Dr A Q Khan
My Origins and My Education by Dr. A Q Khan
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February 25th by Dr. A Q Khan.
Pictures of the ignominious defeat and surrender of the Pakistan Army on 16th December, 1971 in Dacca is something I would like to erase from my memory.
Yaade maazi azaab he yarab
Chhin le mujh se haafiza mera.
However, one memory I would never like to forget is that of my school days. These are such pleasant memories and still so fresh, so joyful, as if they happened only yesterday. Whenever I am alone, I sit in my chair, close my eyes and relax and go back 65 years to the time I was a student at Ginnori Primary School in Bhopal. My father was head master/superintendant of high schools in the Central Provinces (CP) in British India before his retirement.
First a few words about Bhopal. Bhopal was a Muslim State in the heart of the Indian sub-continent. It had a population of about 700,000 and an area of about 7,000 square kilometres. It could quite rightly be called the Switzerland of India. There were dense forests, rivers, high mountains and an abundance of wildlife like tigers, leopards, bears, crocodiles, deer, sambhar, nilgae, wild dogs, peacocks and many different kind of birds. It is situated at the crossing of the main Delhi-Bombay and Amritsar-Calcutta railway lines – hence a very important railway junction. There were seven man-made lakes in Bhopal State, one of them being the largest in undivided India. All the lakes were full of fish and shrimps. In my young days, it was not uncommon for tigers, leopards and bears to be sighted hardly five to six kilometres from the city centre. Bhopal city was built on hilly terrain and cyclists often had to get off their bicycles because the slopes were so steep. It was also famous for its beautiful mosques (there being at least one every 200 yards) and the number of huffaz (who used to travel throughout Central India to lead tarawih prayers during Ramazan). Last but not least, Bhopal had the best hockey team in undivided India. Who has not heard of Anwar, Habib, Aziz and Latif, all famous Olympians.
Out of the total population, hardly 25% were Muslim, the remainder being Hindus and local Gonds and Bheels. Muslims were in the majority in the cities of Bhopal and Sehore. The police force and small local army were also mainly Muslims. Businessmen and government officials were of mixed religion/descent. There was complete harmony between all segments of the population. It was a relatively well-to-do state – there was no unemployment and there were no beggars. The Muslim rulers and Muslim population were of Pathan descent. After the death of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, his empire disintegrated and the governor (Qiledar) of the large mughal fort at Raisen, about 20 km. from Bhopal city, declared his independence. After some time Rani Kamlapati gave him Bhopal State in gratitude for his help in avenging the murder of her beloved husband by a neighbour. Dost Muhammad Khan, the first ruler, was from Tirah in NWFP and this brought about the influx of Pathans. All this happened early in the 18th century. My mother’s family came from Tirah while my father’s family came from Ghore with Sultan Shahabuddin Ghori.
Now here is something for those who are burning girls’ schools and colleges to think about! After Sardar Dost Muhammad Khan’s death in 1740, five ladies ruled Bhopal. Maji Mamola, wife of Nawab Yar Muhammad Khan, successor to Sardar Dost M. Khan, ruled as regent for their daughter, Qudsia Begum. After Qudsia Begum came Sikander Begum, Shah Jehan Begum and Sultan Jehan Begum. These enlightened (lady) rulers turned Bhopal State into a modern, prosperous, welfare state. They all spoke fluent Persian and Urdu and had learnt some English as well. They established a large number of schools, both for boys and girls, and provided free education. Nawab Sultan Jehan Begum made generous donations to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan for the establishment of Aligarh Muslim University and had the distinction of being its first Chancellor. After her death her son, Nawab Hameedullah Khan, who had graduated from Aligarh, was chosen as the Chancellor. Had those ladies not been educated, had they not encouraged education, both for boys and girls, I would probably have been no more than a kharkar, a cobbler or stone breaker.
There were separate schools for boys and girls. My mother taught us at home. My wife helped our daughters with their homework and now our daughters are helping our granddaughters. If you don’t educate your girls, you leave out half your population, you prevent them from becoming better wives and mothers, from being able to cope in case of the death of a parent or husband, from learning about Islam, health, nutrition, etc, from contributing to society and much more. Without the encouragement mothers can give, many children, even boys, would drop out of school, leading to an even higher rate of illiteracy. How then could we possibly progress as a nation? You are not only holding back women, you are holding back the nation.
About education today, I am aware of the large number of reports, articles, suggestions, recommendations, etc. by various committees about the type of education we are supposed to have in our schools. I won’t go into numbers, statistics, literacy rate, etc. There are already hundreds of such papers collecting dust in many cupboards. My view is that, first and foremost it is imperative to enforce a uniform school system throughout the country. Each province should have its provincial language as a compulsory subject. I would like to look back at my own schooling as I believe it was successful in the formation of my career and life and is still applicable and useful for our children today. In the first two years of primary school we were taught the basics of Urdu, elementary arithmetic, Quran, Islamiat and writing. From class III on serious studies began in Urdu, arithmetic, Islamiat and English. As we progressed depth was added to the existing subjects and others were added – history of the Indian sub-continent, British history, European history, geography of the Indian sub-continent, world geography, English grammar and composition, etc.
In middle school, Persian or Arabic, and algebra and geometry were added. In classes IX and X we were taught anatomy and physiology and given a choice between physics and chemistry or botany and zoology. By this time we were reading selections in prose and poetry covering the works of Shakespeare, Byron, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Tagore, Bertrand Russell and so on. By the time we passed high school, we were quite well versed in all the subjects covered. We were able to write both Urdu and English quite well. 8 years of studying English left us free from any inferiority complex on that score. The best thing about this system was that we were not estranged from our own cultural heritage. In Urdu we read all the famous poets like Mir, Minai, Sauda, Momin, Dabir, Anis, Dard, Insha, Daagh, Ghalib, Zouq, Iqbal, Josh, Jigar, etc. with their biographies and selected works. It is that grooming that still gives me so much pleasure when reading poetry. High school examinations in Bhopal state were under the control of the Rajputana Board, one of the toughest in undivided India.
I don’t see why a somewhat similar system, adapted to modern requirements, like computer studies, etc. can’t work today. The main requirement of any good, credible system is honesty, discipline and dedication, both on the part of teachers and students. On the one hand we are shouting ourselves hoarse over the destruction of schools in Swat and the Tribal Areas (which is despicable, abhorrent and unforgivable) but at the same time we totally ignore the presence of thousands of ghost schools or schools without proper teachers and/or facilities in Sindh and Punjab. The condition of most of the government schools is atrocious. If our leaders and others responsible do not look into this serious problem and take remedial measures, the Pakistani nation will soon be reduced to a few educated elite and a majority of illiterate, ignorant and incompetent people. What I am trying to stress is that, while a top-class education at university is important, our rich cultural heritage should be inculcated at school level. If one does not know one’s own cultural heritage, one loses one’s identity. In order to achieve this aim, the government must enforce a uniform school syllabus for the whole of Pakistan in which our cultural heritage is an integral part.
Agriculture – pay attention or starve by Dr. A Q Khan
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February 5th by Dr. A Q Khan.
Muhammad Binyameen (the same name as that of the younger brother of Hazrat Yusuf A.S.), a Pakistani PhD scholar at an agricultural university in Sweden, has drawn my attention to one of the most important problems being faced by Pakistan – agriculture. Hardly anyone pays attention to it and even fewer speak about it. Only when there is a shortage of wheat, sugar, vegetables, etc., do we hear that the government has raised the fixed buying prices of certain commodities. There is no long-range planning; no precautionary steps taken for the future.
Pakistan’s economy depends heavily on agriculture. It accounts for about 25 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP), and I believe that more than half of our labour force is engaged in this important sector. Since there is insufficient rainfall, most agriculture is dependent on water supplied through almost 40,000 miles of irrigation canals – the largest canal system in the world. Most of this water comes from the Indus River; some from other rivers flowing in Punjab. Unfortunately, poor drainage causes salinity, affecting large tracts of invaluable agricultural land.
We all know that wheat is the main food crop in Pakistan, followed by rice, millet, maize, pulses, barley, vegetables and fruits. Cotton and Basmati rice are by far the most important cash crops, bringing in valuable foreign exchange. Other crops include sugar cane, tobacco, oil seeds.
The agricultural sector
–provides food to about 160 million people;
–is responsible for about 70-80 percent of our total export earnings;
–employs about 50 percent of the total work force;
–is the main source of livelihood for the rural population;
–provides raw materials for many industries and a market for many locally produced industrial products.
A few words here about the agricultural sciences. Since time immemorial, agriculture has played a prominent and important role in the lives of human beings. People migrated long distances to find fertile lands to settle. Many wars were fought over land. In the world at large, almost 80 percent of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood, which lies at the root of many key issues in society – i.e., production and supply, international trading patterns and their development, over-exploitation of land and natural resources and impact on the environment, to name but a few.
In the developed countries, agriculture supports fewer people but it uses a higher proportion of budget resources. For example, a small country like the Netherlands exports $5 billion worth of farm produce and flowers per year. Their people are well fed, so they face issues like food surpluses, agricultural support prices, alternative land uses and enterprises less hostile to the environment, sustaining farm incomes and rural economies, etc. In the developing world, the problems of feeding the people from the limited natural resources, poverty, population growth and deterioration of the environment become more acute with every passing year. Developing countries, including Pakistan, need more people trained in agriculture, horticulture, food technology and the various sciences connected thereto in order to be able to make better use of the limited resources. In Pakistan in particular, there is an urgent need for economics and management studies applied to the whole of the food chain and associated industries and services.
The two biggest problems facing Pakistan today is uncontrolled population growth and the urbanisation of fertile land. As pointed out to me by Mr Binyameen, the worst affected areas are in Punjab – including Sahiwal, Okara, Vehari, Multan – where hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land are being lost to housing colonies. Beside urbanisation, large areas of fertile land are being lost to salinity.
Our population is increasing so fast that all efforts to keep up with the need to feed, clothe and shelter people have become almost impossible. At the time of partition, the population of West and East Pakistan together was hardly 80 million. After the separation of Bangladesh, our population was 80-85 million. Now it is around 170 million – impossible for a developing country to cope with. There is an urgent need to educate our population, especially the rural population, about the necessity of restricting the size of the family. This should be executed on war footing, just like the Europeans, Japanese and Chinese are doing. Five babies are born per minute in Pakistan! An intensive campaign is required that should be run by educated staff and which offers incentives to the uneducated. I myself opted for vasectomy after we were blessed with two daughters and felt our family to be complete, and have never regretted it.
A possible suggestion in this regard could be where lady health workers of District Health Units give incentives to encourage and persuade women in the rural areas to use three-monthly injections to avoid pregnancy. The DHUs should keep records while health workers should keep notebooks recording details like names and dates. A bonus of, say, Rs2,000, should be given at the time of the injection. In the long term, such an amount to each recipient would amount to peanuts compared to the cost of dealing with the disaster. Local Unions and local imams should also be taken on board, providing incentives to convince them of the urgency for an immediate need for family planning.
Population explosion leads to uncontrolled expansion of residential areas. I can still remember how we took a visiting Chinese delegation to show them cities and suburbs almost 30 years ago. The visiting minister afterwards remarked that we were heading for a disaster as we were covering extremely fertile land with cement and bricks – i.e., houses and houses. To avoid this, a strict code of planning cities/towns should be enforced. No extensions on fertile lands should be allowed and such housing colonies should be built on non-fertile lands only. If we do not take drastic measures now, this country of ours won’t have enough space left to grow anything — there won’t be enough to eat and not enough to cover our bodies with. Clean high-rise buildings with shopping/workshop centres on non-fertile land are the need of the day.
Another looming problem is the greenhouse effect which is changing our climate and affecting our agricultural crops and fisheries. In a recent communication to an English daily, Mr Asif Ali Abro drew attention to this danger. It was pointed out that, though Pakistan is responsible for only 0.4 percent of annual global emission of greenhouse gases, it ranks 12th in the list of those most affected by climate change. He suggested a remedy to protect our agriculture from the disastrous impacts of global warming by making substantial investments in biotechnology. He also pointed out the urgent need to develop high-yield, drought/flood/salinity resistant varieties of crops, especially wheat and rice. There are some good institutions in Pakistan already working in this field, but more concerted, goal-oriented efforts are needed and the government must invest generously in this field to safeguard our future. I myself was instrumental in establishing the state-of-the-art Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering at Karachi University for this very purpose.
I am very well aware of my limited knowledge in this field, but my acquaintance, association and friendship with such experts as Mr Shafi Niaz, Mr Zafar Iqbal, Dr Abdul Hafeez, Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood Khan and my old friend from Holland (now in Canada), Prof Dr Mahmood Hasan Khan, enabled me to pick up some threads to put this piece together. Many excellent articles and suggestions have been written on this topic by these experts. We need a solid government policy to tackle the prevention of this looming catastrophe using the services of these experts.
Before I conclude, I would like to quote what Khalil Gibran wrote decades ago. I have taken the liberty of changing the word “pity” to “curse.”
Curse is on the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.
Curse is on the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, drinks a wine that flows not from its own wine-press.
Curse is on the nation that acclaims the bully as hero and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.
Curse is on the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.
If we read “dictator” for “bully” and “medals and badges” for “glittering,” we have a true picture of our country.
Source : The News
