May 20, 2024

Kakar’s cathartic show at LUMS not very impressive

Capital Calling

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Teachers from all over the country are up in arms against HEC policies but Kakar had time to make funny faces at LUMS in company of his choice audience.
Europe and the US have been sending these fanatics back to our universities in great number. Most of them are taught and trained there.

Catharsis is a key concept in psychology. It has penetrated in media and literature. Pakistani media thrives on it. The Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar pulled a stunt on Monday at an elitist university in Lahore.

Kakar went to a private university and put himself out for criticism by students. He gave them enough ground to play on. The elitist media is reporting that the PM “suffered an embarrassing barrage of hard-hitting questions from students as he grappled to tackle the unexpected situation.”

Watching and reading all this on media, people of the country would believe that the students have aptly represented them. They would believe that the PM was really defenseless against these students. Believing this, they would be satisfied that the needful has been done.

But this believe will bring about no change in society. This belief will simply gratify their urge to rise and change the system. In reality, they have not risen or changed anything. Hence, this gratification is false.

Actually, the power players chose their own theater, their own script and their own audience. Kakar’s peptalk at LUMS was as absurd as ridiculous. At a time when universities in the country have been deprived of the each penny, the caretakers have not only diverted funds to the sectors they prefer, but they have also not put a check at the Higher Education Commission (HEC). This body has been reduced to be a hatchery for private universities.

Teachers from all over the country are up in arms against HEC policies but Kakar had time to make funny faces at LUMS in company of his choice audience. Religious and asthenic fanatics have swarmed our universities. They sit in faculty offices. Europe and the US have been sending these fanatics back to our universities in great number. Most of them are taught and trained there.

The abyss that our universities have fallen into can be measured from the fact that an HEC executive officer wrote a letter to Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) to discourage celebrations of Hindu festival Holi on campus. Recently, clerics have forced a teacher to repent publicly for teaching evolution.

These are the real issues Mr. Kakar. If you have anything to do with higher education, fix these problems. If you do not, keep on having fun at peptalks at LUMS and other elitist and strategic institutions that award higher education degrees. No wounder that our universities are a mess. When government heads like to stage cathartic plays, the nation will hardly get the critical mass that universities are supposed to produce.