Pakistan formally launched war-economy in 1970’s. It allied with the US during the Cold War against Soviet Union. The two larger than life world powers morphed the centuries old cold war into proxy war. Afghanistan was and is its battlefield whereas Pakistan was turned into breeding ground of religious extremism to cater to the human need. Afghanistan was its battle field and Pakistan was used by the US as its base camp. Pakistan has received an aid of $31 billion so far whereas it has suffered a gigantic loss of about $123.13 billion along with over 70,000 military and civilian lives. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s foreign policy is based on military alliances and a belligerent approach. In 2001, America invaded Afghanistan primarily to contain Chinese increasing hegemony and to halt her access to South and Central Asia, to root out Al-Qaida and Pakistan joined them again. This time it was named as war on terror. Trump is making America great again. He has predicted America pull out from Afghanistan and Syria whereas she failed terribly hone Afghanistan to establish her satellite state. Resultantly, it ditched Pakistan to fend for herself and Pakistan started fencing herself. Will she be allowed to sit on the fence? Pakistan is under threatening debt and its economy is drawning. The war got to its logical end and so is Pakistan economy.
Its true that Pakistan didn’t do a “damn thing” for America except sacrificing lives and a massive loss to her kitty. Pakistan is doubled face. On one hand, it was assisting the US militarily to stop China’s sway and on the other, it signed CPEC thereby helping Chinese access to the oil rich central Asian countries. CPEC is not our initiative so was war on terror. Chinese $20 billion promised investment is not FDI, it is more like a mortgage. She is going to exploit our geo-strategic importance.
Had we not dealt in war-economy, we would have outpaced Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves is $32 b as compared to ours of less than $8 b. Bangladesh’s export, $35.8 b, speaks volume of its growth since 1971 whereas ours is $24.4 b since its independence from British Raj in 1947. Let’s turn to C (see) - PEC exam-- Punjab Education Commission.
I have been working as principal at a government school for a year now. When I overtook, the school has a minimal strength of 93 ghost students. I worked against all the odds and increased the strength to more than 500 within a span of a year. However I couldn’t defeat PEC Exam. PEC was founded back in 2005. It conducts annual exam for 5th and 8th grades. As is posted to its website it causes a loss of 80 to 87 crore every year. The content of papers are virtually beyond a 5th grader IQ level taking into account the quality of education at government school. For illustration, recently, there were two MCQs in science paper ‘The microorganisms which causes rust and smut in plants’ and ‘a plant with network of veins in its leaves can have.... petals in its flower’. To answer these questions a student has to have detailed knowledge of microorganisms such as virus, algae, fungi and bacteria. What it actually demonstrate is to coerce students into malpractices of its kinds. I am eye-witness to state sanctioned leakage of papers, copying, exchanging answer books, impersonation, misconduct in examination centre, bribing and approaching invigilators etc. Forcing a minor for all the aforementioned malpractices is tantamount to child abuse. As a principal, I’ve lost the moral ground to guide my students to be honest citizen of this ‘state’ of Pakistan. Moreover, I tacitly allowed my staff members to helpout students. Interestingly, Google came to their rescue to answer those questions originally meant for those minors.
KHAIRULLAH,
Narowal, February 17.