I am quite happy to read a high quality post after a long time.The points you mentioned are true. The problem is that Pakistani people do not understand what power they have and I am happy that our armed forces and senior powerplayers understand this very well. The day either Pakistani nation understand their power, they will never be manipulated by jiyalas or waderas or selfish professionals. However, there are types of mindsets can I see:
(1) Educated, without faith, without values
(2) With faith, without education, without values
(3) With values, without faith, without education
(4)Without faith, without education, without values
(5) With faith, education and values
Now all of us know that who falls on which category, judging their character or morale as well as observing their attitude towards people. The problem is that we need to increase our population on 5th category and this can be only possible if schools provide proper education about their voting rights and basics of government systems in secondries, colleges and universities where as deny political influence in their respective sectors so that our students and children do not hold any personal alliance during their teenage to early adulthood. Our government should on the other hand allow only those politicians who have clear record. I do not understand why GOP allows same political parties to participate who have history of corruption and are charged with heinous crimes against their own people.
Actually the problem has always been mental conditioning, to be honest the general populace of this area has never really been free they have always been under the influence of one dictator or the other (name them anything, king, sardar, numberday, patwari, bd member, mps, mna, thanedar, oh mullah, whatever) so they never have had developed any shard of independent thinking. I know there are writers/columnists who have been propagating anti british narrative by saying 90% population before brits was literate, of course persian and arabic but what was the contribution to science, education nada, nothing except stupid sectariasnism amd measuring the width of "mehboob's qamar" many a times "londay" this illiteracy was up to such tan extent that "aurangzeb alamgir" damn the understanding of the name gives me revulsion, had to get treatment for his daughter by a gora doctor and in return gave place to east india company. In general people of our area have never been independent thinkers, they have always been led to given the comfort some elder/some one higher would do thinking for them and it will be good for them.
While I agree that we should focus on increasing the number 5 category, I 'll sidestep for a moment the distribution of talent in our country is people with highest IQ/talent end up abroad/startup/private sector, after that army and forces, then bureaucracy, then sarkari noukri, then small business, then low level jobs, those who cannot fit any of these categories are either send to madrassah or end up doing menial jobs/work. It is unfortunate that despite the fact there is no concept of a paid mullah in Islam we have given "Theka" of religion to a semi literate to illiterate person who cannot perform simple math is given the helm of religion. Religion which requires greatest understanding and flexibility in thought process, which is not separate from science, it is only where science will ever end up; the boundary of religion starts; thus came the "ignorant fatwa" the advise of prophet PBUH to gain knowledge be it from china, meant religious education/knowledge only. If at all we progress we need to address this loophole instead of pitch of the society ending up at the helm of religion it should be reversed.
In all honesty I always had this question Allah has declared in Quran he has not made anything "Fard" which does not have a benefit for human being so what is the benefit for muslims in "Prayers/namaz" I asked this question many times from many people all I got was "dont't ask too many questions", "because Allah has said so", "because Allah created humans for the purpose", advise to my elder "to control me as I was having kafirana tendencies".
By Allah's grace,circumstances and family affordability I was send to UK for studies. My weekends were spend in "The British library london", spend 8 years there; during the stint and wrote one thesis about Namaz, why it was made "fard" by Allah, what are its social, cultural, political, physical, emotional and spiritual benefits for Muslims as individuals and as society, how individual namaz is linked to Ba-jamaat, to friday prayers, to eid prayers to Hajj send it to few universities got invited multiple times by IIU Islamabad to deliver lecture on it, submitted it to multiple scholars in Pakistan got feedback from only two Late Dr. Israr (being from the same family) and Usmani sb. That was almost two decades ago, point being why do we need to follow mullah, why do we need to follow anyone why we cant make our own evaluation and decisions.
How many times during friday sermon the importance of commitment, honesty, character comes up, how many time the importance of self study of Arabic/Quran and Sunnah comes up?
I am a very difficult person to impress but among all Muslim countries that I have traveled to it was only Turks who impressed me in this area of targeted character building of future generations, as bluntly put by my younger son "our educational system both formal and religious makes you a slave without room for independent thinking"
Development comes through dissatisfaction/lots of questions and the desire to seek the "truth", I cant help the whole system by like I said we have tried to raise our kids, nephews/nieces to become independent thinkers, I have tried to inculcate the same thing in my teams. If/when time comes will spread the message to a wider audience.
I hold parents responsible as well to this lack of creativity in our children. every child has a natural curiosity of all things new, that is Why Adam learned the names of things in Eden while Angels didn't. It is basic human trait, and what parent do in our society is kill that curiosity by giving them a shut up call to all questions, and I have seen apparently highly educated families doing the same.
Still remember our younger one used to be extra curious for everything and dinner used to be his best bet of asking all sorts of questions, initially his mother wanted to control that curiosity but I did put my foot down and made a decision that i will try and answer half of the questions and the other half he will come up, we will discus them and then draw a conclusion. When we came back his curiosity was a major sore point during family dinners elders wanted to give him a shut up call but they had to put up with me, nutshell my nephews nieces too started developing these "rebellious" tendencies like their "baray abbu a.k.a undersigned"
My parents/their parent didn't realize the impact on the children then, almost a decade down the road they now acknowledge the benefits of those dinner time questions have given their children each of them is now knowledgeable to the extent of annoyance, open minded, willing to listen to other person point of view and of course deep study type and not memorizing type.
If we are to go forward as a nation I think parents too need to understand that shutting a child up is like killing his creativity.
Correct me if I am wrong our whole society is centered around "don't ask questions"
You may get angry if I say that democracy is not meant for a country like Pakistan where literacy rate is low, where people sell their votes for Rs. 500, where PPP recruits their voters from interior Sindh.A country where people only vote because their university allowed politicians to influence them and falsely inspire them or because they saw their dada dadi casting their vote or where kheema naan works. Unless, our educational and government sectors do not become neutral and set up strong filters, Pak will continue to elect false people as false people will continue to pave ways through corruption and this cycle will hence never break.
A country like Pakistan only deserves "Council System" which relies upon SCP (Selection Comission of Pakistan) rather than ECP. I suggested this 6 years ago and I still persist the same. SCP contains high profile professionals of clear repute from both military and civilian background who after reviewing files from petitioners hire or recruit people for ministry hence everyone on same page.Then a matric fail, fake degree holder will never be able to get ministry of science and tech or other system.
(Sounds madness, goose chase or day dream to you but I am serious)
Bhai I wont get angry because I have been harping the same idea for years now, an illiterate person/a follower/without a shard of independent thinking who cannot make any decision without "consultation" with someone "wise" is given a choice to select between lesser of the evils. His/her mind cannot even process all the variables let alone make an impartial decision, thus comes Qeemay wala naan/biryani plate voting democracy. Since he cannot make any decision so "teeny weeny" personal gains like qeemay wal naan is the prime motivator in decision making. its not a wild goose chase, my analysis is that democracy has already failed, it is now hegemony of one group or the other, in another 50 years of so this false pretense will end and the world will be back again to kingdoms and a set of appointed advisers with petty little freedom on local level to masses.
Last but not least, yes we are definitely not responsible for Bengal but we know how some Indians try to morph history and we need to understand this and participate accordingly.
In addition to that faith and values comes from holy guidance. We should not just as a muslims handover our kids to any mullah but teach them Quran with translation.This will invoke them with wisdom, sense of responsibility, fear of Allah and thus makes them a good citizen.
regards
Agreement with the second part, however, remember translation is just interpretation of the translator and varies from translator to translator.Though I do curse Zia for many of the evils which our society is facing now, but his one decision of making Arabic compulsory in schools upto 8th did work in my favor. Our teacher was very good in Arabic and it paved the way for understanding Quranic Arabic. Always wondered why all "translators" have used one word for translation of the "malik e youm ad deen", "word deen", why always "Qayamt wala din" there are 5 to 6 others why not them. Simple because they lead to questions and moral improvement of Muslims. Why not Ayah 2.2-2.5 are taught in conjunction with 2.174-2.177 and 2.256 as compulsory with understanding of each word to every Muslim child right from the day he is able to understand. simply because all the myths and mysticism mullah has created goes down the shitters. BTW the best translations of Quran are in English.
Apologies for such a lengthy post, half year closed now I have respite for few days thus enough time at hand for such indulgence.
