“It is the prime duty of men and women to acquire education”.

Causes Of Women Illiteracy In Pakistan

The first cause of women illiteracy is the increase in population, which is playing a negative role in this deprivation of female education. A family having more number of children and less income will prefer to educate the boys of the family, while the girls will be given embroidery or sewing skills. Secondly, there is also a misconception that females merely have to manage a home after being married where as males have to earn so education matters only for males but not for females. Thirdly, we have observed that traditionally, women are considered as the asset of males of the family. So these males are responsible for taking decisions of their lives. In most cases, males donot allow their sisters or daughters to goto schools or universities. Additionally, some families do not like their daughters to study in co-education institutes thus depriving them of higher education. Fourthly, the social setup is a male dominated one. Girls cannot move freely thus any male of the family has to take responsibility of her care. This sometimes seems difficult to them. There is also a sharp division between female oriented work and male oriented work. Females are not allowed to work in all spheres of life therefore their education is not considered valuable. Fifthly, the number of schools and colleges for females are very less. Girls have to travel a long distance to reach the schools or colleges, for this reason most of the parents prefer to give them religious education. Lastly, every government talks about the importance of female education but none of them has given attention to it. In Multan the plan of separate women university and women medical college was announced yet these plans have not seen the light of the day.

Media brought awareness to the people thus bringing female fighter pilots in PAF and projecting women in every sphere of life. Islam does not restrict education to females. Islam is a flexible religion and it allows equal opportunities of education to both sexes. The need is to interpret it in its real essence. Last but not the least, no society can progress by restricting more than half of its population in the abyss of ignorance and a maze of undue limits. Nepolean once said about the role of mothers in building process of a nation that,

“Give me the best mothers, I will give you the best nation.”

“The state of Pakistan shall remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within minimum possible period.”

In Human development Report Pakistan is placed at 136th position for having just 49.9% educated populace. The primary completion rate in Pakistan, given by Date Center of  UNESCO, is 33.8% in females and 47.18% in males, which shows that people in the 6th largest country of the world are unable to get the basic education. Following are the problems of education in Pakistan. Firstly, the educational system of Pakistan is based on unequal lines. Medium of education is different in both, public and private sector. This create a sort of disparity among people, dividing them into two segments. Secondly, regional disparity is also a major cause. The schools in Balochistan(The Largest Provice Of Pakistan By Area) are not that much groomed as that of Punjab (The Largest Provice Of Pakistan By Population). In FATA, the literacy rate is deplorable constituting 29.5% in males and 3% in females. Thirdly, the ratio of gender discrimination is a cause which is  projecting the primary school ratio of boys & girls which is 10:4 respectively. For the last few years there has been an increase in the growth of private schools. That not only harms the quality of education but create a gap among haves and have nots. Fourthly, the lack of technical education is a biggest flaw in the educational policy that has never been focused before. Therefore, less technical people means less . Fifthly, the allocation of funds for education are very low. It is only 1.5 to 2.0 percent of the total GDP. It should be around 7% of the total GDP. Sixthly, the teachers in government schools are not well trained. People who donot get job in any other sector, they try their luck in educational system. They are not professionally trained teachers so they are unable to train a nation. Finally, Poverty is also another factor that restrict the parents to send their children to public or private schools. So, they prefer to send their children to madressahs where education is totally free.

Recently, minister of education announced a new Education policy for that next 10 years. The interesting thing is that the previous educational policy from 1998 to 2010 is still not expired. Although it is projected to give new plans and to make more promises with the nation. It is said in this policy that all the public schools will be raised upto the level of private schools. No plan of action have been discussed, yet a notice is issued to private schools to induct government course in 5th and 8th class and these classes will bound to take board exams. This disturbed the students of private sector also.

Solutions for Educational System: Estimating the value of education, the Government should take solid steps on this issue. Implementation instead of projecting policies, should be focused on. Allocation of funds should be made easy from provinces to districts and then to educational institutes. Workshops must be arranged for teachers. Foreign states are using LSS system. This should be inducted in Pakistani schools to improve the hidden qualities of children. Technical education must be given to all the classes. The education board of Punjab have projected a plan to give tech- education to the children of industrial workers. Promotion of the primary education is the need of time. Teachers, professors and educationists should be consulted while devising any plan, syllabus or policy. The state seems to give up her responsibility and totally relying on private sector. The need of time is to bring education in its original form to masses. Burdening a students with so much books will not work as he will not understand what the world is going to do next moment. Education is the only cure of the destability in the state and can bring revolution through evolution, by eradicating the social evils. This is how to remove illiteracy in Pakistan.

“It is impossible to make an over night change in the foreign policy as it is made on the bases of long term strategic interests by keeping in view the regional and global conditions.”

Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

The foreign policy of Pakistan is dominated by single issue of terrorism, and Pakistan has faced its grave consequences especially on domestic level. The war waged in northern areas and the pay role of Pakistan as or front line ally in U.S.A-so called Global War on Terror- does not match with public aspirations. Now the democratic government should untie this knot by paying greater emphasis on public opinion and by enhancing parliamentary input and allowing foreign policy to play its due role in decision making and implementation.
Pakistan should adopt a new approach in addressing the core issues. By realizing that economy is the back bone of every state, she must focus on economic initiatives. Inspite of having dependent economy, policies should be projected for stable economy. This would broke the shackles of IMF with strict conditions that are hurdling the economic progress of the state. Moreover, Pakistan must seek to stand firmly for her demand. The dignity of any institution must not be disgraced at any cost. Less importance should be given to terrorism either efforts must be done to eradicate this effect by meeting its causes with prudent attitude and not by using military against your own people. Exercising force should be the last resort and government must try to negotiate first. Glaringly, less emphasize on W.O.T means to devote sufficient time and energy to deal with other core areas of foreign policy. Pakistan must realize that U.S.A never proved to be a good friend off and on and kept on placing Pakistan outside from the basket of sunshine into the wintry isolation.
In the context of china, the need of Pakistan is to be pragmatic and ensure the safety of Chinese interests in Pakistan. China can give boost to Pakistani economy by investing billion of dollars in important sectors. This will also help in overcoming acute energy crisis by importing Chinese technology for energy generation. China has not been using veto power in security council for Pakistan since many years. She is also improving economic ties with India. Pakistan should sort out problems with China and enhanced Free Trade Agreement.
As far as India is concerned, Pakistan should not go for any adventure. The problems should be solved by mediation and in a cordial way by understanding the need of the time. Additionally a flexible attitude must be shown by two states in solving the Kashmir dispute as it is bone of contention between the two. Moreover, economic ties should be knotted between two states by enhacing trade. CBM’s must continue in different sectors. The role of embassies is very prominent and compulsory. Embassies should enhance the cultural ties, tolerance and friendly attitude of both nations towards each other.
Pakistan is having a strong geopolitical situation in the world. Because of her wrong foreign policies ,she is the only most fenced state of the world. Pakistan must enhance friendly relations with her neighbours like Afghanistan and Iran. These states have direct influence on the people of Pakistan and her economy. Pakistan can become an economic hub by joining India with Afghanistan and Iran, China with Central Asian republics and Central Asian states with the rest of the world through Gawadar port.
In the end, i want to say a word about the role of media, intelligentia and NGO’s of Pakistan. These are cosidered important players in any country so they should project a positive image of Pakistan. They should not criticize for the sake of criticize but for the sake of development.  Improving the depopularising image of Pakistan,  is the crying need of the country.

Economy of Pakistan.

Pakistan economic growth faced a serious set back in fiscal year 2009 because of the depressed consumer credit market, slow progress of public sector programres, inflation, reduction in subsidies, security threat, instability in the state and energy crisis. Additionally, no attention was given to the agriculture sector. The exports declined by six percent and imports by 10 percent. The only thing that became a silver linning was the increment in remittances by 22%. Apart from ignorance, agriculture sector has shown credible results because of good weather. Major crops, wheat, rice and maize recorded impressive growth i.e 7.7% against the target of 4.5%. Live stock and poultry also add to GDP as there was no viral disease this year.

Shortages of energy and power donot let the boom entered into the industrial sector. In addition the sanction applied by IMF on different sectors creating a hurdle. This resulted in unemployment and services sector decline. Because of security crisis the graph of investment do not take any surge. The beginning of declining in core inflation is a hopeful factor but the domestic inflation is on peak. There is a marginal improvement in health and educational sectors but the poverty in country rise Pakistan have the highest population growth. The largest population represents a large potential market for goods and services yet the condition are deplorable.

Being an agro based economy Pakistan should focus on the development of agriculture department. Financial sector should be developed. Instead in focusing to much on macro financing, micro financing must be given a chance. Trade deficits should be reduced. This can only be done by eradicating the trust deficit, which will boost our exports as well as imports. It will also bring FDI’s (Foreign Direct Investment) at home. There should be short term as well as long term policies. As Pakistan’s economy is dependent economy so it should be made strong enough to reject the foreign aid or loans on their conditions, which can directly or indirectly bring harm to the economy. Still the Government is unable to differentiate and reorganize the developed and non-developed budget. Solid fiscal policies should be made to give advantage to both, demander and supplier. This would also be beneficial for the skilled workers, who fly away from the land. Despite all these, there must be political, economic and social stability in the state. A proper accountability set up must be introduced to eradicate corruption as it leads to massive human deprecation. And the final solution of this problem is good governance.

History of India and Pakistan Relation.

In 1965 India launched operation Meghdoot and captured 80% of Siachen Glacier. 1971 was a black year in the history of Pakistan as she lost its eastern wing as India intervened to favour Bengali people and seized the Qasim part. 90, 000 Pakistani soliders surrendered in Bangladesh. In July 1972 P.M India Gandhi and PM Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto met in Indian Hill station of Simla and signed an agreement to return 90, 000 Pak personnel, and that India would get its captured territory in the west. They also agreed that from then on, they would settle their disputes through peaceful bilateral negotiations. Eventually, the trade relation restarted in 1976 but the Afghan crisis of 1979 again disrupted the peaceful process started in 1976.
Pakistan supported Taliban and India favoured Soviet Union. India was also worried about US military aid to Pakistan, Pakistan’s purchase of arms from us and the advancement in her nuclear programme. The change in leadership brought a new era of relation between the two rivals. In Dec 1988 Benazir Bhutto Shaheed and Rajiv Gandhi resumed talks on different issues melding cultured exchange, civil aviation and not to attack each other nuclear facilities. At that time BB said.

“Burry the Hatchet; we have had enough of it. Let’s start a new chapter. India has a new generation leadership. Rajiv & I belong to a new generation. We have some kinship. He father was assassinated and so was my father. He lost his brother and so have I we both can start from clean state.”

In 1997, high level talks were resumed after 3 years. Prime Minister of India and Pakistan met twice and foreign secretaries conducted 3 rounds of talks in which they identified 8 outstanding issues to focuss. These 8 issues were

• Kashmir issue
• Water crisis
• Sir creek issue
• Rann of kutch
• MFN status
• Siachen issue
• State sponsored issue
• Nuclear Deterrence

In September 1997 the talks broke down on structural issue where as in May 1998 the situation became harder because of nuclear experiment conducted by Pakistan. The environment further became deplorable when Indian Air lines Flight IC 814 was hijacked in 24 Dec 1999. The plan landed in Lahore for refuelling but the final destination was Kandhar, Afghanistan. Rivalry increased when attack was conducted on Indian parliament on Dec 2001. India blamed Jash-e-Mohammad for that act. The Samjhota express carnage of 18th February 2007 added fuel to fire. The series of blaming each other started again where as Pakistan tried to project cordial relations.
In Nov, 2008, a series of ten co-ordinated attacks were committed by terrorist which began across Mumbai which is the Indian financial capital and the largest city. The attack was started on 26 November 2008 and ended on 29 November 2008. In these attacks 173 people were killed including 35 foreigner where as 38 were wounded. India blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba  and gave evidences that weapon, candy wrappers, telephone sets and branded milk Packets used by the terrorists belonged to Pakistan. But it was also found that the terrorist were drunk as the Lashkar-e-Taiba elements did not drink, and were speaking Hyderabadi language. Additionally, Hermant Kurkure was the first man to be murdered in that attack. He was the man who was on the hit list of Indian Dons because he arrested General Parohit, who was the master mind of Samjhota Carnage. Another reason was that Obama Discussed to solve Kashmir issue to bring stability in the South Asian region. This attack was done to divert his attention. The lok sbha election could not be ignored as the current government needed the Pakistan card to flame the sentiments of Indian masses.
In spite of this deteriorated situation Pakistan did not give up to create friendly atmosphere. Currently, the government of India is not that much brutal. Recently Indian minister of state for external affairs said they were not worried about Pakistan purchasing of armaments but if these weapons will be used against India, they were ready to fight. In addition, Pakistan nukes were unsafe.
Bit recently the statement of Indian Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor regarding his army’s capacity to fight on two fronts, upset a lots of people in Pakistan. This also shows that there is a conflict of interest between Indian army and Indian Government.
India and Pakistan must work jointly to coeate a peaceful atmosphere. Sharing a long border with common geographic importance can increase to their worth if the joint venture is adopted