Pakistan: “Schools out” for legislators

ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: The federal cabinet decided on Wednesday to do away with the condition of bachelor’s degree for candidates for the Senate and the national and provincial assemblies, in line with the Supreme Court judgment of April 21 last year. Briefing reporters after a cabinet meeting, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said Pakistan was the only country to have such a condition in a democratic dispensation. (Dawn news)

Now why do legislators need education in Pakistan, as it is certainly an exercise of futility for them and when this exercise spans atleast 14 years, it would certainly seems like a life imprisonment for them. Why would they need education when they can surely confirm parliament seats for their next generations by having this law done away? Do they need to be taught manners which education teaches us? They certainly don’t need it. Why would they need education when their entire world revolves around their huge mansion, their shiny SUV’s and their endless police escorts? Why would their children need education when they are surely to follow in their fathers’ footsteps? What good does education brings when they only have to nod at their party bosses? What good would it do to a legislator by reading this article? We ordinary Pakistanis need ask this first from ourselves and then from our esteemed legislators.

What a great rationale has been given by our Information Minister that as the whole world doesn’t have that condition, therefore Pakistan should follow suit. Do I need to remind the honorable minister that our literacy rate is one of the poorest in the world and by throwing away this a law he is spelling doom for our country? Would he even care about that?

If the same rationale is followed then why do we need education afterall? Why do we need to throw away 20 odd years of life after this exercise in futility? If I can become a legislator without having one why can’t I become a doctor or a lawyer without it?

Maybe we need more of such legislators who first hailed the enforcement of Sharia in Swat and within one week turned around and applauded the army operation. Maybe we need more of same kind who termed killing and burial of women in Balochistan as their ‘custom’. Maybe it would do good for all of us if we just let Taliban blowup all the schools allover Pakistan?

Maybe I should immediately take my child off his school and enlist him in a political party as he certainly don’t need the bloody education and I certainly don’t have the spare money to go through his laborious exercise in futility which in the end would do him no good.