EDUCATIONAL institutions in town have reopened after what may be regarded as a controversial 10-week vacation. It should have been time enough for all concerned to have sorted out matters, and given to students, teachers and parents thereby, a feel good factor, but evidently not. Not just in between the lines, but the writing on the wall also clearly implies that unresolved issues still remain.

On 16th August, the day that the schools and colleges reopened, in the midst of a monsoon havoc that the city was fighting, came the headline that ‘STB fails to meet demand for books’. Let me underline that even before the schools reopened after the summer vacation, there were skeptical opinion and anticipation about the availability of textbooks. There was a cynical attitude which seemed to prepare the parents for what would lie ahead. Students being naïve and inexperienced, generally did not imagine what actually happened. The Sindh Textbook Board, not surprisingly, disappointed and did not meet the market demand for textbooks for students from Class I to X.

A week later, on Aug 23rd came the news that ‘Protesting teachers thrashed by police’ following which a boycott of classes had been announced – an indefinite boycott from Aug 24. Teaching community observed ‘black day’ and now a grand rally would be held in this city on Sept 5. One may remember that 6th September is the Defence Day of Pakistan. While the recurring textbook shortage is both disappointing and enigmatic, the teachers’ unrest is not.

Not just television channels showed how teachers were being thrashed by policemen for protests and demonstration against the ban on teachers’ union activities, but newspapers also showed the baton-charge on protestors to disperse teachers when they wanted to the Chief Minister’s House to present their case on Tuesday last.

To realize that school textbooks are not available once again and that in another context protesting teachers have been beaten and tear gassed is, besides being a matter of shame, also a sorry reflection of the state of education in this society. And much more, in fact. In a way, it is nothing new to even mourn the hiccups that the educational institutions experience.

One parent, Badaruddin, a resident of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, meekly lamented that his son, a class ninth student, had been repeatedly doing the rounds at the three bookshops, authorized by the school management but the textbooks are still unavailable. This happens every year with schoolchildren is a statement of the unembarrassing obvious. This gentleman is patient and mild about such an issue possibly reflects the weariness of the citizen, rather his helplessness.

But in addition to outwardly cool exterior that many citizens demonstrate there is an inner discontent that is very much there. This is also reflected in the fact that the police action against teachers has been strongly condemned by a cross section of opinion makers. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan secretary general condemned ‘police brutality on a peaceful demonstration of teachers protesting against the ban on unions’.

He said: “The Sindh government ban on teachers association was not only a clear violation of Article 17 of the Constitution, but also against all international charters of human rights as well as local laws.”

The HRCP spokesman also referred to the shortage of textbooks in Sindh and said that the provincial government must ensure that textbooks were supplied to hundreds and thousands of students as promised before the summer holidays.

He demanded strict disciplinary action and registration of FIRs against all the officials who were responsible for Tuesday’s baton charge, tear gassing, injuring and arresting the teachers. He further said that education department officials who were responsible for denying textbooks to students should also be taken to task.

There have been other such statements from political parties and individuals mirroring the fact that the government’s policy of a ban on teachers associations and textbooks unavailability has evoked criticism.

The subject of textbook shortage created by the Sindh Textbook Board; the ban on teachers union and the police action against protesting teachers is such a contrast to the television commercials as the Punjab government has been showing for almost over a year highlighting the perception that steadily the province is becoming educated, as literacy spreads.

Why are these hurdles and this frustration in Sindh? For years now, every year almost, there is a textbook shortage that hits the government schools in particular. Why can’t the Sindh Textbook Board be made to function efficiently, which includes being prompt.

Earlier this month, we noticed that Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro had ordered that free textbooks should be supplied to all schoolchildren in Sindh. She presided over a high-level meeting and directed the Reform Support Unit and the Sindh Text Book Board to provide the schoolchildren with these books free so that they are encouraged to get enrolled in educational institutions.

This is both familiar and stereotyped talk, remarked one parent who is worried about the overall quality of work being done in the educational sector.

Students have reasons to be worried at what is happening around them. But civil society is wondering at the overall direction in which matters are heading – whether the ban on teachers right to freedom of expression is just the beginning of what society or authorities are likely to hand over to them in the days to come. The point about freedom of expression makes it relevant to mention here that there are reports that there is not only administrative action that may be taken against the leaders of teachers, but there are news reports that the pesh imams sermons (khutbas) in mosques are also to be monitored and recorded.

Let us conclude with what the president of the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association Prof Riaz Ahsan has said: “Measures against teachers are being taken as authorities have some hidden agenda as well.” Another teacher who has seen many teachers’ struggles against the authorities for decades now, felt that this was the first time that the teachers’ community was facing such a challenge to its organisations – even to its existence. From the look of things, the restlessness is not to be ignored.

THE events on the hallowed turf of The Oval last Sunday mark a watershed in cricketing protocol and ethics. Let’s forget for once the niceties of our colonial upbringing and call spade a spade.

First the events as seen by a large section of the cricketing world on the ubiquitous small screen. Umpire Darrell Hair ‘suddenly’ observes that one side of the ball is distorted and calls a conference with the other supervisor on the field Billy Doctrove. They decide quite unilaterally (or bilaterally if you want to be literal) that the Pakistan team have been ‘tampering’ with it, which is an offence under rule 42 of the laws of cricket. The fourth umpire is summoned for the ball change and the batsmen are consulted to choose the change ball.

At no stage the guest captain is kept in the picture and the viewers see Inzy not being taken into confidence by Hair. If any impression the viewers get is that he is shooed away like an intruder.

Arrogantly, the umpire signals five penalty runs. Inzy is not told about the reason for the penalty nor given a hearing. Obviously, he and his team are livid, but to his credit, he plays on till the natural tiffin break so that he might consult with his coach, PCB chief and management. Then, and only then, the protest is made. The match referee who should have been in the centre of things is happy to stay in the background; the umpires refuse to return and confusion takes over.

White umpires getting into ugly stand-offs with South Asian teams (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh) has been a frequent feature in international cricket. I was commentator in the Aussie summer of 1980-81 in Melbourne when Rex Whitehead ruled Sunil Gavaskar out leg-before to Dennis Lillee.

So angry was the Indian captain that he took batting partner Chetan Chauhan by the arm and staged a walkout and allowed Chauhan to return only after persuasion from the Indian manager.

The perception has often been that white umpires don’t give the same respect to the South Asian teams as they do to others. Would Hair have dared to treat Steve Waugh, Stephen Fleming or Ian Botham the way he treated Inzy?

And what of another intransigent supervisor or the game Fred Goodall, whose epic and rather arrogant confrontations included those with Sarfraz Nawaz, Colin Croft and Bishen Singh Bedi. In fact, there is the story of Indian leggie Bhagwat Chandrasekhar during the 1976 series appealing against a New Zealand batsman after he had been bowled.

As we watched in amusement, the umpire said “..but he is bowled…” “But is he out?” asked the indignant Chandra, so upset was he with what he and his team considered biased umpiring for not getting leg-before or edged catch decisions.

At The Oval, English commentators David Gower, Ian Botham and David Lloyd in a very sporting gesture came out openly in favour of the Pakistan captain pointing out that no footage was available or indeed even any specific allegation to show who had tampered with the ball and when.

There is no explaining the arrogance of the ICC in refusing to censure Hair at least for sins of omission — for not talking to Inzy, not giving a warning and not identifying the culprit. There is right of appeal even against a High Court judge, so why not an umpire?

It is intriguing to reflect on why Hair has been allowed to stand at this level after repeated brushes with the South Asian teams, the most notorious one being the Muttiah Muralitharan controversy where even Arjuna Ranatunga was seen to lead his troops off the field.

Hair had also once been removed from the elite panel of umpires; so why bring him back in face of extreme opposition from the South Asian teams? And it is just a bit amusing that those who have come out in Hair’s favour include Waugh and Warne and the Aussie Prime Minister John Howard.

It is all very well to say that no one is bigger than the game; but Hair does try to show the cricket world that he is bigger than the game?

Let us also put The Oval incident in perspective. Such issues as slow over rate penalties and people being hauled up for appealing too much are after all technical transgression. But when the umpire without proof shoots from the hip and accuses a team of tampering with the ball, it is not just a matter of whim but an instance of accusing a team and indeed the entire nation of cheating and condoning cheating. This, as Inzy was at pains to point out, is an insult to the team that might invoke extreme reactions.

It might not be out of place to put on record that once upon a time ‘reverse swing’ was a phrase spoken of only in whispers in the same breath, as bottle-tops and damaged seams, by Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz. And when the English used it as a weapon in the Ashes series, it was spoken of in glowing terms and the sinister connotations were forgotten.

As such, it is time to do away with the prim formalities of diplomatic language and take a stand against the umpire (who is surely not above the law) not only by Inzy’s team and country but by the South Asian cricket boards who have also been at the receiving end.

It is heartening to see such unstinted support from cricketing fraternities and the media. Sri Lankans have come out in support at different levels; and one hopes that it is only a matter of time before the Indian cricket board in its wisdom also speaks out what has certainly been terrible injustice to a fine cricketer and his team.