Education and the Nazim

#16 by veeresh on May 6, 2004 11:21pm PT

Speaking of used books, the old book shops in Jinnah Super Market, Islamabad are pretty nice. I once found a book (some volume of Talism-e-Hosh-Ruba) there which was published more than a century ago. It was written in poetic old Urdu. And some reader had even put comments in it (with pen and ink, which often faded towards the end of the comment) about what he would have liked the author to do with the plot. :) When reading it in long winter nights, I often wondered about the people who would have owned and read it before me. Every old book tells a story of its own.

The system is bound to fail and be abolished as soon as the despot loses power, for two simple reasons;

1. There was no national debate while instilling these institutions as Malik points out below.

2. The institution has failed to make connection with the people. The change of faces and the name of their designations have not changed the chracter of the institution that new system has replaced. It is still being used to implement the policies from top down whereas in democratic system the policies implemeted by these institutions are bottom up. People are still disenfranchised - how can it happen then?

Tahmed

I appreciate your article which tries to put a positive spin on the Nazim and there abilities. I was in Pakistan recently and met up a few of my fathers freinds in various parts of Sindh who happen to be nazims, who spoke of absolute decrepit working conditions and the freeze on funds. I beleived in the idea of divesting power but increasingly the Nazims are starting to appear as plush showgirls sitting on the windows without much work or incentives. The other negative spin of is the hijacking of the Nazim structures by the political parties, the like of Jamiat and MQM have turned this into a sort of a battle ground specially dealing with the lucrative city of karachi. The govt and most of karachi MPs are MQM but the previous nazims were mostly from the Mullah Brigade as MQM did not participate in the Nazim Elections last time. This time they have and won the majority of the Nazim seats, will this reenforce and bring back the evil of MQM Bhatta eating gangs, remains to be seen. However this has certainly brought back the nightmare of early 90s as both MQM and Jamiat are killing key local Nazim candidates or their cronies. This is certainly worrying.

The problem is that the Nazim system is a good Musharreffic brain wave but one that has been left to rot and not effectively controlled. Today in the metropolitan cities you are only regarded something and have the political might if you wear a Brown Wardi, this is the antidote to the Nazim system, if you want the local political and civil setup to suceed power has to be given to those Nazims and administrators. Unfortunately more and more of our boys in Brown seem to giving up their defence related reponsibilities and taking up the challenge to and i quote `` sort out the civies``. Offcourse the fringe benefits of this sorting out are evident in large houses and flashy cars that seem to have the ID Army number plates driven around Karachi and other metropolitan cities.

legetimacy for pakibashing,

The last words of every pak apologist is that we are having problems, we are aware of it, and please leave us alone.
That would be a valid arguement for most countries, not for pakistan, when the jihadists are invading afghanistan, when hijackers are heros in pakistan, when pak immigrants are arretsde for terrorism in australia, when the chehnians leadres are collecting funds in pakistan.

Pakistan has to be solved by the world at lage, the people of pakistan have forefeited their rights to self government. At present it is run by the yanks from the 6 airbases, from the 700 milliuon dangling in front of them. Pkaistan has to be managed by all who seek a peaceful coexistance, by all those who reject jihad, and every one can contribute, some by bashing. Pakistan needs a cocktail of cures, daisy cutters, soft loans, technical support, targetted killings and broad spectrum pakibashing. BSP, broad spectrum pakibashing is similar to antbiotics, it can hit several germs at the same time. I am the Alexamder Flemming for pakistan, I am the incentor of BSP.

HIS MASTERS VOICE

What breeds corruption



Whenever the question of corruption and bribery among government employees is posed to President Musharraf (most recently at an anti-corruption conference in Karachi), he answers that civil servants are low paid and are therefore forced to take bribes.

This unfortunately gives implicit moral sanction to a crime that is eating into our society like termite.

Moreover, when a government servant becomes addicted to taking bribes, there is no end to his greed. He doesn`t stop at the gratification of his basic needs but continues to amass wealth till the end. It is no wonder that now one of the richest sectors of our society is constituted by government employees who have stashed away millions locally and abroad.

KARAM ILAHI

Muzaffargarh

/////////////
tHE ABOVE IS FROM DAWN OF TODAY. Mushy a well educated man who rose to the top in military, the premier institution in pakistan, has explained away curruption as due to something for which there is no antidote. The solution is not better enforcement of the rules, education or changing of culture. Mushy has declared that it needs more money, implying that others in pakistan are better paid, the jobless and the farm labourers.

When tahmed maintained that honour killings are a tribal custom, when YLH argued that jihad is due to illitaracy, they were following their masters, mushy, attribute to something for which thare is no tangible remedy.

Pakistans problem is education, when mushy, tahmed and YLH the educated are providing diagnosis of the above type, I wish for the closure of all schools in pakistan, all educational facitilities, if the above are the findings of the educated.

tauheed,

You have scoured the debri of a nation left behind by the mushy and his jihadic mob of kargill and found a gem, whcih is turning to ash in front of you in the sunlight of reality. Pakistans problem is not education, it is the type of education and all your attempts to find glimmer of hope in the shambles of a nation can only delay the eventual progress after a few thousand daisy cutters.

The foundation of a nation is the constitution, that sets out the institutions and the processes that take a nation forward. Mushy has trashed the consitution and he has put in place some arrangements to secure his future. Take it from me, no one man has changed a constitution for the good of its people. The nazim and all that crap you are talking about will deliver only more of the same crap, simply because there is no supporting institutional arrangements. Where will the nazim get the revenue, who will provide nation wide support and above all who will gie the curriculum that the schools are supposed to follow.
In the jihadic inferno fuelled by the madrassas, no ordinary school can survivr, only the elite ones in clifton hills will be shielded.

Pakistan has to rebuilt on a new foundation, and the only help that the pakistanis on chowk can provide is to demolish the xisting. Star with TNT and a few photos in govt buildinmgs.

#17 by AhmadBilal o May 7, 2004 0.58am PT

Most of old book shops in Islamabad are run by the members of one big extended family. They started from the Round Market in Melody (latter moving to a shop next right under Melody Cinema) many years back and have since spread branches everywhere, Super, Jinnah Super, Ayub Market etc. They work as a cartel to monopolise the market and inflate the prices. Sometime you will find that an old book will be just 5-10 percent cheaper than a new one.

The story of new book shops in Islamabad is also not much different. Bookfair, Mr Book and many other shops are controlled by another family. Thus the price-fixing.

Every Sunday many stalls prop up in front of closed shops in ‘Pindi Saddar are also a good source of cheaper old books.

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kaurasuch # 24

Do you still see your imaginery freinds, or did you get some help???

tauheed sab

good to see discussion on this topic. however, are you serious that this is a panacea for developmental progress? please explain how so in theory and practice, with supporting arguements of how the entrenched political interests pariticipating.

and what the hell is a Nazim? is this some qoranic concept? or from the hadith? whats wrong with sarpanch, patwari, munshi or some other name people can indentify with? do people actually understand something by Nazim? Is this a commonly used term from Ottoman beurocracy? First caliphate?

jay #22 #23 #19 Thank you for your views.

When you write ``I am the Alexamder Flemming for pakistan, I am the incentor of BSP``, it is difficult to take your views seriously. You are entitled to the hatreds that lead you to make such statements, and by equating yourself with Fleming and by implying that your ``paki bashing`` amounts to anything you merely demonstrate the illusions you live in. Rest assured that the future of Pakistan and the Pakistani people is not dependent upon your goodwill. And for the record, I would also correct your assertion that I support honor killings. I do not.

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His Excellency #15 You raise some key issues on the subject.

You write ``1) When you say that local self-governments have improved public schools in their locality, are you referring to urban localities or rural localities? ``

I assume it is both rural and urban areas, and as I understand the evidence is still anecdotal (as I mention in the article). So I cant answer this question. Your next question I think helps provide an answer...

You write ``2) In many remote areas of NWFP, the local maulvis and maliks (landlords) do not want public schools because they will weaken their hold on the people. The Nazims also rely on the support of these maliks for getting elected. Has the local self-government system addressed this potential clash of interests? ``

Very good point. That is why I think (as I mention in my post to wajahat) why it is important to have the NGO schools (from initiatives like DIL and SOS) continue to operate: they can then take up the slack in districts where local governments also fail to deliver services (as is bound to happen in some cases).


``3) The provincial elections are held on party-basis, but local bodies elections are not. As a result, the party that wins a heavy mandate is unable to implement its agenda because the Nazims may resist their political agenda. Doesn`t the local government system encroach upon the mandate of the elected provincial government? ``

The mandates of the three levels of government are constitutionally defined and as such any concerns of encroachment would be a matter for the courts to decide in a mature democracy. In practice, I think the central government will play a key role in the years ahead in drawing the lines between the Nazims and the provincial politicians. And of course, even the constitutional arrangements are not written in stone. For example (to take a seemingly extreme case), one could even envisage Pakistan having only two levels of government: federal and local. (this model works in Thailand with its 30 or 40 ``provinces`` quite well, eg.).

``4) If we want to strengthen the Nazims, shouldn`t we make Police and district administration subservient to the Nazim (instead of Provincial government)? ``

An important question. There is clearly room for greater accountability of the police to the population they serve (or supposedly serve) in Pakistan. But, as I wrote to wajahat, we may have to satisfy ourselves for now by watching the local governments demonstrate success in a few key areas of service delivery. Then, hopefully, a few years down the road they would be in a strong position to demand more control over the police.

Wajahat #20 It was interesting reading about what you heard from the Nazims in Sindh. The provincial government seem dead-set to create difficulties for the Nazims. This is the same as in NWFP, where the maulvis in the provincial government tried to put the Nazims in a subordinate role and thus kill the devolution of power to local governments. It is ironic that Nazims in NWFP then threatened resignations and general musharaff had to intervene in this conflict between two levels of elected officials! A similar confrontation seems to be emerging in Sind. The one and very significant bright spot appears to be the panjab where, as I understand, the two levels of government are cooperating because there are no serious party differences.

This struggle of the Nazims against provincial politicians is clearly a major battle that is now underway on the path to democracy. And no doubt the army is another major hurdle, as you say.

Under the circumstances, it is probably best to seek success of the local governments in a few key areas where they have a chance of contributing something positive. And I think what is really important at this stage is areas of service delivery - education, health, local transport infrastructure. Public school staff for example, have never felt accountable to the local people (often being appointed at the behest of some provincial politican in Lahore or someplace). Another option of course is to simply hand over public schools where there is no teaching being done to the NGOs (which has also been done in a few cases, I understand).

urstruly #18 it would have been nice to have a national debate, but it is still vastly more democratic than the system of DCs it replaced.

kaurasuch #19 your pakistani friends seem to be real losers. hope you meet better individuals from pakistan some day. better yet, visit pakistan someday and maybe you will be pleasantly surprised.

jang #27 i think it is generally accepted that local governments should be accountable to the population they serve. Not to their civil service superiors sitting in provincial or national capitals. And the evidence of this is present in one country after another all over the world. I hope you dont seriously challenge this assumption. There are of course important issues of checks and balance between different layers of government that remain to be fully resolved in Pakistan, imho. As for the name ``nazim``, it may sound strange to people in India not used to the term, but it simply means adminstrator in urdu and as such is readily understood by all. The term patwari that you suggest is already taken (by the man in charge of land titles), and munshi refers to an accountant as I understand. Never heard of sarpanch before - what does it mean?

#30

60% of these NGOs are positive organisations, yet 40% are basic fads run by celebrity or rich wives which tends to get abandoned, this obviously is a rash figure. The point therefore is that the structure has to come from within the govt, not handed over to some NGO. You put some dedicated and honest people incharge of the publiuc school system, allocate the right funds and resources and you will see a turn around in years. This is where the buck stops, this is where the priorities clash. Unfortunately this is also the case for most everything....