Recently, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif launched an interest-free loan scheme to help the millions of poor citizens who have not obtained loans from the banks in days gone by in order to start small businesses. He said that Rs 50,000 would be offered to every citizen from this poor bracket without any discrimination and that almost 250,000 persons would get a loan in the first year, reaching a total of one million within just four years. However, this is the first time I have seen the prime minister of this country attempting to solve the problems of Pakistanis by providing free money despite the fact that the biggest hurdle Pakistan faces today is illiteracy, which not only keeps poor people from occupying a respectable position in society but also persuades them to ‘earn’ money through unlawful means.
What we have to understand is that today Pakistan needs to direct full focus towards free education. Owing to lack of attention to free education, the illiteracy rate is increasing at a worrisome pace. Almost 58.7 million people are living below the poverty line, most of whom are unable to receive education due to lack of resources. If Nawaz Sharif wanted to serve the nation, he should have learnt from Mr Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, whether education can help people more than money. In order to put Pakistan in an enviable position in the comity of nations, Mr Jinnah placed great emphasis on educating Muslims at all costs. Jinnah is reported to have said, “Without education it is complete darkness and with education it is light. Education is a matter of life and death to our nation.” In 1941, while addressing students Jinnah said, “There are at least three main pillars, which go to make a nation worthy of possessing a country and running the government, one of which is education.”
Wherever Jinnah went to give an address, especially after independence, he used to meet students for the purpose of motivating them; he declared students the builders of any nation. However, he did not know that one day the builders of our nation would remain far from education on account of lack of funds. According to Article 25-A, the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children aged five to 16 years. The law is quite adequate but has been neglected and thus child labour is piling up rather than coming to an end. Above all, Pakistan does not only need to provide free education but also free uniforms so that the poorest citizens can also receive at least a basic education. On account of unaffordable uniforms, many children have been expelled from school, resulting in mindboggling illiteracy.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 10 million children are estimated to be child labourers and, according to estimates, 38.4 percent of the youth are estimated to be illiterate. On top of that, illiterate youth and illiterate children, both are obstructions to progress and peace in Pakistan. Pakistan today is facing a number of problems such as target killings, kidnappings, street crimes, robberies, begging, suicides amongst the youth and many more, most of which are being committed by illiterate youth and illiterate children. Illiterate people, who have scarcity of knowledge, are likely to fall prey to crime and other anti-social activities.
It may not come as surprise to most of us that terrorism, which has made life in Pakistan a living hell, is piling up owing to the exploitation of illiterate people by terrorists who use them as their ‘foot soldiers’ by manipulating religion. While watching a local news channel recently, I caught a news item about an 18-year-old illiterate motor mechanic who had a chance meeting with a terrorist in his garage/workshop. It was there that he joined hands with the terrorist after being brainwashed on the basis of religion. Afterwards, the police caught him red-handed trying to kill innocent people via a failed suicide explosion.
If Nawaz Sharif has a strong desire to help the poor citizens of this country occupy a good position in society, he ought to divert full focus on free education, root and branch, which not only helps poor people but also results in rooting out most of the crime-related problems in the country.
The writer is a schoolteacher and social worker from Turbat