There is an ugly truth bearing its head in our institutions of higher learning and there are dire consequences to be had as a result. Take an example of famous Karachi University (KU) which has announced the admissions for the year 2011-12 and discriminated against the students hailing from upper and lower Sindh which makes more than ninety percent of the province.
How strange and painful it is! Out of 6000 seats only 30 seats are allocated for 24 districts of the province. This admission policy in vogue, indeed, amounts to an ethnic discrimination and intensify rural-urban divided. Doubtlessly, discrimination is a flagrant violation of human rights.
It is highly axiomatic to assert here that inadvertent discrimination is working in this country of ours since its genesis. If this type of prejudice goes unabated then the discrimination would be considered as ‘intentional.’
I think that the Sindhi intelligentsia and the students have a right to know about this arguably discriminative admission policy. The native students want to further their studies because they believe that education gives knowledge and confidence but unfortunately they are denied the right to education even in the provincial capital of their own home province on insane, illogical and irrational grounds.
It is an open secret that because of such discriminative and ethnicity fanning policies which were launched by the past myopic and racialist rulers, the province of Sindh has suffered irreparably. That is why Karachi is burning and bleeding. However, the political leadership and the KU management are requested to right the wrongs of the past. Any policy of the past which appears ethnic and discriminative must be ceased once and for all.
An equality-based and non-discriminative admission policy must be put in place. The priority of the KU should be to build a community intellectually and culturally diverse and to put together the most vibrant and diverse group of students. If the KU administration continues the past discriminatory and divisive policies, then it can’t be free from the blame of ethnicity and rural-urban divide promoting administration.
One thing that we should take into our mind is that mere positive decisions is not sufficient. Until and unless the implementation is made a reality, it does not make any difference, rather it creates frustration. We should do our best to make it work. The KU, inter alia, should adopt such policies which may unite the nation, which may promote understanding among the various communities with different ethnic backgrounds and assimilation among them.
HASHIM ABRO
Islamabad
