DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS

25
education in the ‗creation of a democratic social order by ensuring an equal access to
opportunities of education‘. Nothing significantly new was proposed but the tone of the
report was conciliatory rather than combative. Moreover, much to the relief of everybody
concerned, the report was brief (26 pages) compared to the previous one (234 pages).
In a little less than two years the map of Pakistan had changed. After a war in
December 1971 the province called East Pakistan emerged as the independent country of
Bangladesh. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who emerged as the elected leader of Pakistan,
announced a new education policy which did not shift the broad parameters of the
previous policies. However, there was an added emphasis on adult literacy. Also, and
significantly, 3,334 private educational institutions were nationalized so that famous
private colleges such as the Kinnaird College for Women, the Foreman Christian College
in Lahore and Gordon College in Rawalpindi were taken over from their former owners.
It is reported that 1,828 schools, 346 madrassas, 155 colleges and 5 technical institutions
were nationalized (GOP 1979: 26).
In most of these institutions the teachers were paid less and welcomed
privatization, especially as the PPP government had raised the salaries of college
lecturers from class 2 to NPS 17 which was also the salary grade of the civil service
officers (however, the latter had extra benefits such as transport, phone, orderlies, office
assistants and power). This egalitarian measure was much welcomed by the teachers
though the critics said that a burden of Rs. 15 crore per annum had to be borne by the
state (GOP 1979: 26). Apart from this, the education policy did not change much but
even now members of the university faculty who protest against the MOU (2002) want to
go back to the University Act of 1973---despite the fact that it too ensures that real power
in the university should not be with academics but with the government or its nominees.
Bhutto‘s government was dismissed by General Zia ul Haq in July 1977. Zia
made a significant departure by putting in real effort at Islamizing education. One major
policy document called National Education Policy and Implementation Programme
(GOP 1979) declared that the foremost aims of education will be:
To foster in the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan in general and the
students in particular a deep and abiding loyalty to Islam and Pakistan and a
living consciousness of their spiritual and ideological identity thereby