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Azad Kashmir: Zahid Rashid May 17, 2013
Many congratulations to the PML-N and its leader, Mian Nawaz Sharif, for its historical victory in the general elections of 2013. However, his statement about relations with India has worried Kashmiris. A few days back, India brutally killed one innocent Pakistani prisoner, SanaullahHaq. We received his dead body just one day before the elections and, due to the elections, even the media did not pay any heed towards this incident. India has given state protocol to the dead body of terrorist Sarabjit Singh but, contrary to this, Pakistan silently buried the body of an innocent citizen who was killed in reaction to Sarabjit Singh's death in a Pakistani jail.
Now Mian Nawaz Sharif announces that he will invite the Indian prime minister to attend the oath taking ceremony of Pakistan's new prime minister. He seems to be in haste in relation with India. I think that, instead of any decision in haste, he should wait for foreign policy decisions to be taken. If he does what he says he will do, he might just face the anger of the Kashmiris living across the world during this honeymoon period.
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Karachi: MubashirMahmood May 17, 2013
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won around 30 to 35 seats for the National Assembly in the May 11, 2013 general elections. This has disappointed many workers, supporters of the PTI; even many PTI leaders are stunned by the result. The PTI's chairman, Imran Khan, has been claiming for the last two years that his party would sweep the elections and, because of his tall claims, people were expecting at least 130 to 140 seats for the PTI. However, many PTI leaders knew that the party would only win 35 to 40 seats. Independent and credible analysts were also of the view that despite Imran's Khan tall claims, the PTI would only be able to win around 40 seats. Some big media persons also suggested that Imran Khan's party would win 40 to 50 seats.
The PTI spent billions of rupees on media campaigns like the PML-N so people were expecting that they would give a tough fight to the PML-N, which did not happen; the PML-N won the elections easily and, in Punjab, they outclassed the PTI. The PTI is claiming now that massive rigging has been done all over Pakistan. This is true in some constituencies and videos have also been circulated on the internet. Rigging claims must be proved by evidence. Many videos have been making the rounds on social media and it is time the ECP take notice of all the rigging claims.
However, the PTI has contested this election excellently and has emerged as second biggest party in Pakistan, which is a big victory for the PTI. After the October 30, 2011 PTI jalsa in Lahore, the PML-N worked a lot all over Punjab winning those hearts that had been disappointed with it. The PTI was too busy in intra-party elections, which hurt its preparation for the general elections.
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Rawalpindi: ImtiazAkhter May 17, 2013
The MQM has won some seats both in the national and Sindh assemblies. Most of its Sindh Assembly seats are restricted to Karachi. And yet AltafHussain is referred to as a national leader.
Nawaz Sharif has won almost half of the National Assembly seats and a comfortable majority in Punjab. His party has also won seats in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Despite this, AltafHussain has addressed him as a leader of Punjabis. Strange, isn't it?
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Karachi: M Osama AfnanHanafi May 17, 2013
An adult is generally known as an individual above the age of 21. Adult literacy is a concept, which says that no one can completely be happy or satisfied unless the person is educated. Literacy in adults involves teaching them about their rights and responsibilities as citizens. The main purpose of adult education programmes is to see that every individual in the state knows at least reading, writing and basic arithmetic; such knowledge is essential for everyone, especially in a democracy.
In Pakistan, however, it has been observed that the implementation of literacy policy provisions has been low due to many causes like scarcity of resources, low capacity and political will. Adult literacy programmes need to be initiated immediately especially in the rural farming areas of the country. Agriculture, being one of the largest industrial sectors of the country, needs to be tackled by disseminating detailed information and literacy about modern ways of farming, irrigation, sowing, ploughing, reaping and fertilising the land for greater productivity of the sector. This sector needs education programmes to create jobs and grow as it contributes around 48 percent to the GDP and, therefore, literacy of farmers is essential.
With regards to the financing of adult literacy and non-formal education, it can be said that this area has been neglected by the government from the beginning. The current resource gap for literacy exceeds 80 percent. For such a densely populated country the government is providing hardly two billion rupees per annum when the need for literacy programmes is around 15 billion rupees per annum (as per the estimates of the National Plan of Action).
According to the recent available statistics on adult literacy rates, the male literacy rate is 67 percent and female literacy rate is 42 percent. Around 56 million adults in Pakistan are illiterate amongst 66 million literate individuals. In order to improve adult literacy in Pakistan there are some issues that need to be addressed. These include capacity building, research, database creation, teachers training, learning material development, better literacy programmes and organisation of political will. These efforts will help give adult literacy the importance it needs in Pakistan and help this nation on the track towards development immensely.
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