Pakistan: Cricket World Cup Pakistan`s preparations for the World Cup are in shambles due to a variety of reasons.
One reason being this obsession with just preparing for or winning the World Cup. This is akin to asking Tiger Woods or Roger Federer to just win the Master`s or Wimbledon and forget about the rest of the tour! What is needed is a coherent strategy for the team to be consistently world class. I wrote a review on the chronic issues of unprofessionalism in the Pakistan team which is posted online here:

http://pakistaniat.com/2007/02/14/pakistan-cricket-team-world-cup-2007-professionalism-chances-west-indies/#more-571

The Canadian Dream: Never Fulfilled mhrizvi, I have some questions about your experience in canada. Please contact me via email (zamanov at gmail dot com) or let me know how I can get in touch with you. Thanks.

If what Ms Shah has outlined in her piece is applicable across the board to highly qualified migrants then what incentive does the canadian government have in recruiting foreign immigrants, giving them residency/citizenship and within three years see them move away with their skills to other countries? You would think that after a few years they would do something about this loss of tax base and its related consequences....

The Quality Of Pakistani Research Ilyas I wholeheartedly agree with your statement that we cannot ignore pure sciences and also support that the quality of research within Pakistan should be emphasized using some of the excellent suggestions you have in your article. But the fact remains that the HEC needs to look at this problem holistically rather than merely thump their chests in front of Gen Musharraf or any other higher power about the 1000 Phds they supported/produced with the billions given to them. As you mention in your post, the problem starts much earlier than the Phd level and it doesn`t end with them merely achieving their degree.

The pure sciences curricula in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology needs to be strengthened at the undergraduate level with better books, better teachers and better labs. Kids in high school (8-12 grade) need to be exposed to various scientific, technological and social fields for them to be motivated enough to pursue graduate work in the field of their choice/interest. It is to be expected (required?) that the current crop of graduate students financed by the HEC would become teachers at the undergraduate level in various colleges and universities of Pakistan.

The other end of the problem still remains- what do you do with 1000 or even 500 additional Phd graduates every year? Will all of them become teachers and professors or does the HEC have any plan to actually employ them and reap the benefit of the nation`s investment? I have not checked the distribution of pure vs. applied science scholarships that the HEC has been giving out for the last few years. In either case I desperately hope that there is some sort of plan to make use of all these people when they are done with their education.

As you may well recall certain smaller schemes for foreign scholarships were launched in the 80`s as well but what happened to the few hundred graduates that used public money to fund their education? Has the HEC tracked them down? Even if some of them came back to teach/work in Pakistan how do we rate their contribution or do a cost/benefit analysis of the public`s investment?

Referring back to my post #2, if you get collaborations from some of the most profitable industries in Pakistan - Telecommunications, Textiles, Oil and Gas, Banking and Finance, Automotive, and last but not least the Education industry, to fund graduate students and fellows in both the pure and applied aspects of their respective fields you can start getting tangible benefits for the huge public investment in higher education. We wouldn`t need VC to fund these collaborations if the HEC jump started these research programs with public money and then subsequently the government can provide tax benefits and other incentives to these corporations for their investments/collaborations with universities. In addition, with these collaborations an employment chain can be created for the hundreds and thousands of pure and applied scientists/technologists that the HEC is aiming to produce. Unless and until adequate (and publicly beneficial) employment in and out of academia is provided to all these people all the noble intentions of the HEC and the government will fail.

I appreciate your thoughts on this issue. Feel free to discuss this further via email: zamanov at gmail dot com.

The Quality Of Pakistani Research Some great points Ilyas...This obsession with producing ``1000 Phd`s a year``, in effect emphasizing quantity over quality is going to lead us no where. I fully agree with Charlie in #1 that there must be emphasis on applicability of research to various industries in Pakistan. This does not mean that the HEC should not fund theoretical research, but there should be a weighted approach where a majority of funding goes to applied technology fields that can show a short-term benefit to Pakistani industry or generate local entrepreneurship, and a smaller proportion going to theoretical fields.

I believe the HEC should involve large corporations in Pakistan to set up partnerships with Universities and even individual departments that do research to actually get some benefit from the research. For example, PSO and the National Refinery can collaborate with energy researchers at KU, NED, UET, or NUST. Pakistan Ordinance Factory and PIA can collaborate with mechanical engineering researchers at NED, GIK, etc. The textile groups can team up with TIP and University in Faisalabad.
The HEC can fund the applied tech research for the first couple of years with contractual agreements that some product will be delivered to these corporations in 2-3 years. This deliverable could be in the shape of a prototype design, a software product or a leading edge testing process. This concept can be emulated in the fields of medicine, agriculture, transportation, computer science, and even in the financial sector.

Once these programs get off the ground the HEC can disassociate itself from the direct funding and let the corporations take over. The corporations can then be full partners in research; for their financial contribution they can have labs or Departments named after them (PTCL Department of Communication Engineering, PSO Department of Chemical Engineering, GSK Department of Pharmacology) or just fund graduate students doing research in their chosen fields. This will also provide an employment track for these researchers, otherwise where will the ``1000 Phd`` go if no major corporation will hire them other than wasting away every one`s resources in some government desk job or even worse if they move to a foreign country.

The beauty of this process is that it will breed healthy competition among universities and researchers to vie for choice collaborations and will actually deliver something tangible that will benefit Pakistan.

The HEC needs to get its act straight regarding what it wants out of the billions it is pouring into mindless `research`, otherwise this will go down in history as yet another Pakistani scam of gigantic proportions.

Please let`s also not lose sight of HEC funding research and scholarship in the social sciences and arts. God knows we need more of that in our country otherwise we just might become a nation of science and technology!

Thanks again for bringing this issue to light and best of luck for your doctoral research Mr Ilyas.

Re-Imagining Pakistan I think the interactors here are getting a little carried away with comparisons of scientists and the relative worth of scientific research, the solution to which will not be derived on this board.
Let`s for a second forget that Dr Hoodbhoy is a physicist and focus on his input as an ``educationist`` in Pakistan. Whatever the sordid reason for his being a professor at QAU in Islamabad for over 30 years, I think no one will doubt that he has been involved with and talked about education in Pakistan in a much higher capacity than the people arguing about the quality of his physics research.

Again I will quote UNESCO again which states that Pervez Hoodbhoy was awarded the Kalinga Prize- ``Awarded in recognition of an outstanding interpretation of science and technology for the general public.``
Now we can invent another conspiracy theory that UNESCO was not impartial or it did not verify his PhD dissertation in Nuclear Physics, but let`s just leave that argument for another day and look at the organizations (I am sure each one of the following assignments can be independently verified with these organizations) he has worked with in the field of EDUCATION in Pakistan:

``Member of Educational Advisory Board, Government of Pakistan, 1999-2000.
Chairman, Academic Council, Textile Institute of Pakistan.
Member of governing board, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad.
Member of governing board, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi.
Member of governing board, Development in Literacy, Islamabad.``

Most of the above are credible educational organizations in Pakistan and the fact that they deemed Dr Hoodbhoy competent enough to engage his services should tell us whether we should pay any attention to a commencement speech he made at an educational institution (not a physics lab!).

I think it is healthy to debate the merits of his proposals in the context of the message that should be ingrained in the lucky few who do attain higher education in Pakistan. Please let us stick to figuring out whether this educationist`s message is worthy enough to be given to our youth rather than squabbling at the worth of his physics research (which we are not qualified to comment on in any case) or the qualities of a great scientist!

Is he not the same person that refused the Pride of Performance from the President of Pakistan for his achievements in science because he felt that the President`s Office had no objective process of figuring out the value of his contribution to science?

Re-Imagining Pakistan Manto #124,
I am trying to understand your p.o.v here. Are you saying that you basically agree with most of what the ``good doctor`` says but your problem is that he is not a ground breaking physicist with a Nobel Prize?
I have not personally met Dr Hoodbhoy (as you suggest that you have) or am not privy to who the ISI has on their payroll these days, but it seems like your objections to his speech seem of a personal nature and not on the content of his ideas.

As for other interactors trying to undermine the credentials of a scientist who has been invited independently to over 50 research institutions all over the world for his Physics work. Who has taught at major American universities, won numerous awards, and published scholarly work cited by major scientific journals. In my professional opinion, that is way more than the `average` Pakistani or Indian on chowk. He has produced shows on PTV promoting science (he was awarded the UNESCO Kalinga award for promotion of science), he runs an NGO which translates significant works into Urdu and makes them available for a nominal amount to Pakistanis (mashal.com), and he did significant volunteer work and raised a lot of money for the Pakistani earthquake victims through his Pugwash and educational network in the US.
Again, I have not met this person, but his credentials and achievements seem a lot more than average to me. Do I agree with all his political viewpoints? No. But the fact is he was invited by a leading educational institution in Karachi to offer this commencement speech which, most would agree, has a positive message for Pakistanis to understand the nature of truth, accept their diversity in religion and culture, and promote creativity in all walks of life.
We can analyze this speech and take its salient points to move this country forward or we can waste another 59 years in proving who was a bigger scientist: Salam, Jinnah or Hoodbhoy!

Re-Imagining Pakistan I think a valid discussion can take place about the merits or demerits of Dr Hoodbhoy`s arguments but I find it in poor taste to challenge the academic or scholarly achievements of this man just because he comments on Pakistan`s social issues or has liberal beliefs.

Dr Hoodbhoy is a highly cited and noted physicist. Just a cursory search on google scholar will show that he has a vast number of published work in numerous journals and research publications primarily in Physics and some in the social sciences.
Arguing against the academic credentials of a person who ``holds a Ph.D in nuclear physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the recipient of the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics, the Baker Award for Electronics, Faiz Ahmad Faiz Prize for contributions to education in Pakistan, and the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science`` will only cause loss of credbility for one`s argument. UNESCO lists 57 Physics related scholarly publications for Dr Hoodbhoy (http://www.unesco.org/science/psd/prizes/kalinga/kalinga_hoodbhoy.shtml) and his own book`s foreward was written by none other than the great Dr Abdus Salam.

I think what Dr Hoodbhoy has said in his commencement speech should be analyzed and read together with Jinnah`s ideals and not as a failure of his vision or an attack on the founding principles of Pakistan. I may not agree with every single aspect of Dr Hoodbhoy`s speech or his arguments but that doesn`t mean I diss his notable academic credentials or discount the predominantly positive aspects of his message.

Re-Imagining Pakistan I am speechless. Hoodbhoy saheb this is brilliant! I wonder if the graduates had any idea of the relevance of your words and the tremendous message they were receiving.

Could you please have some respected Urdu professor translate this and spread the message in Pakistan. The real majority of the people do not understand the importance of your speech and I think it would do them a great service if they could read and understand it in Urdu (or even other regional languages).

May the Almighty grant your wishes for our nation.

Innocence, Loss and Nagan Chowrangi Moe,
i enjoyed the way you wrote this...Some of the lines were hilarious! Keep writing more and posting it no matter what some detractors may say....I am almost inspired to direct a movie based on this story ;)
Also an intimate perspective on the underbelly of Pak saaf society...The dichotomy of jainamaz and koranic verses in almost every house and the rank poverty, bad hygiene, beggary, robbery, profanity, vulgarity, lawlessness all around.

Peace

The Pakistani Fast Bowling Enigma Re: #32

No where in my write-up did I say that Pakistan should clean sweep Australia, and the purpose of posting my original last paragraph was to show people like you that based on the editor`s deleting a few words one can take the jist of the argument out of context.

I will repeat once again, the intent of this whole piece is to offer factual arguments to question and improve the organizational practices of the PCB, the richest public institution in Pakistan. It is a sport loved and watched by all segments of Pakistani society and given the national resources and energy we spend on playing and following it there is no reason we can`t aim to be #1. Any organizational improvement within this sport can serve as an example for the rest of the country.

If you slept a little less and offered some concrete suggestions (instead of blowing `imaginary` holes in others) on how to improve Pakistan`s ranking from #4 in Test cricket to #1, I would be happy to discuss it in a civilized way with you.

Peace

The Pakistani Fast Bowling Enigma Re: #21

My original submission to chowk had this for the final paragraph, parts of which were edited out by their staff:

``When a Pakistani team can go to Australia and get 20 opposing wickets in every test match, or at least put the fear of God ( i.e. the Cricket God ;) in their batsmen, only then can we truly say that this is a world class team with the best available talent. Until then let`s seek solace in the fact that the national cricket team will be a bunch of under-achievers who can come close (due to the sheer natural talent of a few) but can never finish the job or be #1. The present system although producing good teams but not world-beaters and thus must be improved with all selections being fair and meritorious. This cricket-crazed country and its poor people deserve at least one world-class organization (besides the khakis!) that makes it proud. God please let it be our cricket team!``


Before you get untreatable insomnia, read the piece again and try to understand the central theme. It`s about the injustice meted out to the top performers in the domestic league and the inconsistent selection policies. A trait common to many other organizations in Pakistan. Yes Australia is an extremely tough team to beat at home, but with a potent attack and courageous batting you can give them a run for their money. As HisExcellency has kindly stated it has been done before and Pakistan can do it if they plan appropriately and keep selecting the right people. According to your hypothesis, no one should even dream of beating Australia and Pakistan should just roll over everytime they tour Down Under.
You need to go back to your slumber before you start debunking arguments with your sense of righteous indignation. Unfortunately another common trait found abundantly in Pakistan.

The Pakistani Fast Bowling Enigma Re: #16

Asif was in the top 10 list until he got selected in the national team and couldn`t participate in the domestic circuit for most of the 2005/2006 season. Everyone including Bob knows he has improved vastly since he was first selected for the Australian tour and had made no big impression. Even now he is #13 on the list!
Sami was dropped from the national team in the middle of last season and was sent back to the same domestic circuit where he performed admirably and got back in to the top 10 list. Thus his selection is warranted again based on recent performance.

Fazl-e-Akbar was given one chance against India on a track where all Pakistani bowlers suffered. It was later found out that he was playing with a foot injury. But his reputation on the domestic circuit can be verified by anyone who plays cricket in Pakistan.

Maybe if you were the top performer by far in your organization or team and didn`t get promoted you would see this analysis differently.

The Pakistani Fast Bowling Enigma Thank you everyone for reading this piece...Since cricket is almost a religion in Pakistan it always rouses passions and arguments...The key is to dig through the emotional brouhaha and get back to basics. If you consistently reward performance and keep weeding out the non-performers your team can only improve.
Yes, chemistry is important but we are not talking about dumping someone like Inzimam (although his time is near) or Younis. The idea is to create healthy competition among players so that they don`t take their slot for granted and keep improving.
On a recent tour when a selector was asked why Yasir Arafat wasn`t taken as a back-up all-rounder he said they didn`t want to put pressure on Razzaq! With inane comments like this can you expect these guys to do what`s best for the country?
Why do we let good get in the way of best?

Muqaddam saheb you are putting too much emphasis on the nom de guerre...Let`s just say it was affectionately conferred on me by a fan of Russian literature ;)

Atif I was referring to just one or two of the slots...No one is suggesting that the entire team be changed every series or season! At the least these guys should get first digs at the A team...


Peace to all the cricket lovers out there....

Mohammad Who? Mr Janjua, I agree with most of what you have to say...As mentioned by other interactors the true message of Mohammad (PBUH) is lost on these people who resort to violence and mayhem on their perceived offence. It is symptomatic of the sense of humiliation that they feel for being left behind in every sense of the word.
I am all for writing letters to the Editor of the paper and protesting peacefully in front of a newspaper`s office but violence and mayhem against innocent people over some written words or cartoons is just immoral and wrong! It is not the government`s fault that some editor decided to publish these cartoons. Protesting to the newspaper is fine but you cannot blame an entire country or its government over the printing of cartoons in independent newspapers! I think this is hypocrisy of the highest order. When a religious party`s paper in Pakistan publishes hate-filled words against the Amercian infidels and their beloved cousins jews, no one blames the GOP or the entire population of Pakistan to be crazy. Muslims all over the world blame the evil `West` for characterizing all Muslims in the same light as OBL or Al qaeda or as fundamentalist freaks. Yet this is exactly what they are doing here. They crush to the ground the efforts of all the well-meaning followers of Islam who are striving every day to distance their religion and beliefs from the message of violence and hatred.

What good will stopping import of medicines from Denmark and other European countries going to do? Please let the Federal Minister of Health, who announced the ban today, know how all the progressive, technologically advanced and humane Muslim governments will step in and cure the millions of diseased and dying Pakistanis with Muslim medicines and medical technology. And, let`s not forget to tell him and his boss, how our sense of pride and justice will never let us (or any of the cabinet`s family members) vacation or go for employment in these evil, blaspheming countries again.

Grow up or leave for another planet you hate-mongers. You dishonor the name of the holy prophet in your actions every day.

Islam, Marathons and Choice Re #45 Bina....Shhhh you are not supposed to give out state secrets :) My presence here is linked via a complex web to the natural gas deal between the great states of Russia and Pakistan.
Amen to your prayer...I will give her every opportunity to fulfill any athletic ambitions....

InspirEx and Chauhan, thank you for your appreciation of what I was trying to say.

Islam, Marathons and Choice Re: #32

ahsan8211, the Krgyz example was exactly to prove my point that you cannot single out Islam for what some people, who call themselves Muslims, do. There are `Muslims` in Pakistan who practice, Vani, karo-kari, nikah to Quran, and other such abhorrent acts and have their own justifications for them...The point is that such actions of a few people does not mean that everyone else should follow it. We need to oppose these acts because they are physically harmful for women and/or take away their basic human right of `CHOICE` in leading their lives.