By Madeeha Ansari

The year 2011 was the “Year of Education” for Pakistan. The Pakistan Education Task Force, drawing upon Article 25A of the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution, created a sense of urgency by declaring an Education Emergency, and called upon civil society to help address the development crisis. This declaration by a body set up by the government indicated not only the extent of the challenge, but also state inability to deal with it.

Article 25A of the Constitution of Pakistan promises free and compulsory education for all children aged five to 16 – an important milestone conceding the responsibility of the state to deliver a basic right. However, in practical terms it sits in the constitutional document without much traction.

The value of basic literacy and numeracy of course is beyond dispute. In normative terms, every child deserves to be able to read. But while conceding this right is the first step, it is not, in and of itself, enough. Beyond rhetoric and legislation lies the problem of implementation. In Pakistan as in similar developing countries, the challenges of the education sector can be clustered according to issues of access, equity and quality.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s notable speech made on August 11th highlights the fundamental values that were to become a part of Pakistan. Today, the Jinnah Institute is running a two-part series on Reclaiming Jinnah’s Pakistan. This is the first part of the series.

Reclaiming Jinnah’s Pakistan

By Shehrbano Taseer

I watched my father Salmaan Taseer break into a smile as Aasia Noreen placed her ink-stained thumb on a mercy petition marked for President Zardari. Pakistan’s founder, secularist Mohammed Ali Jinnah stared down silently from his portrait on the wall.

Six weeks later, as my father was lowered into an early grave - as frothing, bearded religious fanatics took to the streets celebrating his brutal murder and Pakistan’s unforgiving blasphemy laws – I wondered what else had been buried with him.

There are those who say my father’s death was the final nail in the coffin for Jinnah’s Pakistan. But as long as we live by Jinnah’s words, the Pakistan he envisioned will live on. Our enemies will never win.

According to CIA’s World Factbook, we are poised to be the fifth most populous country in the world in a few years. With 60 percent of Pakistan’s 187 million strong population below the age of 24, the youth of Pakistanform a potentially powerful force for change.

By Sehar Tariq

Pakistan’s education sector confronts a number of serious policy challenges. Jinnah Institute’s Paper “Pakistan’s Eight Great Education Debates” analyzes critical policy debates confronting the education sector and proposes policy solutions to Pakistan’s education policy dilemmas.

By Sabina Ansari

This policy brief examines the current representation of women in Pakistan`s national media landscape, which includes the status of women in the media industry, the portrayal of women in mainstream media, and the natural interconnectedness of the two. The paper outlines implications of the present gender gap and suggests policy interventions to reduce it.

“Fair gender portrayal is a professional and ethical aspiration, similar to respect for accuracy, fairness and honesty.”

-Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists in Getting the Balance right: Gender Equality in Journalism. IFJ. 2009

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Overview

Pakistan enjoys a vibrant and growing media industry.  The last decade has witnessed a notable increase in the size, strength and reach of the media, and rapid development in infrastructure and communication technology.  The role media plays in any society is far richer than a mere dispenser of information and entertainment – media is subliminally regarded as a moral standard, a reflection of priorities and values, a purveyor of social commentary and connections, an authority.  In the Pakistani context of low literacy rates and under-developed rural areas, the media exerts even more power on public consciousness.