Pakistan's Children Are a Lost Generation

AS we negotiate our way past yet more debris from our unending corruption saga, let me ask a question: why is it that only sleaze among our rulers excites so much anger and passion?

Why don’t we get equally worked up about all the other problems we face? I agree that corruption is a major issue, but surely it isn’t the only one. However, judging from our newspapers and TV channels, it would seem that if we could solve this one problem, all would be well.

The other issue to attract media attention is, of course, the nefarious intentions of the Americans as demonstrated by the passage of the Kerry-Lugar Act. This will see significant amounts coming to our long-neglected social sector, with the defence forces receiving new anti-terrorist capability. We all saw how this initiative was greeted in Pakistan.

Another event to provoke media ire in the recent past was the delayed restoration of the chief justice. Here, too, we saw much heat being generated. Now, it is the issue of the infamous National Reconciliation Ordinance that is getting the large population of our TV studios worked up.

Returning to my original question, why are there no public demonstrations against illiteracy, hunger and disease? Why doesn’t our army of TV hosts and their panellists consisting of retired generals, diplomats and bureaucrats fulminate against poor governance? Why is parliament not besieged by mullahs, NGOs and civil society activists demonstrating against our treatment of women and the minorities?

Surely these are issues worth taking up with the same passion that we display in our loud condemnation of political corruption. So why don’t our politicians and our concerned citizens rise up for the poor and the marginalised sections of society with the same fervour as they did for, say, the judiciary?

One reason for this narrow focus among educated Pakistanis is, I suspect, the sheer scale of the problems on Pakistan’s plate. Faced with the magnitude of unmet needs, many feel they can do little about it, so they prefer to pass the buck to the state.

In order to grasp the true dimensions of the real issues confronting Pakistan, one could do no better than read the recent British Council report on Pakistan. Called Next Generation, the report focuses on the issues and concerns of a large cross-section of young Pakistanis.