the cost of more than Rs800 million.
It had also decided to disburse grants of over Rs600 million to the QAU to encourage research leading to the doctoral degree. Science teachers with PhDs were to become eligible for extra allowances. I read about the Punjab University at Lahore deciding to get 100 theses evaluated from foreign universities. The other scheme announced by this university would make Indian researchers and research guides envious of their counterparts in Punjab University. Every candidate obtaining a PhD from the university would get an award of Rs50,000 and his guide Rs100,000. On reading this, how much I wished that I got at least two candidates from Punjab University working with me for PhD before returning to India!
The second grievance was about the state of social sciences and the treatment meted out to social scientists in Pakistan. Most Pakistani universities neglect the social sciences. Though this is a part of the global trend, Pakistan`s social and political systems are responsible for this maltreatment of social sciences. There are certain conditions for the development of knowledge in any society; the intellectual and ideological ethos of the society, the extant value system, the class divisions and the pattern of power distribution.
In the process of Islamization of Pakistan even social sciences have been Islamized. `Islam pasand` groups have cultivated traditional and puritanical values in society and have discouraged and rejected scientific rationalism. Social sciences and humanities deal with ideas. They have a potential to encourage individual thinking, to formulate and express opinions irrespective of the prevalent opinion in society. They encourage people to defy authority, if necessary, be it political or religious and lay the foundations of open society.
Any political regime founded on exclusive ideology tends to suppress the expression of independent opinion, and critical assessment of ideas. Moreover long praetorian interventions are not conducive for free promotion and expression of ideas, which is the basic function of social sciences and humanities. Therefore social sciences in Pakistan have been forced to rediscover their `relevance through Islam`.
Pakistani intellectuals are aware of the `dismal state of social sciences` in their country. I recall reading a newspaper article by a Pakistani writer, a few years ago, which said Pakistan had become an `intellectual wasteland`. Akbar Zaidi`s analytical article on the subject of the ``State of Social Sciences in Pakistan``, published in the Economic and Political Weekly, comprehensively deals with all issues regarding the subject from the number of `active` social scientists, publications, institutions of research, to finances and accountability.
Zaidi`s lament is that no Pakistani social scientist in the last three decades, `has developed, reconstructed, reformulated, expanded upon, disputed or rejected, any theory or theoretical formulation, qua theory, in the specific context of Pakistan`. This is corroborated by Inayatullah who wrote that most socio-scientific literature in Pakistan was not oriented to the growth of knowledge and that generally it lacked theoretical orientation and theoretical research in a volume titled The State of Social Sciences in Pakistan.
This is because social sciences as academic disciplines have declined in universities. In the QAU, which was developed as the centre for excellence, there are no departments of philosophy, political science or sociology. Going through the academic publications in Pakistan, I discovered that many of them were in the nature of empirical studies (data collection), documentation or applied research produced by those working in various professional research institutions and NGOs, heavily funded by foreign donors who lay down their preferences and priorities in the area of research.
I was amused reading a small news item in Dawn on August 21, 2001 that said that the NWFP government had decided to banish social sciences and humanities from college curricula. Disciplines of political science, philosophy, history and literature were deemed to be worthless and, hence, could not be funded by the government that faced a severe resource crunch. The government had further decided not to fill the posts vacated on retirement of the teachers of the said disciplines. I have no idea if this policy was finally implemented.
Pakistani intellectuals are fighting pitched battles against Islamists. In the summer of 2003 it was reported that the teachers of the English department of the oldest and the most prestigious university in Pakistan, the Punjab University in Lahore, discovered that a junior member of the department, Shahbaz Arif, was recruited by the university administration apparently to `purge` the syllabus of `vulgar, obscene, and morally corrupt` elements.
An internal memo circulated by Arif, who is said to hold a PhD in linguistics from Essex University in Britain, pointed his finger to Alexander Pope`s The Rape of the Lock, for the vulgarity of the title of the book and Jonathan Swift`s Gulliver Travels for its description of a `monstrous breast`. Ernest Hemingway`s The Sun Also Rises was nothing but anathema, for all characters in Hemingway`s work were sexually astray: men homosexuals; women lesbians or promiscuous and Brett Ashley nymphomaniac. Sean O` Casey`s play The End of the Beginning was targeted for the sentence, `When the song ended, Darry cocks his ear and listens.`
As the controversy intensified, university authorities hurriedly issued clarifications and denials. But even the department held on firmly to its ground. The department`s chair Shaista Sirajuddin is known to be outspoken, progressive and secular and has kept Islamists at bay. And there are others like her. If Pakistan has become an `intellectual wasteland` it is not for want of intellectuals, but for the intellectual culture that has been deliberately and systematically decimated by certain social, political and religious forces discussed in this book.
This is not to absolve the intellectual class of its responsibility but to stress the challenges encountered by it. Some among them have accepted the challenge and taken these forces by the horns as has been indicated by the proliferation of dissent literature in Pakistan during the Zia rule. Some like Mehdi Hasan, former professor of journalism at Punjab University, have faced serious accusations, while others call the truce with those forces and seek refuge in self censorship professed in the name of national interest and Islam.
Maneesha Tikekar is a reader in politics in SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai.
This book is an Indian university teacher`s account of her five-month stay in Pakistan. It captures her perception of our society and culture.
Excerpted with permission from Across the Wagah: An Indian`s Sojourn in Pakistan
By Maneesha Tikekar
Promilla & Co Publishers in association with Bibliophile South Asia,
C-127 Sarvodaya Enclave, New Delhi-110 017, India
Website: www.biblioasia.com
ISBN 81-85002-34-7
360pp. Indian Rs750
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#126 Posted by ZahraJ on June 5, 2004 7:02:30 pm
Dear Ijaz: Thank you for your explanation. I am sure with your mountaineering background, you have a lot to keep you occupied with. Hope you have a relaxing time!
Your second last post had an ending with the desire to continue the exchange about improvements. Having spearheaded various process improvement initiatives, I would tell you from experience that if your surroundings are not prepared (open and ready) for any change, the results may not very satisfactory. Well, you may gain experience and insights but that`s it. And, the follow-up steps on change management that many consider only as buzz-words have much more significance, an average person can comprehend.
Before you even go near implementing anything for your institution, you must spend fair amount of time in research; and evaluate what`s pertinent to your surroundings. Lastly, do not let go of what is important to you. That`s where I have been extremely impressed by some professional organizations based out of US. Recently, on sharing some points of mutual interest with a leadership organization who wants me to run with a project, I was completely taken aback by the time they had spent in research just to get to know the need and areas they wanted to target for `` leadership ``. In order to do that, you certainly require contributors who can add signifcantly based on their own experience and what they have to offer. You have to take this as a Life Cycle Project. And, this is what I love about my surroundings (it`s not only the mountains, prairies, clean water and running tracks aside not to mention the diversity and civil beings). Despite the other committments, men and women from all cultural backgrounds have the desire to be more enlightened. It`s not just a decent six figure pay check that will add to their life and everything is hunky dory!
In my case, I am at a point in life where I like to maintain significant distance from those who want to extract my energies. My mantra is that I would contribute provided you tell me how you can contribute to my life. If you have nothing or if I find that way too obsolete then please stay away from me and I`ll do the same. I like to maintain the same approach on Chowk and in my personal life. Sometimes, I do slip and end up wasting my breath on interactors, I would not even like to associate with regardless of their origin and color. I guess that`s part of being human. Had I been perfect, I would have been sitting with the monks that Robin Sharma(one of my favorite writers) highlights in his insightful book, ``The Monk who sold his Ferrari`` or adopted the lifestyle Kabir touches upon in `` Mun Lago... Yaar ... Faqeeri Main...``
I do not have anything else to add therefore I would like to say goodbye for the summer(I am just borrowing this expression from an old song. It has no other relevance. :))
Take Care and Best Regards.
Your second last post had an ending with the desire to continue the exchange about improvements. Having spearheaded various process improvement initiatives, I would tell you from experience that if your surroundings are not prepared (open and ready) for any change, the results may not very satisfactory. Well, you may gain experience and insights but that`s it. And, the follow-up steps on change management that many consider only as buzz-words have much more significance, an average person can comprehend.
Before you even go near implementing anything for your institution, you must spend fair amount of time in research; and evaluate what`s pertinent to your surroundings. Lastly, do not let go of what is important to you. That`s where I have been extremely impressed by some professional organizations based out of US. Recently, on sharing some points of mutual interest with a leadership organization who wants me to run with a project, I was completely taken aback by the time they had spent in research just to get to know the need and areas they wanted to target for `` leadership ``. In order to do that, you certainly require contributors who can add signifcantly based on their own experience and what they have to offer. You have to take this as a Life Cycle Project. And, this is what I love about my surroundings (it`s not only the mountains, prairies, clean water and running tracks aside not to mention the diversity and civil beings). Despite the other committments, men and women from all cultural backgrounds have the desire to be more enlightened. It`s not just a decent six figure pay check that will add to their life and everything is hunky dory!
In my case, I am at a point in life where I like to maintain significant distance from those who want to extract my energies. My mantra is that I would contribute provided you tell me how you can contribute to my life. If you have nothing or if I find that way too obsolete then please stay away from me and I`ll do the same. I like to maintain the same approach on Chowk and in my personal life. Sometimes, I do slip and end up wasting my breath on interactors, I would not even like to associate with regardless of their origin and color. I guess that`s part of being human. Had I been perfect, I would have been sitting with the monks that Robin Sharma(one of my favorite writers) highlights in his insightful book, ``The Monk who sold his Ferrari`` or adopted the lifestyle Kabir touches upon in `` Mun Lago... Yaar ... Faqeeri Main...``
I do not have anything else to add therefore I would like to say goodbye for the summer(I am just borrowing this expression from an old song. It has no other relevance. :))
Take Care and Best Regards.
#125 Posted by echoboom on June 5, 2004 9:41:26 am
murtaza:
this is just to acknowledge and register my ``discovery`` of your debut on CHOWK. I wonder if you are aware of this being posted here.
This ``submission`` didn`t come up during our discussion a few weeks ago (confidential, confidential!--guranteed!) Maybe it was sent long time ago and was ``archived``.
Congratulations. It is a ``practical`` piece and I just can`t appreciate it enough. More of such musings and ``wondering-alouds`` are needed rather than the usual intellectualitis and kalloo-orangutanism spammed here.
this is just to acknowledge and register my ``discovery`` of your debut on CHOWK. I wonder if you are aware of this being posted here.
This ``submission`` didn`t come up during our discussion a few weeks ago (confidential, confidential!--guranteed!) Maybe it was sent long time ago and was ``archived``.
Congratulations. It is a ``practical`` piece and I just can`t appreciate it enough. More of such musings and ``wondering-alouds`` are needed rather than the usual intellectualitis and kalloo-orangutanism spammed here.
#123 Posted by ijaz_gul on June 4, 2004 10:25:48 pm
#121
Moi is a French word meaning myself. It is used on the board by malyck as his trade mark. Now even Omar has used this term. I wrote in french,
``please excuse me. What rational are you talking about.
when you use malycks expressions``.
As for you(Zahraj), I appreciated what you said.
I hope that satisfies you.
Pray and hope you enjoy your summers. I am knee deep in work here and wonder if i will find time to visit some mountain resort.
Nowadays, I am trying to develope models for reviving the civil society in Pakistan. The US model does not apply here. Do contribute if you can.
Cheerios
Ijaz
Moi is a French word meaning myself. It is used on the board by malyck as his trade mark. Now even Omar has used this term. I wrote in french,
``please excuse me. What rational are you talking about.
when you use malycks expressions``.
As for you(Zahraj), I appreciated what you said.
I hope that satisfies you.
Pray and hope you enjoy your summers. I am knee deep in work here and wonder if i will find time to visit some mountain resort.
Nowadays, I am trying to develope models for reviving the civil society in Pakistan. The US model does not apply here. Do contribute if you can.
Cheerios
Ijaz
#122 Posted by sadna on June 4, 2004 6:03:16 pm
flyhighkites #120
My #55 might have been addressed to you among others, but not only to you. In any case after that I thought I explained myself to you on unplugged. Get a grip! In any case, it should not matter what I or anyone else says as long as you yourself believe in what you are saying.
My #55 might have been addressed to you among others, but not only to you. In any case after that I thought I explained myself to you on unplugged. Get a grip! In any case, it should not matter what I or anyone else says as long as you yourself believe in what you are saying.
#121 Posted by ZahraJ on June 4, 2004 6:03:15 pm
108: Ijaz:Could you please spell out your previous post ? I do not want to say goodbye for the summer to this board without knowing that. Thanks.
#120 Posted by flyhighkites on June 4, 2004 10:18:34 am
#119: OK, the low-down.
I gave a brief thought to the possibility that perhaps I mistook the references by Zahra and you as directed at me, whereas they may be directed at someone else.
So in all fairness, I have re-read posts #44, 55, 58, 65, 66, 79.... My assumption is that #55 was addressed to me - i wonder who else ``preached piously`` without ``writing about the topic.`` There certainly were many PK retaliations, but am I wrong that only I ``delivered the sermon`` and therefore post#55 couldn`t be addressing anyone but me?
At any rate, 58 was directed as it made a pun on post # 44`s first line. #65 cleared the misunderstanding b/w you and Zahra... whereas #66 and 79 are an exchange of notes about bulls caught with their horns... bulls who can`t read very well. etc. I, being a fiesty little woman and pretty normal human myself, could not help but respond. Please note that I have offered truce from the start, and I even thanked you for pointing out in post #55 that I only preached piously, and did not write abt the topic.
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This is the situation. Still, if by any distant chance it wasn`t *I* you talked about in post#55, then pray do make it clear who were you addressing? An unconditional apology if I have been entirely mistaken. ANd BTW, I am not a fan of resolving PAK-INDIA issues on Chowk, so I have no issues with continuing a dialog with anyone. I only differ on personal basis.
At this point, I am ready to side with anyone who`ll think I am being ridiculous by dragging this on. Hmmmmm... I have broken my promise, but Sadna I`d have put this in UP but I know you don`t go there... besides that`d invite spectators over. What nonsensical circus would that be. Anyhow.... my last post on this particular skirmish. Pakka wada! Good night!
I gave a brief thought to the possibility that perhaps I mistook the references by Zahra and you as directed at me, whereas they may be directed at someone else.
So in all fairness, I have re-read posts #44, 55, 58, 65, 66, 79.... My assumption is that #55 was addressed to me - i wonder who else ``preached piously`` without ``writing about the topic.`` There certainly were many PK retaliations, but am I wrong that only I ``delivered the sermon`` and therefore post#55 couldn`t be addressing anyone but me?
At any rate, 58 was directed as it made a pun on post # 44`s first line. #65 cleared the misunderstanding b/w you and Zahra... whereas #66 and 79 are an exchange of notes about bulls caught with their horns... bulls who can`t read very well. etc. I, being a fiesty little woman and pretty normal human myself, could not help but respond. Please note that I have offered truce from the start, and I even thanked you for pointing out in post #55 that I only preached piously, and did not write abt the topic.
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This is the situation. Still, if by any distant chance it wasn`t *I* you talked about in post#55, then pray do make it clear who were you addressing? An unconditional apology if I have been entirely mistaken. ANd BTW, I am not a fan of resolving PAK-INDIA issues on Chowk, so I have no issues with continuing a dialog with anyone. I only differ on personal basis.
At this point, I am ready to side with anyone who`ll think I am being ridiculous by dragging this on. Hmmmmm... I have broken my promise, but Sadna I`d have put this in UP but I know you don`t go there... besides that`d invite spectators over. What nonsensical circus would that be. Anyhow.... my last post on this particular skirmish. Pakka wada! Good night!
#119 Posted by sadna on June 4, 2004 9:19:42 am
flyhighkites #114
You might like to notice, there are plenty of other people posting here, you are not the only one.
I don`t know about Zahra, I was talking of other posters. One poster said that I was talking of two nation theory, another told me to stop quoting from Asia times. I went back and looked at my posts again and again, I have no clue how these posters could say what they did. So I said one sentence in reply to that. For that now you are accusing me of saying bad things about you. That is totally your wish! I live and learn every day.
You might like to notice, there are plenty of other people posting here, you are not the only one.
I don`t know about Zahra, I was talking of other posters. One poster said that I was talking of two nation theory, another told me to stop quoting from Asia times. I went back and looked at my posts again and again, I have no clue how these posters could say what they did. So I said one sentence in reply to that. For that now you are accusing me of saying bad things about you. That is totally your wish! I live and learn every day.
#118 Posted by ZahraJ on June 4, 2004 7:17:06 am
117: Omar: Can you apply your ``mentally disturbed`` sermons on your own self or you need to see a mirror every now and then? Whatever! I am sure you can provide enough amusement to equally disturbed, sorry I am not interested in your ``intellectually stimulating`` discourses. Thanks.
#117 Posted by omar_r_quraishi on June 3, 2004 11:41:14 pm
zahraJ -- again -- what in god`s name are you talking about -- wait ??? for what???
harish ji -- i was told that by one of the editors here when i asked them about the policy -- no one is whining harish ji -- learn to chill a bit shri harish ji --
harish ji -- i was told that by one of the editors here when i asked them about the policy -- no one is whining harish ji -- learn to chill a bit shri harish ji --
#116 Posted by ProudPakistani on June 3, 2004 11:41:14 pm
A National Policy Dialogues Series is being launched by Virtual Think Tank Pakistan (VTTP) and Pakistan Research Support Network (PRSN) on Science and Technology, Research, Higher and Basic/Primary Education Reforms. Substantial Prize money is at stake for original, creative and pragmatic ideas on several sub-topics and sub-sub-topics. The website for the competition is http://npds.vttp.org. I would urge all to participate, support, and promote the event.
-Athar Osama
Doctoral Fellow in Policy Studies
Member, Managing Committee of National Policy Dialogues Series
-Athar Osama
Doctoral Fellow in Policy Studies
Member, Managing Committee of National Policy Dialogues Series
#115 Posted by omar_r_quraishi on June 3, 2004 11:41:14 pm
zahra can u try having an argument without getting personal?
#114 Posted by flyhighkites on June 3, 2004 11:38:11 pm
#113: I do not wish to stay into this any longer. I am tempted to go back and copy/paste the entire relevant thread.... but then I know ramifications, explanations, accusations will follow... and this will become another classic Chowk mess. The interested can do their own backing-up and follow the thread...
Whatever, *shrug* I don`t really care any longer. I am fine with being a bull or a kite or a piety-filled hypocrite. I don`t mind this, and I don`t mind you. Qissa khatam.
~~~~~
I hope that I can return to continue discussing the rsrch thing itself.... Dagny, I thought we were onto something? No further thoughts?
Whatever, *shrug* I don`t really care any longer. I am fine with being a bull or a kite or a piety-filled hypocrite. I don`t mind this, and I don`t mind you. Qissa khatam.
~~~~~
I hope that I can return to continue discussing the rsrch thing itself.... Dagny, I thought we were onto something? No further thoughts?
#113 Posted by sadna on June 3, 2004 8:37:41 am
Ms flyhighkites #97 #110
My comment to Zahra was not directed at you.
My comment to Zahra was not directed at you.
#112 Posted by ZahraJ on June 3, 2004 6:41:13 am
Omar: I AM very opinionated. Thank you for realizing that others have ``opinions`` too. And, they would dump your nonsense. Now to pacify your ego, you need www.dawn.com to have its own discussion forum since this ain`t dawn.com. I hope you do not lose your mind during the endless wait. Happy Waiting!
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