Governing a country

This refers to the news report, ‘Why martial law is damaging’ (Jul 05), by Mazhar Abbas. While the military rule is not a solution, pseudo democracy is no option either. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, feudal system has been strengthened. About 70 percenet of the representation in parliament comes from rural areas. The landlords of these areas turn into political leaders to represent the people. Poor peasants have no representation and no voice in the system. In the same way, little attention is paid by successive civilian governments to the country’s education sector. Around 25 million children are out of schools. The standard of education has fallen while cheating in examination has become a common practice.

In the neighbouring country India, feudalism was abolished during the early 1950s while top priority was accorded to educating the people. India boasts of some of the finest institutions in the world and has huge reservoir of qualified engineers, IT specialists, scientists and other professionals in different fields. Illiterate and poor people here are hostage to the elite class which is the reason for the failure of the democratic process. It is thus claimed that there is selection and not elections in Pakistan.

Kulsoom

Karachi