GEN (retd) Pervez Musharraf, aided by his trusted
lieutenant and chairman of the Higher Education
Commission, Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, lays claim to a
’revolutionary programme’ that has reversed the
decades-old decline of Pakistan’s universities.
The higher education budget shot up from Rs3.9bn
in 2001-02 to an astounding Rs33.7bn in 2006-07.
But, in fact, much of this has been consumed by
futile projects and mega wastage. Fantastically
expensive scientific equipment, bought for
research, often ends up locked away in campuses.
An example: a Pelletron accelerator worth Rs400m
was ordered in 2005 with HEC funds. It eventually
landed up at Quaid-i-Azam University, and was
installed last month by a team of Americans from
the National Electrostatics Corporation that flew
in from Wisconsin. But now that it is there and
fully operational, nobody - including the current
director - has the slightest idea of what
research to do with it. Its original proponents
are curiously lacking in enthusiasm and are
quietly seeking to distance themselves from the
project.
Now for the full story: in his article published
in Dawn (June 25, 2005), Dr Atta-ur-Rahman
announced the HEC would fund a ’5MW Tandem
Accelerator’ for nuclear physics research with an
associated laboratory at Quaid-i-Azam University.
It was shocking news. First, nowhere in the world
of science is a major project approved without a
detailed technical feasibility study, and without
full participation of those scientists who would
be expected to use it for their research.
Second, this machine - whose original form dates
back to the 1940s - had long become practically
useless for decent nuclear physics research.
Whereas it can still be used in certain narrow
sub-areas of materials science and biology, to my
knowledge there are almost no active researchers
in those specialties anywhere in Pakistan.
Immediately upon reading Dr Atta-ur-Rahman’s
article, I telephoned him. His answer: Dr.
Riazuddin, director of the National Centre for
Physics, had approved the machine. That was
stunning! The soft-spoken and diffident Dr
Riazuddin, at 77 years of age, is not only
Pakistan’s best nuclear and particle physicist,
but also a man of great integrity. How could he
have agreed to such folly? Why did he sign a
flaky PC-1 proposal put together in less than an
afternoon?
The answer was to come soon. On Sept 8, 2005, a
nation-wide meeting was held in the physics
department of Quaid-i-Azam University to look
into the possible uses of the Pelletron. But the
project’s proponents clearly had something else
in mind, and probably not a work plan. They
bussed in supporters who filled the auditorium.
Most had no clue of what a Pelletron was but they
seemed to have had instructions to hoot down all
who questioned the need to buy one.
And so, when Dr Riazuddin expressed his
reservations, and sorrowfully admitted to having
signed the PC-1 under pressure, the assembled
crowd burst into taunts and jeers. Some demanded
that he resign as director. It was depressing to
see Pakistan’s best scientist and a decent man
thus humiliated.
The sad part of this story is not that the
machine has arrived, but that in the intervening
30 months the original proponents gave no thought
to making use of it or to assembling a group of
scientists who could be persuaded to do research
using the Pelletron. Still sadder, a second
Pelletron was purchased, again with HEC money,
for Government College University Lahore. No one
can fathom what to do with it either.
The equipment fetish can be followed all the way
to the much-advertised HEJ Institute for
Chemistry. HEJ consumes the lion’s share of
research funding in Pakistan today and boasts of
the finest and most expensive equipment. For
example, even good chemistry departments in the
US rarely have more than one or two NMR
spectrometers but the HEJ Institute has 12. Well,
why not, if that is the price of excellence?
Aren’t the 3,000+ research papers proof of public
money well spent?
The answer is, no. There is little evidence to
support HEJ’s claim that it has strongly impacted
the Pakistani pharmaceutical industry. Readers
may have more luck than I did in searching the
otherwise elaborate HEJ website for its role in
discovering new drugs or processes. But without
this, all else is hot air. Only one international
patent, registered in the UK and Germany, is
listed. Two processes are mentioned as submitted
for a US patent. This is not a high record for an
institution that has been in existence for over
40 years and claims to be world-class. A good US
or European applied science university department
typically files several patents every year.
As for the thousands of HEJ research papers, the
question is how many of these really matter? A
paper is considered important by other scientists
only when it contains new ideas or facts.
Significant papers are cited frequently in
professional journals. But an overwhelming number
of HEJ publications, which are largely based upon
routine aspects of natural products chemistry,
have zero or few citations. The reader may find
citation counts by accessing the free database
scholar.google.com, or other more comprehensive
databases.
My point is not to denigrate the HEJ, or other
academic research in Pakistan, but to make the
case that such research is consuming a
disproportionate amount of resources at the cost
of a desperately impoverished educational system.
The real problem is that Pakistani students in
government schools, colleges, and universities -
as well as their teachers - are far below
internationally acceptable levels in terms of
basic subject understanding.
Current salaries militate against improvement. As
a result of Dr Atta’s determined intervention, a
professor at a government university can earn up
to Rs325,000 per month but a government school
teacher has a maximum salary of less than
Rs10,000. This is highly unwise. Similarly,
funds-starved government colleges and schools
lack basic infrastructure such as laboratories
and libraries but most government universities
are awash in so much money that they do not know
what to do with it. At QAU, for example, so many
air-conditioners have been purchased with HEC
research funds that the electricity bill has shot
up by 50 times over the last six years.
A balance is desperately needed. Instead of
over-funding universities and research, we need
to focus resources on creating good quality
schools and colleges. We need to encourage
creative and skilled people to become school and
college teachers, and for this we need to pay
them well. We need teachers who can educate young
people into becoming good citizens and with
skills valued in the economy, and who can train
the few going on to higher education.
The winds of change are blowing across the
country. The Musharraf years are over. It is now
time for parliament to carry out a full and
complete public inquiry into the irresponsible
and crazy policies that have hitherto been the
hallmark of decision-making. Finally, there is a
chance to reset priorities and use resources for
a comprehensive reform of our education system.