Ex-CS says varsities must play role in nation building

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa former chief secretary Abdullah has said that only universities can lead the nation.

He was delivering a lecture on “The relevance of universities to the future of Pakistan” in the video conferencing hall, University of Peshawar.

Prof Yaseen Iqbal, Chairman, Department of Physics, had invited the scholar and former bureaucrat to deliver the lecture.

The talk was attended by the senior faculty of the university and students of the department in large numbers.

In the welcome address, Prof. Yaseen Iqbal thanked the audience and specifically the veteran bureaucrat, Abdullah, for his time despite his old age and health issues.

Beginning the story from the very first day of Pakistan, Abdullah mentioned that on August 15, 1947, the country didn’t even have the required artillery powder to present the 21-gun salute on the first Independence Day and an engineer arranged some powders in bowls and a matchbox to do the job with.

“And today, we are the seventh nuclear power of the modern world but remember, we did not do it for our wish for wars, we were challenged time and again and we were left with an option but to equip ourselves,” he added.

He emphasized that the basic and applied scientists have done their job to equip the country with the best possible apparatus to defend the country but the social scientists have not played their due role to give a viable governing system which could lead us to a prosperous and peaceful society. Abdullah said that this is nothing but the propaganda of the enemies that the state has failed. “The failure of the state means the failure of the 220 million people, they have never failed. Yes, you can say the government has failed and this is not unusual. The governments fail everywhere. The wise nations keep an eye upon such developments and correct the direction when the train tends to derail. Yes, we have problems and there are two ways to address them,” he added.

The former chief secretary said: “One is revolution via the use of force. This can help but history tells that such developments have never been sustainable. The other way is classroom revolution, to educate the youth, and the appropriate place for this is the university. Remember, education is not divisible, yes, it can be elementary, it can be primary but the universities must integrate these”. He said that we should have an Education Commission of Pakistan instead of the Higher Education Commission. “My emphasis upon you is, don’t wait for the people, they will never ask you to do this, the governments have their own problems. They will never come to you and they can’t but the universities must be aggressive and lead,” he went on to add.

“Our goal is a sovereign state which is impossible without ideology and only universities can lead the nation,” he said.