On a slippery slope

Under the shadow of the grave political crisis that has overwhelmed us with a sense of uncertainty and deep anxiety, there is so much else – with obvious implications for our security and survival – that does not sufficiently attract our attention.

And this week, I am prompted to take a cursory look at the alarming decline in our human capital. Just as there are compelling pegs for taking up the rising tempo of confrontation, between the political rulers and the establishment there are numerous hints about the worsening of our social conditions in reports that do not make shrieking headlines.

So many of these reports can separately serve as a metaphor for what is happening to us. For example, the fear that has gripped some large neighbourhoods in Karachi after incidents of knife attacks on women walking on the streets deserves serious attention in the context of not just law and order but also a certain aspect of our collective psyche.

At the heart of all this is the potential for an upheaval that seems to be building up. Yes, our security forces – large and powerful as they are – seem capable of guarding us from the threats that have been identified. We applauded the arrangements that were made last week to ensure that the Muharram rituals were peaceful.

Ah, but what we saw during the observance of Ashura may be the perfect example of how critical this situation is. After all, they needed these incredibly extensive arrangements for an occasion that demanded an unrestricted sense of communal participation and freedom of movement. It is difficult to imagine the cost of this operation.

In fact, experts tell us that an intimidating show of force is a sign of what they call power deflation or the loss of authority. The more uniformed personnel you see on the streets, the more insecure are the rulers. Otherwise, stable and strong societies do not have to be protected by armed guards. Anyhow, my peg for this week is a short news item published on Friday. The Federal Public Service Commission announced on Thursday the Central Superior Services (CSS) 2017 examination results. According to the commission’s website, only 312 candidates passed the examination while the number of those who had appeared was 9,301.

It is easy to see what it means. The pass percentage is 3.32 percent. But you should not be surprised. This is what you may call business as usual. In 2016, only 379 candidates out of 12,176 had passed. Hence, the pass percentage was even less, 3.02 percent.

There are frequent reminders of how human resource has become a huge problem in Pakistan and you find living evidence of this in your daily encounters with individuals or institutions. At times, when I argue in defence of my pessimistic vision of the future of Pakistan, one of my major arguments is the quality of our manpower. We are a country overflowing with the unemployed and deprived of those who are employable.

This surely does not mean that in this sixth largest country of the world in terms of population, we do not have many bright, gifted and enterprising people. I have great faith in the ability of our educated, working women. But the mainstream is polluted in many senses of the word. Even if the attraction for the CSS has diminished, the yearning for high positions in the government may have increased with this phenomenal growth in the population of young people.

There are some obvious reasons for this deterioration in our educational standards. Another significant factor is the unashamed negation of the principles of merit and social justice. Pakistan is known, apart from its population, for its nuclear capability and a large standing army. It should also be known for the systemic cheating in its public examinations.

Some other reports, which are not so recent, come to mind. One example I remember because I had written an Urdu column on it. Last year, in a function, the then chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Anwer Zaheer Jamali, had regretted that the judiciary lacked able and competent judges because of the obsolete and outdated education system in the country.

Underlining the fact that most of the judicial officers were not proficient in English, he recalled that some years ago only one of the 250 applicants for some scholarships could clear the English proficiency test. If there is only one applicant in 250, what is the percentage?

Less than two weeks ago, there was a report about the Planning Commission facing an acute human resource shortage. Secretary Shoaib Siddiqui said they had only one full-time project director instead of about 33. Another official pointed out that the Planning Commission had eight top-level positions and six of them were vacant.

About three weeks ago, there was this headline that stated: “21 public-sector universities operating without VCs”. The quality of teaching on our campuses and the overall academic environment, of course, cannot be stated in numbers. In any case, education also has a bearing on our national security.

In addition to education, health is another prominent area of darkness. Last year, Dr Ayesha Mian of the Department of Psychiatry at the Aga Khan Hospital told journalists that approximately 50 million suffer from common mental disorders in Pakistan but there were only 400 trained psychiatrists in the country – roughly one for half a million people.

To conclude, I would like to refer to think tank Pildat’s annual assessment report on the quality of democracy. This may bind the two strains together, as I indicated at the outset. Naturally, this assessment is about 2016. According to the Pildat report, 2016 saw a significant decline in the quality of democracy – a slide of four percentage points as compared to 2015.

Another important indicator that was continuously facing decline in its performance was the media “which is moving downward in its performance since last three years”.

We have to wait or a few months to see the report card of this eventful year of unending crises. The focus would be on the open and covert tension between the major national institutions. At this time, I can only quote from the 2016 report: “In civil-military relations and democratic oversight of the security sector, 2016 saw the civil-military imbalance deepen further as the military leadership seemed to be taking the leading role on matters of national security and certain domains of foreign policy, with the elected government appearing to act as an auxiliary”.

So, even if it is more of the same, the downward slide is quite evident.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com