The sole purpose of education is to bring change in the personality of the human being so that the educated one may lead a purposeful life ordained by societal norms and customs. Sadly, education has not been on priority in Pakistan. The cart has always been put before the horse on this land .This approach from the all-time ruling class has made us suffer from inferiority complex while comparing our achievements in the education fields with the world’s advanced countries.
This criminal planned ignorance has strengthened the hands of prestidigitation, hocus-pocus, shame palmistry and illusion practicing people who weaken the superstitious’ faith and make their belief weaker, deprive them of their valuables. These social ills prevail and dominate the education-deprived societies. The cruel impostors have gripped the whole of Pakistan, the victims even after losing their precious time and money; do not come out of the world of falsehood.
The major factor behind this phenomenon is low literacy rate, if we look at the literacy rate of the Asian countries, we are far behind, Pakistan with 67.5%.Georgia99.7%, Japan99%, Israel 97.1%, China 95.5%, Hong Kong 93.5%, Indonesia 90.4%, Iran 85%, Iraq 78.2% and India 74%, and so on. And if we look at the government expenditures on education, no pleasant figures will gladden us; Pakistan is with 2.7%. Who is responsible? Surely, we, the public and the fate fashioners of the country have played their respective shameful roles. This enables fraudulent people claim to ‘foretell’ the future and relieve the problems loaded day-dreamers of their hardships. Interestingly, they are suffering more than their prey, yet most of us find peace in self deception.
These human enemies have deepened their roots in every major city and are ‘at large’ with merciless assaults on the poor’ pockets. The solutions to this problem; mass education campaign, full fledged action against such enemies of the humanity and public awareness through media and education institutions will help purgation of society from unwanted elements. We, the public, should give up the tradition of holding the government for the wrongdoings committed by us..The Sindh wall chalking Ordinance and ‘The Punjab Prohibition of Expressing Matters on Walls Amendment Ordinance’ were nicely taken steps which not only stop property-defacement, but also save the human being from the sectarian fire.
ABDUL GHAFFAR,
Lahore, August 26.