KARACHI, July 19: What was supposed to be a seminar to celebrate the bravery and love for education of young Malala Yousafzai after her historic speech at the United Nations Youth Assembly on the occasion of her 16th birthday became a stage for arguments between political parties about who has done what for education.

The seminar on ‘Women's Education and Terrorism’ organised by the South Asian Women Media (SAWM) and South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) at the Karachi Press Club on Friday started smoothly, though a little late as Sindh Minister for Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro had not arrived on time. Still the organisers decided to go ahead with the programme after receiving word that the minister would be joining at around 6pm, which he did eventually.

Speaking first, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MPA Dr Seema Zia questioned traditions where girls were married to the holy book and people’s view that educating girls would make them revolt or follow Western trends.

“Unfortunately we are mentioning women’s education and terrorism in the same phrase. What kind of people have we become, targeting little girls in the name of religion? Are these Islamic traditions?” she asked.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement MNA Kishwer Zehra said that Malala was now a symbol for girls’ education. “Awareness and education is very important but it is sad that terrorists have used Islam for their mean intentions of keeping women away from education. If the mothers of these terrorists were educated, they would not be doing all these shameful things that they do like blowing themselves up during suicide bombing attacks,” she said.

Dr Samrina Hashmi of the Awami Workers Party shared some figures and findings about education and its importance for Pakistan. “According to the UNDP, the secondary education ratio in Pakistan is 0.5. There are fewer baby deaths in homes where the mothers have studied till class eight. Smart genes are also passed on to the children from their mothers and not from their fathers,” she said.

“Then women learn how to build social relationships through education. Education also helps them gain self-respect and confidence. Women also need to gain technical education,” she added.

“If the government does not take steps to end Talibanism, and acts like the spreading fear among polio workers after attacks on their teams, no woman will step out of her home for the betterment of others. We need to change this thinking of keeping women locked up inside their homes if we want to reach the Millennium Development Goals,” she added.

Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional MPA, regretted that the country’s name was associated with so many negative things. “But we Pakistanis are a resilient people,” she was optimistic in view of Malala’s bravery and refusal to give up her dream.

Recalling her own student days, she said that her father was the first one in their area to send his daughters to school and he started a trend as others, too, followed suit.

“Sindh used to be like that during those days. It was a very tolerant and coexistent society. But now our lives have been marred by intolerance so much so that people are being displaced. Malala, too, has been displaced from her land. But that shine you see in her eyes is the shine you see in the eyes of other little girls in Pakistan who want to go to school. ‘Taliban’ means students but these people do not want education to spread. They should be called ‘Zaliman’ instead,” she said.

Dr Jaffer Ahmed of the Pakistan Study Centre at the University of Karachi said that he had the fortune of meeting Malala in person a little less than a month before she was shot in the head on her school bus by the Taliban. “She told me then that she was a student of class nine and was studying science but wanted to study law, too, later as she looked up to Asma Jahangir and Tahira Abdullah. Who was to know then that the child had more challenges ahead of her? This girl has drawn a line between Pakistan’s past and present. On one side there is backwardness and on the other a bright future through education. The fight for education has come out from Swat but will spread to the rest of the country provided the government wants it to,” the educationist added.

“Muslims are known to keep children, women and animals away from harm during war but Taliban’s war started with hurting women and children,” he said.

Senior journalist Ghazi Salahuddin compared Malala to a tiny lamp in the darkness of ignorance.

He regretted how the government missed the chance to take action against the Taliban using Malala’s incident as a catalyst. “It is sad to see the government accept defeat in the face of extremist thinking,” he added.

Senior journalist Zubeida Mustafa, who was presiding over the programme, said that it was unfortunate that the Taliban were a recent development, but education, especially girls’ education in Pakistan, had been suffering since long. “The Taliban destroyed some 400 to 500 schools, which is a terrible thing, but we see that 12,000 ghost schools are in Pakistan. And some 7,000 of these ghost schools are in Sindh alone,” she said.

“There has been money allocated for the running of these schools that don’t even exist. The state should also take responsibility for these ghost schools,” she added.

Between the speeches, poems to honour Malala were also read by Fatima Hasan, Fazil Jamili, Shakil Jafri and Fehmida Riaz.

On her turn to read her poem Ms Riaz wondered about some of the parties whose representatives had come to pay tribute to young Malala at the programme.

She questioned the PTI stance on wanting to hold talks and negotiations with the Taliban and also a few things she found strange in Awami Workers Party’s stance prompting both their representatives to stand up and defend their party leaders and their parties. MPA Dr Seema Zia even staged a walkout.

The Pakistan Peoples Party government was criticised by almost all speakers for its work on education and failing to take on the Taliban over the past five years, which made Sindh Minister for Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, who had arrived by then, defensive.

“Everyone wants to talk about how the PPP could not stop the Taliban. No one mentions about how General Zia and General Musharraf started all this. Don’t blame Bibi Shaheed because young Malala, too, appreciates her fight and was proud to wear her shawl in the UN. And please do not say that the former government did not take notice of the Taliban. Politics and democracy is a solution to the problem. The various parties should all work together for removing the problems of education in Pakistan but please do not discard democracy in favour of the Army and martial law,” he said.