The Sindh government has earmarked Rs3.5 billion for scholarships under the Sindh Education Endowment Fund for the next eight years. These merit-cum-poverty scholarships are meant for those pursuing higher education in public and private universities in the province and outside of it. This is a fairly large amount and indicates the government’s interest in enabling more and more youth of the province getting higher education. The government is ensuring that meritorious students of limited means are not hampered by their families’ economic circumstances in the pursuit of knowledge.
The SEEF scholarship scheme was introduced in 2002. However, like several other government-sponsored schemes, this too has run into controversies. Students of Karachi University, the largest public-sector university in Sindh, have been included within the scope of the scholarship scheme after a long delay of 19 years. The Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology still stays out of the scheme’s compass. It is difficult to say who is to blame for this. Officials maintain that scholarships under the SEEF scheme are provided to only those educational institutions which ask for them. The Federal University has so far not applied for this category of scholarships. Furthermore, only those studying in professional institutions are entitled to these scholarships like the IBA, Karachi, for certain subjects. However, the long exclusion of Karachi University from the stipend plan does not seem convincing as these subjects are also taught at this institution.
Experience shows that bureaucratic red tape and official lethargy might be one of the causes of the unsatisfactory state of affairs pertaining to a well-meaning scheme aimed at promotion of education. Experts say there are some essentials of viable bureaucracy that will serve the needs of a developing country and the most important among them is compassion. Even efficiency is next to compassion. But the public too should consider the practical difficulties the bureaucracy has to face.
Killing of aid workers
Afresh wave of terrorist activity in North Waziristan near the Afghan border has taken the lives of four women reportedly working with a local NGO as sewing teachers. The local police confirmed the incident to be a terrorist attack, making it another reminder of how vulnerable soft targets remain. The attack, incidentally, took place on the anniversary of 2017’s Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad. That operation was aimed at fishing terrorists out of urban areas after previous operations, most notably Zarb-e-Azb, dismantled their infrastructure in the tribal belt. The military says that some 300,000 IBOs have been conducted since that time as part of a strategy involving counter-terrorism and counter-extremism.
Pakistan’s strategy in the war against terrorism has been to “clear, hold, build and transfer”. Once an area is cleared of terrorists and secured, the state will build and uplift it, hoping to make all gains irreversible. There is nothing wrong with this approach. In fact, it is generally accepted as a good one. But as long as terrorist attacks keep occurring, it will be impossible to make any gains, no matter how hard-fought, genuinely irreversible.
While attacks have dramatically decreased when compared to their peak before the military operations in the region, but they still occur with worrying frequency. The contributing factors may have changed, but that is no consolation for the victims and their families. Whether a terrorist is homegrown or foreign, whether the plot was hatched on Pakistani soil or across our borders, the victims will still be mourned the same way. The protection of citizens’ lives is not an optimistic ideal, but a requirement for the state. Thus, if peace and security are the goals, then even one attack is too many.
That being said, the uptick in attacks along the border with Afghanistan must be brought up with the government in Kabul. The country continues to show little desire to lose its reputation as a world-leading exporter of terrorists, nor is it taking the necessary steps to help its neighbours secure their own borders.
The January 9 blackout
An inquiry into the countrywide power blackout on January 9 this year has arrived at the conclusion that it had occurred due to a human error, the Power Division informed a parliamentary committee on Monday. The inquiry report has pinned the blame for the breakdown on some officials working at the Guddu Thermal Power Plant, bringing once again to the fore the disorganisation that characterises most spheres of public life in the country.
The blackout caused major disruption in the normal life of millions besides affecting industrial and agricultural production. In light of the finding of a preliminary inquiry report, the Central Power Generation Company had suspended seven of its employees for alleged negligence. The Power Division has received three reports on the electricity blackout and it will submit them to the federal cabinet. The Power Division’s inquiry report has also mentioned those failing to improve the National Transmission and Despatch Company’s functioning. The report has stressed the need for putting in place preventive steps to ensure that failure of one plant does not render the entire system dysfunctional.
The fact that on January 9, electricity was obliterated temporarily in the entire country mainly due to the error by some of those responsible to operate the system necessitates serious soul-searching. It is of vital importance to identify the underlying causes that led to the human error. Was it because of negligence and complacency of certain officials or shortcomings on their part? We have numerous instances where complacency has caused serious losses. Last year’s PIA plane crash in Karachi was attributed to human error. It is common knowledge why the Pakistan Steel Mills has ceased functioning, and the PIA and Pakistan Railways are in dire financial straits.
An interesting thing emerged during the Power Division official’s briefing to the parliamentary panel that when the blackout started, electricity consumption in the country was 10,000 megawatts. There was a time when people were informed how much was the demand for power and how much was the production. But this practice has long ceased.
