Karachi
When she got back home to Haji Dad Muhammad village, a rural area situated on the outskirts of the city, Wafa Nawaz Baloch walked with her head high among the clouds.
Those who had doubted her couldn’t meet her eye, but those who had supported Wafa in her journey, including her parents, also walked taller than usual. By completing the journey she had set out for and graduating from the NED University of Engineering and Technology with a degree in computer engineering on March 10, Wafa silenced those who had criticised on the futility of her cause.
“It took me three hours to commute every day. But the psychological journey was longer than physical one,” she said. “Very few girls dare venture out to attend university from my area.”
Haji Dad Muhammad Village is a rural locality in the Old Thana area of Gadap Town, situated on the peripheries of the largest city of the country.
“I opted for engineering to break stereotypes about girls in my area, who are capable of attaining higher education but are not encouraged to attend universities due to a host of issues, the primary problem being everyday transport,” said Wafa. “Like my parents, others should also trust their daughters and let them continue their academic pursuits.”
Talking about her daily routine, Wafa said she used to leave home at seven in the morning so she could make it to the class at her Computer and Information Systems Department beginning at eight thirty. “I took a public bus to Malir City from where I got on the university point. Though the Old Thana area falls within the jurisdiction of the city, the university bus does not come this far and most families do not allow girls to travel on public buses,” she said.
“I used to leave the university around four thirty and then get home after six in the evening. Many people in my area used to find it very unbecoming of a girl to return home alone after sunset,” Wafa shared. “But my parents always supported me.”
Though proud, this achievement only fuels Wafa’s desire to go higher in life.
“Wafa sent me an email expressing her desire to continue her studies,” shared her professor at NED, Shahab Tehzeeb. “She was an excellent student and never whined about the problems she faced.”
He called on the administration to start sending varsity buses to far-flung areas of the city so students there are encouraged not to abandon their studies.
Till then, according to Prof Dr Muhammad Tufail who is the dean of Chemical and Process Engineering faculty at NED and lives in the same constituency as Wafa, the new computer engineer will be an agent of change for her two sisters and other girls of the locality.
“There are three seats in NED university reserved for students from rural areas of Karachi. But Wafa got admission on a general seat on her merit, and that alone is big achievement in itself,” Dr Tufail said. “She knew while she was doing her intermediate that even if she could not pass with flying colours, she could still get admission on a reserved seat. But she still worked hard enough to be able to grab a general seat on merit. Kudos to her.”
NA-258 transport woes
Old Thana area of Gadap town falls in the jurisdiction of NA-258, the constituency from where state minister for communications, Abdul Hakeem Baloch, was elected to the National Assembly.
The constituency comprises of rural and coastal parts of Malir district and Landhi Industrial Area, where students brave a serious transport crisis while commuting to educational instituted every day.
Being a part of Karachi, yet being apart and seemingly unconnected from the urban centre, made a number of students staged a protest on January 3 under the aegis of Gadap Social Development Organisation (GSDO). All they demanded from the government was a university bus with a route dedicated for the rural areas of Malir.
The students participating in the demonstration told The News that it took them between two and four hours to reach universities from areas including Gadap, Memon Goth, Darsana Chana, Kathore, Moedan, Ghagar Phattak, Rehri Goth and Ibrahim Hyderi, all situated on the peripheries of Karachi.
Talking to The News, a local journalist, Sami Memon, said transportation was a grave problem for students of the area and no steps were being taken to resolve it.
“We neither have proper roads or adequate transport. This becomes a barrier for many students who want to attain higher education,” he said.
As far as government institutes were concerned, he remarked, the quality of education imparted was next to nothing. “Instead of focusing on improving government institutions the authorities are focusing on establishing commercialised institutions that are beyond the reach of dwellers of areas such as ours,” he said. “The state minister for communication, Abdul Hakeem Baloch, who is an MNA of federally-ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz often complains about not having any powers. But at the same time he hasn’t even proposed a solution to mitigating the transport crises in his own constituency,” Memon remarked.
“When he [Hakeem Baloch] was in the Pakistan People’s Party, he managed to do development work here, but during his present tenure on a PML-N ticket, rural areas in the constituency have suffered terribly.”
