HIGHER EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN
There are nearly one thousand colleges and universities of various sorts located throughout Pakistan. In 2003, about 3 percent of the university-age population were enrolled in some type of higher education program. The government is making an effort to improve technical and vocational training facilities. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
At the time of its independence in 1947, there was only one university in Pakistan: the University of Punjab.According to the “World Education Encyclopedia”: By 1997, the number of universities had risen to 35, of which 3 were federally administered and 22 were under the provincial governments, with a combined enrollment of 71,819 students. There were also 10 private universities. The universities are responsible for graduate (postgraduate) education leading to master's and doctoral degrees in a variety of fields. Most universities have their own faculty in the various departments but many use senior faculty from the colleges to participate in the teaching program at the master's level as well as for supervising students at the doctoral level. The trend is, however, to concentrate all postgraduate work in the university departments in order to maximize the benefits of teacher-student interaction on a daily basis. This has tended to limit the college faculty exclusively to undergraduate education, which serves as a disincentive for them to conduct higher-level research or writing. [Source: “World Education Encyclopedia”, The Gale Group Inc. 2001]
“The universities play a crucial role in undergraduate and professional education, although the actual teaching is imparted by colleges. Colleges are affiliated to the universities, which, through the Boards of Studies in the various disciplines, prescribe the curriculum, conduct the final examinations, and award the baccalaureate degrees. Minimum qualifications for the recruitment and promotion of the college faculty as well as standards for the physical facilities such as classrooms, laboratories, and libraries are established by universities, which periodically send visitation teams to colleges. In 1997 there were 789 colleges with an enrollment of 830,000 preparing students for baccalaureate degrees in arts, sciences, and commerce in addition to 161 professional colleges with a total enrollment of 150,969 students in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, engineering, architecture, and law.
At any given time there are approximately 10,000 Pakistani nationals studying abroad at American colleges and universities. Brain drain is serious problem. Many professionals have left. Many of the wealthy and influential that have remained in Pakistan are tied into the feudal system of corruption. Sometimes it seems that anyone with talent and education has fled the country. By one count 300,000 (1 in 5) university graduates have migrated to West since 1990.
History of Higher Education in Pakistan
At the time of its independence from British rule in 1947, Pakistan had 1 university, 20 professional colleges and 83 colleges of arts and science with a total enrollment of 37,102 students. In 2000, there were 35 universities. In 1973, a year after Pakistan lost its eastern wing, which became Bangladesh, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, criticized the post-colonial education system and demanded major changes: “Ever since we gained independence, education has remained the most neglected sector in the body politic of our country. For a long time, the obsolete idea of producing an educated class from amongst the privileged few to constitute the elite in the country remained the cornerstone of our educational system. This was a heritage of colonialism.” [Source: “World Education Encyclopedia”, The Gale Group Inc. 2001]
According to the “World Education Encyclopedia”: “Between 1972 and 1974 several new universities were opened and some institutions of higher education upgraded to a university status. In 1973 the University Grants Commission was established to fund all universities in the country and to help them, particularly with planning new programs. Some universities were identified as Centers of Excellence; new Area Studies Centers were established at some leading universities. Among the most notable initiatives was the establishment of the People's Open University (later named Allama Iqbal Open University) in 1974, which has blossomed into a dynamic agency for adult education open to all across the country regardless of age, gender, class, or ethnic origin. The education offered by this remarkably successful university has not only raised the level of literacy but has produced large numbers of highly qualified persons who have earned higher degrees, including the doctorate, in several fields.
In recent decades, Pakistan’s universities have become Islamicized. The process began in the 1977 when controversial military ruler Zia-ul-Haq seized power and seems to have picked up steam in the 2000s after 9/11 and the American invasion of Afghanistan. AFP reported: During Zia’s 10-year rule, until his death in a plane crash in 1988, Zia embedded a conservative form of Islam into politics and affairs of state, and ushered in sharia law to run alongside the penal code. Trade unions and student bodies were banned in educational institutions, and Arabic and Islamic studies were made mandatory for all students until university level. [Source: AFP, January 19, 2014]
Pakistan Government, Bureaucracy and Universities
Universities are funded by the federal government through the University Grants Commission. According to the “World Education Encyclopedia”: “The three federal public universities are headed ex-officio by the President of Pakistan, while the provincial universities, following the colonial precedent, have the provincial governor as ex-officio chancellor of all universities in the province. The day-to-day administration is headed by the vice chancellor, appointed by the chancellor from a short list approved by the University's Syndicate or Executive Council and the minister of education of the province. In practice, the bureaucrats in the Education Department wield considerable influence, both through manipulation of the names submitted to the chancellor as well as through an official from the ministry appointed to "advise" the Chancellor on the various matters referred to him by the vice chancellors of the universities in the province. [Source: “World Education Encyclopedia”, The Gale Group Inc. 2001]
“Each university has an Academic Senate, whose membership, unlike that of Western universities, which limit it only to faculty, is drawn from principals of colleges, heads of professional colleges, elected heads of faculties, elected representatives of alumni graduates, heads of university departments (ex-officio), and representatives of the Ministry of Education, Chamber of Commerce, trade unions etc. Purely academic matters such as appointment of search committees for recruitment of faculty and of Ph.D. "guides" and endorsement of changes in curriculum and of suggested names of paper-setters and examiners for the university-held examinations after their prior approval by Boards of Studies are the charge of the Academic Council. It consists of deans, department heads, and representatives of teaching staff. Both the Senate and the Academic Council meetings are chaired by the vice chancellor. A Board of Studies for each discipline consists of an elected chairperson and members drawn from the heads of the corresponding department in the affiliated colleges. Changes in syllabus in a particular discipline are first discussed and approved by the respective Board of Studies, which also draws up a list of paper-setters and examiners and submits it to the dean of the faculty concerned for presentation to the Academic Council. Presiding over the university bureaucracy is the registrar, who works closely with the vice chancellor.
“The regular or "current" expenditure on faculty and staff salaries, laboratories, and libraries in provincial universities is met through tuition fees (which often cover less than five to seven percent of the total expenditure) and government grants from the provincial and federal governments on an almost fifty-fifty basis. Since 1974, federal grants are funneled through the University Grants Commission (UGC), which often funds capital expenditures on physical plant such as buildings, major additions to laboratories or libraries, research and travel grants to faculty, and innovative additions to the curriculum. The dependence of the university administrations on three bureaucracies — state, federal, and UGC — have stultified creativity and bred a measure of irresponsibility. To quote from a World Bank Report of 1990: “This divorce of administrative from financial responsibility means that neither federal nor provincial, nor university authorities can be held to account for the overall management of the university system. Especially in an environment where tough decisions are required, nothing significant can be accomplished to improve the universities until this duality of management control is ended.
Universities in Pakistan
In 1993, Pakistan had 86 colleges and universities. Lahore’s National College of Arts was founded by Rudyard Kipling’s father. Some universities barely function. Art departments have been prohibited from teaching sculpture because of Islamic prohibitions of idolatry.
Lahore’s Beaconhouse National University is billed as Pakistan first liberal arts college. Jonathan Power wrote in the New York Times; The Beaconhouse school system began as a single playgroup in 1975 “and, thanks to the drive of one exceptional woman has mushroomed into a school system all over the country that extends from kindergarten to university, with some 60,000 students. I lectured for two days to nearly a thousand of its teachers, and I have rarely come across a group exuding such dedication. But this is private education catering almost exclusively to the children of the elite. [Source: Jonathan Power, New York Times, December 7, 2005]
There are 24 to 36 universities in Pakistan depending on how universities are defined . According to “”Cities of the World””: Some of the more prominent private universities are the Agha Khan Medical University and Hamdard University in Karachi, and the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore. The prestigious Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad conducts all its programs at the graduate level. The Allam Igbal Open University, also in Islamabad, offers courses through radio, television, and correspondence. Universities are monitored and financed by the University Grants Commission. Several universities follow the American semester system. Tuition at the public universities is negligible and meets virtually none of the cost of higher education. The private universities, on the other hand, charge high fees, but also offer financial assistance to deserving students. [Source: “Cities of the World”, The Gale Group Inc., 2002]
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”: Arts and sciences colleges are affiliated with the universities of the Punjab (at Lahore, established 1882), Sindh (at Hyderabad, 1947; at Karachi, 1951), Peshawar (1950), Balochistan (1970), and Multan (1975). An agricultural university was established in 1961 at Lyallpur (now Faisalabad). Two engineering and technological universities have been founded at Lahore (1961) and Islamabad (1966). Research institutions include the Institute of Islamic Studies at Lahore, the Iqbal Academy at Lahore, and the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs at Karachi. In 1995, there were a total of 29 universities, seven of which are privately operated. Urdu and English are the languages of instruction. Many adult literacy centers, including women's literacy centers, have been established, the majority in Sindh. In addition, the People's Open University was established at Islamabad (1974) to provide mass adult education via correspondence and the communications media. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Top Universities in Pakistan
Six universities of Pakistan are mentioned in the QS World University Rankings and ten others in Asia’s Top University Rankings: World Rank in 2018:
National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), 431- 440, Islamabad
Quaid-i-Azam University 651- 700, Islamabad
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), 701-750, Lahore
University of Engineering and Technology (UET), 801-1000, Lahore
University of Karachi, 801-1000, Karachi
The University of Lahore, 801-1000, Lahore
[Source: QS World University Rankings 2018]
According to the “World Education Encyclopedia”: The education in the professional colleges is decidedly superior. Only the very best students, often scoring more than 80 or 85 percent at the Higher Secondary Examination (twelfth grade or HSCE), are able to gain admission. It is these institutions that produce the doctors and engineers who migrate in droves to the Western world and perform so remarkably well in a competitive environment. Sometimes the percentage of professional graduates successfully moving to better pastures overseas, causing the so-called brain drain, is as high as 80 or 90, which accounts for the charge that countries like Pakistan basically end up training professionals for Western countries for a fraction of the cost and, therefore, deserve to be compensated or reimbursed for their expenses on professional education. [Source:“World Education Encyclopedia”, The Gale Group Inc. 2001]
“In the fields of engineering and technology, Pakistan has 7 universities/colleges of engineering. There are 9 colleges of technology and 26 polytechnics (of which 19 are for males and 7 for females). Their curriculum, faculty, and physical facilities do not compare favorably with those in engineering colleges/universities. Most of them give short-term courses leading to diplomas instead of degrees.
“As for the universities, critics allege that they are not able to attract the best minds to join their faculty. The lure of high-level government service, lucrative employment in multinational corporations in Pakistan, or jobs overseas leaves a much smaller pool of genuine talent for the universities, which, moreover, lack the facilities and ambience for quality research. Due to such a multiplicity of adverse factors, the universities are often unable to fill all their faculty positions. As Tariq Rahman of the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, lamented in 1998:
“The Quaid-I-Azam University of Islamabad, meant to be a premier institution when established in 1967, does not have many subjects thought essential to a university — linguistics, sociology, philosophy, political science, astronomy, cognitive sciences, archaeology, literature, and so on. The libraries are substandard, with very few journals — even such basic facilities as fax, e-mail, photocopying machines, computers, and microfiche readers are either missing or are in short supply. Thus, to begin with, universities do not get the best human material. In addition, no incentives are offered for improvement. For all practical purposes, once one is hired one is not removed — at least for academic incompetence.
“In 1979, following the publication of the National Education Policy in Pakistan, universities followed the U.S. example and adopted the semester system. The semester system continues in the Quaid-I-Azam University and a few departments of some other universities, but by and large it has been abandoned. Students tended to take what are termed in the U.S. as "mickey mouse" courses in order to obtain better grades with very little effort. The semester system involved frequent tests and hard work, and one's grade depended very much on the instructor, who gave a certain percentage of marks for classroom participation and performance on the periodic tests. Faced with growing social and political pressure to give better grades, the system collapsed.
Problems with High Education in Pakistan
According to the “World Education Encyclopedia”: Of the 10 private universities, eight were established after 1987. Some of them may be called "vanity" universities; they lack serious standards and were established to please major donors. Before long, they were able to exert pressure on the government, resulting in the government giving financial assistance to the private universities as well. [Source: “World Education Encyclopedia”, The Gale Group Inc. 2001]
“The quality of education in colleges and most of the universities has come under much criticism. Undergraduate education rewards memorization and prompts students to apply their minds only to the study of "expected questions" that are sold or circulated by "experts," who speculate on the basis of questions in examinations of the previous three to five years. Students tend to rely more on examination-oriented textbooks and cheap "guides." The percentage of "marks" required to pass at most university-held examinations is 35 percent, requiring only 60 percent to be placed in the First Division. Since the paper-setters and examiners are anonymously appointed by the university, there is a lack of direct relevance to what is taught in the classroom, which accounts for large-scale student absenteeism and lack of respect for teachers.
“A critical examination of the modern formal education system extending from primary to the university levels by experts ranging from the World Bank to those in research institutes in Pakistan has found the colleges in the country "sub-standard, bureaucratic, government-controlled, poor and inefficient," to quote Tariq Rahman of the National Institute of Pakistan Studies of the Quaid-I-Azam University. Such criticism fails to explain how the several hundred thousand Pakistani graduates who have migrated to the West, notably to Great Britain, the United States, and Canada, mostly as professionals — whether as doctors, engineers, pharmacists or educators — have with only marginal additional training been able to compete with the very best in those advanced
Open University of Pakistan
According to the “World Education Encyclopedia”: “The foremost institution for reduction of adult illiteracy and opportunity for those who cannot afford to join regular academic institutions has been the People's Open University, founded in 1974 and renamed Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in 1977. It provides nonformal learning and distance education ranging from minimum literacy all the way to the award of baccalaureate, master's, M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees. A student enrolled in AIOU is taught "with the help of printed course books, media programs and tutorials," completes the assignments according to the schedule laid down by the Open University, and takes a final examination administered by it. [Source: “World Education Encyclopedia”, The Gale Group Inc. 2001]
“In 1998-99 the AIOU offered 204 different courses, mainly in the humanities, social sciences, Arabic, Pakistan studies, Islamic studies, women's education, home economics, teacher education, technical education, and business management to 907,834 students who could not leave their homes or jobs but had a desire to learn and improve their lives. The AIOU ran programs in 30 cities, and through the use of "appropriate media mix and latest electronic communication techniques," its experts — 105 regular faculty and 2,500 part-time tutors — reached out to students scattered all over the country. AIOU operates on the semester system, April to September and October to March.
“In late 2000 the AIOU took a major initiative in the field of computer education. It signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S.-based Oracle Corporation of the U.S. whereby the AIOU will offer low-cost training in Oracle software through its existing facilities in 30 cities all over Pakistan. The AIOU already runs BCS, BCS Honors, MCD, and PGD programs. The addition of Oracle will help it to boost its computer training nationwide.
“There were 285 vocational institutions with an enrollment of 12,113 in 1988-89. They were administered by the federal Ministry of Labor, Manpower, and Overseas Pakistanis as well as by the departments of labor of the provincial governments. Part of the economic rationale for these institutions, which produced skilled workers such as plumbers, carpenters, welders, machinists, masons, electricians, etc., was the growing demand for such labor from the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia. There are separate vocational training institutions for females in shorthand and typing, sewing and cutting, embroidery, knitting, handicrafts, leatherwork and woodwork, and food preservation, only some of which were related to labor demand from the Gulf states. Additionally, there are other government agencies such as the Directorate of Social Welfare, the Small Industries Corporation, the Directorate of Agriculture, the Directorate of Mineral Development, and NGOs such as The Overseas Pakistanis Foundation, which also funded and/or operated vocational training institutions. In 1988-89 these numbered 2,924 with an enrollment of 92,737, far larger than those under the Labor Departments or the Ministry of Labor.
Women and University Education in Pakistan
Female university students: (percent of gross enrollment, which mans the value can be over 100 percent): 8 percent (compared to 68 percent in Germany, 102 percent in the United States and 7 percent in Uzbekistan) [Source: World Bank worldbank.org]
Fatima Jinnah Women's University in Rawalpindi has been set for women. All the students are young women and, with the exception of a few gardeners, all the people who work there are women. Some of the women who attend wear tunics and pants; other are shrouded completely in black.
Many parents say they would never let their daughters attend coed universities. In the early 2000s, around 1,000 women, most from lower middle-class families attended Fatima Jinnah Women's University and paid a tuition fee of US$150 a year. Professors were paid around an annual salary of around US$5,000; assistant professors US$2,000. In some classes professors from the United States told the students that it is up to the women to interpret the Quran for themselves and not “rely on how it has been interpreted by men."
Islamization of Pakistan’s Universities
Even some of Pakistan’s most esteemed universities have an Islamist vibe. The process began in the 1977 when controversial military ruler Zia-ul-Haq seized power and seems to have picked up steam in the 2000s after 9/11 and the American invasion of Afghanistan. AFP reported: During Zia’s 10-year rule, until his death in a plane crash in 1988, Zia embedded a conservative form of Islam into politics and affairs of state, and ushered in sharia law to run alongside the penal code. Trade unions and student bodies were banned in educational institutions, and Arabic and Islamic studies were made mandatory for all students until university level. [Source: AFP, January 19, 2014]
“Additional marks were given in exams to students who learned the Quran by heart. Over the subsequent generations, the trend has got deeper and more embedded. “There are far fewer students today who can sing and dance, recite poetry, or who read novels than 20 years ago,” Pervez Hoodbhoy, a nuclear physicist and one of Pakistan’s most prominent academics, there. told AFP. “The university is very much like a school for older children, where rote-learning is considered education. “There’s no intellectual excitement, no feeling of discovery and girls are mostly silent note-takers, you have to prod them to ask questions.”
“It was not always thus. Jamil Ahmed, who graduated in 1991, told AFP that in his days the hijab was rarely seen and male and female students would mingle. Hasan Askari, a former professor at Punjab University, said students are becoming increasingly attached to religion and drifting away from rational thinking. “The increasing Islamization has affected quality of education as today, teachers stress more on conspiracy theories than logic,” he said. Last year a private school in Lahore dropped human reproduction from the biology syllabus after an outcry in the conservative Urdu-language press claiming it was “obscene.”
“They say increased Islamization in Pakistan’s top teaching institutes and among the growing middle classes is helping to dumb down academic standards and restrict students’ social life. “At Quaid-i-Azam University there are four mosques, but still no bookshop,” says Pervez Hoodbhoy, a nuclear physicist and one of Pakistan’s most prominent academics who used to teach there.
Islamization of Pakistan’s Top University
AFP reported:, The Pakistan studies lecturer is in mid-flow when his students stand and rush for the door ― his class interrupted yet again by the call to prayer. “They won’t come back for at least 30 minutes and some of them even decide not to return to class,” Sajjad Akhtar said, gathering his notes and sitting down to wait for his students to return. [Source: AFP, January 19, 2014]
“At Quaid-i-Azam University, rated the best public university in Pakistan and the best Pakistani university in Asia, this is an everyday reality across all academic departments. The university grants a 15-minute break for prayers but any student is allowed to get up as soon he hears the call to prayer in what critics call a chaotic interruption of academic life. Established in 1965 in the new federal capital Islamabad, it was considered a liberal campus until 1977 when controversial military ruler Zia-ul-Haq seized power.
“Quaid-i-Azam University Vice Chancellor Masoom Yasinzai admitted academic standards had slipped over the years but insisted it was a country-wide problem and not to do with the growing focus on religion. “Here at Quaid-i-Azam University, academic standards are not falling at an alarming rate,” he said, adding that the expression “Islamization” was being used out of context. “We have given students the freedom to practice their religion and I think practicing religion is one’s individual choice.”
“With sectarianism and violence against minorities on the rise in Pakistan, some fear encouraging a religious mindset in universities is storing up problems for the future. “If you have a very dominant view and very authoritarian worldview which this curriculum is teaching you, that ‘You are Muslims, Islam is a good religion and other religions are not good,’ that value system will create a social crisis in the society,” education analyst Farzana Bari told AFP.
“At one of the mosques on campus, a number of religious books are on display on the bookshelves and free for students to take away.One of them, entitled “Put an end to obscenity” has pictures of a computer, CD player and a drum set on its cover with a red cross on top of each. The book explains how playing music during marriage ceremonies affects “the next life” and how angels pour melted copper into the ear of anyone who listens to music or the female voice.
“At the mosque, cleric Habib-u-Rehman Saleem says floods and earthquakes are God’s punishment for gay sex. “Males started to sleep with males and females started to sleep with females,” he tells a group of male students. “Some people are trying to create an environment like that of the West here, but God willing the students are religious and they will never let any such conspiracy succeed.”
“Touseef Ahmed Khan, chairman of the Federal Urdu University in Karachi, said he could see no change coming soon. “A whole generation was Islamized and those who started their academic career during the Zia regime are now retiring from their jobs,” he said. “This phenomenon of Islamization has been there for three decades, you cannot reverse it in one year ― it will take decades to do so.”
Conservative University Student Life in Pakistan
At Quaid-i-Azam University, AFP reports: “Strolling through the various departments, most female students wear the hijab ― the tight headscarf that hides all their hair and an import from the Middle East ― and none wear jeans. None dare sit next to a man, a common sight at more liberal privately-run universities which have become the preserve of the elite as schools like Quaid-e-Azam cater to the lower and middle classes. [Source: AFP, January 19, 2014]
“Though no specific place is allocated for men and women in the central cafeteria, both genders sit as far apart as possible. Hifza Aftab, a hijab-wearing MBA student, says there is no such thing as a “liberal” girl at the university. Any young woman who arrives on campus without wearing a hijab or the looser dupatta traditional to Pakistan quickly changes the look in two or three months, she says. “A liberal girl would get notorious throughout the whole university,” she said.
At Punjab University in Lahore, Aryn Baker wrote in Time magazine: Like many other universities around the world, Punjab University is a tranquil oasis far removed from the rest of society. But to Westerners, there’s little else about Punjab U. that seems familiar. Walk around the leafy-green 1,800-acre campus, and you will encounter nothing that resembles frivolous undergraduate behavior. Musical concerts are banned, and men and women are segregated in the dining halls. Many female students attend class wearing headscarves that cover everything but their eyes. This fall, when the university’s administrators tried to introduce a program in musicology and performing arts, the campus erupted in protest. “Pakistan is an Islamic country, and our institutions must reflect that,” says Umair Idrees, a master’s degree student and secretary-general of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (I.J.T.), the biggest student group on campus. “The formation of these departments is an attack on Islam and a betrayal of Pakistan. They should not be part of the university curriculum.” [Source: Aryn Baker, Time magazine, October 8, 2006]
“About 2,400 of the university’s 24,000 students belong to I.J.T. Members are expected to live morally and to abide by the Quran’s injunction to spread good and suppress evil. For many, that involves adopting an austere lifestyle. Members meet for regular study sessions and must attend all-night prayer meetings at least once a month. Outside the classroom, complete segregation of the genders is strictly observed. When asked, many members are critical of the U.S. and its policies toward the Muslim world; although the group has no ties to terrorism, it’s likely that some members sympathize with al-Qaeda.
“An atmosphere of moral rigidity governs much of campus life. I.J.T. members have been known to physically assault students for drinking, flirting or kissing on campus. “We are compelled by our religion to use force if we witness immoral public behavior,” says Naveed. “If I see someone doing something wrong, I can stop him and the I.J.T. will support me.” Threats of a public reprimand or allegations of immoral behavior are enough to keep most students toeing the I.J.T. line. There is no university regulation segregating men from women in the dining halls, but students know that mingling is taboo. “If I talk to a girl in line at the canteen, I.J.T. members will tell me to get my food and get out,” says Rehan Iqbal, 25, an M.B.A. student, who is sitting on the floor of a hallway with female classmate Malka Ikran, 22. It’s a nice autumn day, and a shady green lawn beckons through an open window, but they dare not sit outside. It’s too public. “There are certain places where I know I can’t talk to my male friends,” says Ikran. When asked what would happen if she talked to a boy at the library, for example, she just shrugs. “I don’t know. I would never try it. I’m too afraid.”
“It’s not just students who feel stifled by the I.J.T.’s strict moral code. Faculty members at Punjab University say that if I.J.T. objects to a professor’s leanings, or even his syllabus, it can cause problems. It doesn’t take much to raise questions about a teacher’s moral qualifications. “Those who could afford to leave, did so,” says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a former professor of political science who is now a political analyst. “Those who stayed learned not to touch controversial subjects. The role of the university is to advance knowledge, but at P.U. the quality of education is undermined because one group with a narrow, straitjacketed worldview controls it.”
Political Forces Behind Conservative University Student Life in Pakistan
Simon Cameron-Moore of Reuters wrote: “Pakistan's largest university is caught in switching currents. For decades, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), an Islamist party with links to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, systematically extended its grip over Punjab University, using its student wing, Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), to influence appointments and promotions. Arshad Mahmood, a retired general appointed vice-chancellor of Punjab University in 1999, can't sack them, there are too many and their jobs are too well protected, but in the last year there have been signs that Mahmood is slowly turning the wheel on the next generation. [Source: Simon Cameron-Moore, Reuters, February 25, 2007]
Aryn Baker wrote in Time magazine: “What’s most striking about that climate of conservatism is that it is being driven not by faculty or administrators or government officials but by students. At Punjab U., I.J.T. is the most powerful force on campus, shaping not just the mores of student life but also larger debates over curriculum, course syllabuses, faculty selection and even degree programs. Nationwide, the group has more than 20,000 members and 40,000 affiliates active at nearly all of Pakistan’s 50 public universities. Students who defy I.J.T.’s strict moral code risk private reprimands, public denouncements and, in some cases, even physical violence. [Source: Aryn Baker, Time magazine, October 8, 2006]
“In a country where most politicians cut their teeth as student activists, the rise of groups like I.J.T. provides clues to Pakistan’s political future. Although the country is officially aligned with the U.S. in fighting terrorism, it is beset by an internal struggle between moderate citizens and the fundamentalists who aim to turn the country into an Islamic state. As the hard-line demands intensify, “ the Pakistani government “has backed away from some policies sought by the U.S. “such as cracking down on radical religious schools, known as madrassas, and curbing Pakistani support for the fundamentalist Taliban across the border in Afghanistan. “The universities reflect what you are seeing in the larger political landscape,” says Samina Ahmed, South Asia director for the International Crisis Group, a think tank. “The moderate parties have been deprived of their experienced cadre of potential recruits, but the religious parties haven’t.”
“College campuses in Pakistan are becoming prime battlegrounds in the war for the country’s soul. Political organizations have been banned from schools since 1992, when violent clashes between the student wings of rival political parties led to the deaths of dozens of students. But by outlawing political activity, the government opened the door to religious organizations such as I.J.T., which acts as an advocacy group that serves as a liaison between students and administration. Founded in 1947, I.J.T. has hundreds of thousands of alumni who provide the group with organizational and financial support, with the goal of “training the young generation according to Islam so they can play a role in Pakistan’s social and political life,” Idrees says.
“And yet for some, the appeal of I.J.T. has less to do with ideology than a desire for a platform to voice their grievances. Rana Naveed, 22, a soft-spoken communications student who sports just the beginnings of a beard and wears tight, acid-washed jeans, is troubled by some of I.J.T.’s more extreme pronouncements, especially its stand on the proposed new music program. But he is excited about the prospect of becoming a full-fledged member in a few weeks, when he will take an oath of loyalty and then work to spread his faith and dedicate himself to the welfare of other students. “There are certain things I don’t agree with,” says Naveed. “But as a member, I will have to submit to their way. I.J.T is the only platform to put forward my proposals to the administration, because they turn a deaf ear to regular students.”
“Groups like I.J.T. are likely to grow more influential, not less, as its graduates move into the political arena. For those students aiming to become social activists on campus, and later politicians on the national stage, involvement in I.J.T. is the only forum available to learn the necessary skills.
Student Killed by Mob in Pakistan for Alleged Blasphemy After Dorm Debate
In April 2017, Mashal Khan, a 23-year-old journalism student, was shot and beaten to death by fellow students at Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan who had falsely accused him of blasphemy. According to Reuters: Khan was known as an intellectually curious and religious student who liked to debate controversial social, political and religious issues. He was attacked and killed by a mob on the campus on April 13th after a dormitory debate about religion.” The attack was led by university officials and radical Muslim students. A few days after the incident, police said Khan had done nothing to insult his faith. [Source: Reuters, February 7, 2018]
Haq Nawaz Khan and Pamela Constable wrote in the Washington Post, Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy law is often used as a pretext for attacks on religious minorities or personal enemies. Khan’s killing included both elements: It was instigated by opponents of his campus activism and liberal social views, and it was carried out by an inflamed mob. As the first such killing in a university setting, it also highlighted the spread of Islamic zealotry among young, educated Pakistanis — precisely the populace that might be expected to resist it. “A seat of higher learning was the venue. . . . The motive was to silence a brilliant student who dared to speak his mind. . . . The charge of blasphemy came in handy to inflame sentiments,” wrote commentator Zahid Hussain in the Dawn newspaper. The anti-blasphemy media campaign, he said, has emboldened accusers while cowing politicians and public figures into silence. “It reminds one of the Inquisition in Europe during the Middle Ages,” Hussain said. [Source: Haq Nawaz Khan and Pamela Constable, Washington Post, April 24, 2017]
Khan was “a brash young man who had posters of Che Guevara and Karl Marx in his dorm room and advocated the rights of cafeteria workers at Abdul Wali Khan University” His father, Iqbal Khan Iqbal, a social worker and poet in his 70s, “described his son as an intellectually curious, outspoken young man who had explored Sufi mysticism and studied in Russia but had never strayed from his Muslim upbringing. He expressed particular horror that Khan had been killed by fellow students, reportedly egged on by university officials in retaliation for criticizing official policies. Police have arrested 22 people in the case. “Universities are places of learning and knowledge,” Iqbal said. “If such incidents are taking place there, what can we expect from the rest of society?”
“On the Mardan campus, which has been closed since the killing, several students recalled how Khan had angered officials with his criticisms and how some religious student leaders had exhorted others to oppose him on Facebook. They described how the mob burst into the journalism department on April 13, searching for him and chanting, “Allah is great.” Later, the attackers found him hiding in his dorm room, where they broke down the door and beat him to death. One of Khan’s professors, Shiraz Paracha, called him a “shining” and attentive student who spoke up for others’ rights. “This inhuman killing has left many questions about a university as a place of learning,” he said. “I know it will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Battling Islamists at Punjab University
There has been an effort to shut down music and art classed at Punjab University. Under Taliban-style Islamic law, music is forbidden — even musical ringtones on cell phones. Emboldened by imams and a lack of response from the government, Taliban-supporting students have gone on a vigilante rampages in Islamabad and Lahore, harassing video and music shops for promoting un-Islamic behavior. . [Source: Nicholas Schmidle, New York Times Magazine, January 6, 2008]
In 2007, a female student named Nilofar stood up to Islamist who wanted to thwart music and theater classes at Punjab University. Simon Cameron-Moore of Reuters wrote: “The willowy 21-year-old is taking a masters in fine arts at Punjab University, where the student wing of Pakistan's most influential Islamist party tried to prevent the introduction of a musicology and performing arts department. “If they stop music today, tomorrow they will come after something else,” she says with true Lahori spirit.
“The successful introduction of more arts programmes, and a series of expulsions of disruptive IJT members, show the reformers are gaining the upper hand over Punjab University's puritans, who won't even let male and female students sit together at the open air tea shops on the leafy campus. “We don't want Lahore to turn into another Peshawar,” said Prof Muhammad Naeem Khan, the university's registrar, contrasting his hometown's vibrancy with the sombre city in North West Frontier Province, where political clerics hold power.
“Khan is upbeat after the Lahore High Court in February rejected an IJT student's appeal against expulsion, the third such time the court has backed the university authorities. “Those religious parties are mourning the day when they had more influence,” he says, adding that he plans to open new cafeterias to end the gender segregation outside the classroom. While thankful of the IJT's dwindling stock, he rues a lack of political awareness on campus, the product of a ban on student unions or party affiliations brought in during the Zia years. JI, which derives its street power from IJT, is the only major party to take student politics seriously, academics say.
“The state-run university catering for the lower middle class and poor has 25,000 students, of which, according to Khan, less than 1,000 are IJT sympathisers and only a few hundred are members. Recent IJT protests have had dismal turnouts, but it could be temporary, as many people believe its roots are too strong.
Defying a ban from the campus, Salman Ayub, an expelled nazim, or president, of the IJT campus met Reuters in a common room at the education department, while his lookouts kept watch. A dozen acolytes nod approvingly as Ayub derides “moderate Islam” and America's “anti-Muslim” foreign policy. They look bashful when asked how they'll ever meet girls if they follow the austere moral code that the IJT endorses. Registrar Khan believes while the current intake of students may be more observant Muslims than when he was a student in the 1970s, they are also more exposed to the modern world.
Pakistan’s University of Jihad
Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has been called the “University of Jihad.” Tim Craig wrote in the Washington Post: Although it was founded in 1947, the university gained prominence in the 1980s when both Pakistan and U.S. intelligence officials used it to recruit and nurture rebels who resisted the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. During that time, both Mohammad Omar, the founder of the Taliban, and Jalaluddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani network, are believed to have studied there, according to past statements made by seminary officials. Asim Umar, leader of al-Qaeda’s South Asia wing, is also believed to have been a former student. [Source: Tim Craig, Washington Post, June 23, 2016]
“After the former Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in the late 1980s, the seminary maintained its ties to Taliban leaders who took control of Kabul in the mid-1990s. Later, after the United States helped oust the Taliban government from power in 2001, the seminary produced scores of insurgents who are still fighting Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government. Tariq Afaq, a militancy expert from Peshawar, Pakistan, estimates that 80 percent of Haqqania seminary students joined or sympathize with the Taliban. Former Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last month, is also reportedly a former student.
“The leader of the seminary, Samiul Haq, isn’t known to be as radical as some other Pakistani religious leaders. Haq served two terms in Pakistan’s senate and has become an advocate for vaccinating Pakistani children against the polio virus. But in interview with Reuters two years ago, Haq embraced the title “father of the Taliban” and said his “students” should fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “They are my students. In our tradition, a teacher is like a father, like a spiritual leader,” Haq said. “Afghans should be allowed to fight for their freedom.” In 2015, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that two suspects in the 2007 killing of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto had also attended the seminary. But school officials denied ever having any affiliation with the men.
“The seminary, one of the world’s largest Islamic learning centers, focuses on teaching the hard-line Deobandi strain of Islam that advocates for Sharia law. Over the years, many Deobandi institutions received financial support from Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Persian Gulf countries. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are both past donors to Darul Uloom Haqqania, according to Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper.
There are other university-level institutions where jihadism thrives. Markaz al Dawn and its armed wing Lashkar e-Taiba, have been linked with massacres of Hindus in Kashmir. The Islamic group also runs a university 30 miles from Lahore which offers classes in science, English, Arabic, Quranic studies and jihad. One scholar at the university told the Washington Post, "Our mission is to educate scholars who can preach Islam and spread it all over the world." Many graduated end up fighting in Kashmir.
Pakistan's Fake-Degree Political Scandal
In 2010, it was revealed that scores of Pakistani lawmakers had fake degrees and academic credentials. Omar Waraich wrote in Time magazine: “For Pakistan's parliamentarians, the humiliation is becoming something of a ritual. On the country's sensationalistic news channels, fresh faces fill the screen each day. Within seconds, the graphics appear — a red stamp over the portraits, emblazoned with two words: "fake degree." As the newscasters struggle to suppress smirks, they explain that these are the latest entries in an ever expanding list that could see parliamentarians not just lose their seats but also possibly face jail time. And the higher the number rises, some observers say, so does the prospect of a rebalancing of power in the legislature — and a change in government. [Source: Omar Waraich, Time magazine, July 21, 2010]
“In June, the Supreme Court and a parliamentary committee asked the country's 1,170 parliamentarians to prove that they are bona fide university graduates. Strangely enough, the court is asking the legislators to comply with a law that is no longer on the books, struck down as unfair just before its unpopular author, former President General Pervez Musharraf, left office in 2008. (The law was inequitable, said the country's Attorney General at the time, because with adult literacy at only 55 percent, nearly half the country would be ineligible to run for office.) Nevertheless, the court wants to know if the current lawmakers, who ran for office while the law was in effect, abided by its rules. And that's the root of the current rancor — and condescending amusement.
“Alleged violators of the defunct law range across the political spectrum. So far, the list of suspected fake-degree holders includes two senior Cabinet ministers and others close to President Asif Ali Zardari. In one of the cases, a provincial lawmaker from former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League–N claimed to have obtained a master's degree in 2002, graduated from college in 2006 and finished high school in 2007. He should be "disqualified for stupidity, not fraud," Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, commented on Twitter. Another lawmaker claimed to have graduated from high school at the age of 10, prompting local wits to dub him "Doogie Howser, MNA [Member of the National Assembly]." And still another claimed to hold three degrees, each with a different surname.
“For some, the situation was no surprise. "It all makes sense now," says Marvi Memon, a prominent opposition lawmaker and a graduate of the London School of Economics. "For the past two years, I had trouble believing that I was sitting in a parliament full of graduates." For others, however, this was all too much ado about a piece of paper. "My position is clear," Nawab Aslam Raisani, the chief minister of Balochistan, growled at a gaggle of reporters. "A degree is a degree, whether it's fake or real!" The cynicism is not unwarranted. Musharraf's original law, even though it appeared to put education on a pedestal, was also a craftily disguised device used by the dictator to exclude some of his opponents. It accredited Musharraf's allies in the religious parties — many of whose madrassa experiences were somehow certified as being equivalent to a master's or even a Ph.D. — while disqualifying local politicians with years of experience earning the trust of their constituents.
“So far, 37 degrees have been established as fake and 183 as real. Jamshed Dasti, of southern Punjab was hauled before the Supreme Court to be tested on claims that he completed a master's in Islamic studies. But when the judges asked Dasti to name the first 15 chapters of the Quran, no reply was forthcoming. "How about the first two?" one judge inquired. Dasti's silence endured. He was asked to resign and save himself the indignity of going to jail.
“Politicians complain they are being unfairly singled out. "The percentage of fake degrees is much higher in legal professions and even medicine," says Khawaja Muhammad Asif, a senior opposition lawmaker. "All those who claim to be graduates must submit themselves to scrutiny, then we'll see how fake our so-called educated elite is."
Pakistani Firm Accused of Offering Fake-Degrees Online
In 2015, the Pakistan-based internet technology firm Axact was accused in a New York Times report of selling fake university degrees online through its subsidiary Bol. The New York Times report revealed what it called "a vast education empire" of hundreds of American universities and schools offering online degrees in various disciplines.The strange thing about it was that all the "glossy and assured" websites of these institutions — at least 370 in number — existed only "as stock photos on computer servers", the report claimed. [Source: M. Ilyas Khan, BBC News, May 28, 2015]
The one real thing about this internet empire "is the tens of millions of dollars in estimated revenue it gleans each year from many thousands of people around the world, all paid to a secretive Pakistani software company", the report said. Axact CEO Shoaib Sheikh was arrested by Federal Investigation Agency officials. Axact has denied the allegations. Sheikh, in a message posted on video sharing website Dailymotion called it a conspiracy "to break our resolve, to derail Bol, to shut down Axact". The message was titled "Shoaib Sheikh's last message before getting arrested".
Speaking in Urdu, Mr Sheikh said: "They say we sell fake degrees and diplomas, but we only offer an educational platform, which integrates with our partners… If those partners own universities which are legitimate entities within their respective jurisdictions, then it is perfectly legitimate for us to manage their call centre services, their chat services and their document management services."
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (tourism.gov.pk), Official Gateway to the Government of Pakistan (pakistan.gov.pk), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022