Letters to the Editor

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XI Jinping in Pakistan

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s historical visit to Pakistan has opened new vistas of opportunities specifically for the country’s unemployed workforce. Investments in various sectors, especially energy and infrastructure projects worth $46 billion, can help develop this economically faltering country of Pakistan. But, unfortunately, given improper planning, poor governance and omnipresent corruption in the ongoing projects, we have apprehensions as to whether these projects will be run prudently and for the betterment of the nation or will these huge rather large sums of money, sooner or later, go and fill the pockets of some bigwigs only. The federal government should exploit this opportunity to make Pakistan a better and a more developed country. It will, definitely, encourage further investments.

It is hoped that these projects will be constructed and implemented at a faster pace to help the government achieve its micro- and macroeconomic objectives.

Asif Nawaz Charan (Ghotki)

Mysterious BPSC Affairs

I would like to draw the attention of Supreme Court of Pakistan toward the illegal appointments made during 2014, whereby the chairman Balochistan Public Service Commission (BPSC) appointed his children and also obliged his friends by murdering the merit. When NAB took up the issue, the courts acquitted him and the persons he had appointed were not shown the door; even they were not re-assessed. The competitive exam to fill the officers’ posts in the province has also not been conducted since long I request the Supreme Court to look into the matter and ensure the supremacy of law in BPSC affairs.

Sadam Buzdar (Balochistan)

Saving the Languages from Extinction

Pakistan is a multilingual country where the question of linguistic prejudices always remains. Parents educate their children in the languages of power — Urdu and English in our case. This attitude has triggered some serious issues. If these issues remain unsolved, serious threats to indigenous languages and the precious knowledge related to the endangered languages will be posed. The right to an equal opportunity for education is clearly violated when children are denied an education that is comprehensible to them. English is a big conundrum especially for the children dwelling in rural areas and as such big portion of the curriculum would be incomprehensible to them.

All children must have the right to be educated in their native language(s). In order to function as a multilingual democracy, Pakistan has designed various language policies. But still many languages are under the threat of extinction. So, the government should ensure such policies which may help in preserving the indigenous languages.

Mohsin Ali Mahesar (Noshero Feroze, Sindh)

The Scourge of the New CSS Syllabus

The New CSS syllabus (2016) announced by the Federal Public Service Commission leaves much to be desired. Even a cursory glance reveals that proper homework was not done. Many important issues have sadly been ignored. Or is it that the powers-that-be were unable to understand certain extremely important aspects. Their own limitations and the haphazard way of doing things have made such a grand mess of everything that one cannot help wondering whether there is a single soul in the Commission who is capable of putting things right and rectifying the wrongs followed hitherto by the commission. Instead of improving upon the previous pattern of syllabus and examination, the new scheme has made things more difficult, complicated and counter-productive. The students, the main stake-holders in the system, have been left high and dry. They are unable to understand the step-motherly attitude of the Commission towards them. Instead of facilitating them, the Commission has done everything to discourage and bamboozle them. The examination has been made an ordeal, a nightmare. A lot can be said about this new bombshell of the Commission. However I want to point out certain obvious shortcomings in the new syllabus and approach. They are as follow:

a. Certain subjects (e.g. Geography, Psychology etc.)  which formerly carried 200 marks, now carry 100 marks but their syllabus remains the same.

b. The courses of certain subjects (e.g. Journalism, International Law and Languages) which still carry 100 marks, have almost been doubled.

c. Those at the helm of affairs in the Commission must remember that the poor students don’t have an elephantine memory of a computer nor the understanding and wisdom of a Greek philosopher. They are human beings and must be treated as such. To suggest a whole library for reading to pass an examination indicates the death of logic and utter lack of common sense. For example, as many as 49 books have been suggested in case of geology.

The long lists of suggested and recommended books do not guide the students as to which three or four books are most relevant. It appears that the names of books on a particular subject were collected from all sources and all of them were presented as suggested books.

This would have a very negative effect. It will enormously increase the dependence of students on teachers who can provide notes and recommend a book or two for reading. These long lists of books given by the Commission will totally be ignored by the students. Then, what is the use of wasting so much ink and paper? Many of these suggested books are not available anywhere in Pakistan. Moreover, they contain a lot of material which is utterly irrelevant to the syllabus and there is, naturally, huge overlapping. Why should a student waste a lot of money on books not needed at all?

One was expecting that certain subjects having nothing to do with administration (e.g. Persian, Math, Physics and Histories) would be excluded. The subjects should have been short-listed and made more relevant to the duties of a prospective civil servant. These expectations have been shattered and the dragon of the new syllabus, along with the new suggested books is still there to frighten the students.

Prof Muzaffar Bokhari