Javed Jabbar Vs. Pervez Hoodbhoy: Round 5 – Science

Dr. Hoodbhoy was of the view that Mr. Jinnah had no plans for science and technology, but Mr. Javed Jabbar contends that Father of Nation had extraordinary focus on literacy.

By Anjum Altaf

Pervez Hoodbhoy: How would Pakistan survive in a world where science and technology is what makes countries strong? He [Mr. Jinnah] had no plans for that.

Javed Jabbar: Professor Sahib, if you look through the speeches and statements of Mr. Jinnah, you will find an extraordinary focus on literacy, on education, being the basis for development. He went out of his way to encourage women to achieve education. He stressed this to civil service officers; he said it to armed forces officials. Education, Science and technology is part of that process. So, to dismiss all his utterances and to assume that he never made any plans for science and technology, perhaps you are right. He should have sat down and written out five-year plans even before he had created the country.

Analysis

Dr. Hoodbhoy is right that countries cannot survive today without science and technology. However, and I am sure Dr. Hoodbhoy intended that, it is not just science and technology that is borrowed from abroad but one that emerges from inculcating a scientific attitude in a nation’s own students and citizens. But it does not seem fair to assert categorically that Mr. Jinnah had no plans for that. It is a tall order to expect in the midst of an intense battle for nationhood to be devoting attention to what could wait for the creation of the nation. Mr. Nehru was deeply attuned to the importance of science and technology but it was only after independence that he put his beliefs into practice with, for example, the setting up of the very high quality Indian Institutes of Technology. Had Mr. Jinnah lived for a few years after 1947 and still done nothing for the promotion of science and technology, Dr. Hoodbhoy’s charge would have carried more weight.

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(This is part of the series of articles, a detailed analysis of former Minister and Senator Javed Jabbar’s video he had released in response to a speech of Prof. Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy at a literary festival in Karachi. The Preamble of the analysis can be read by clicking here. For rest of the rounds, click here.)

Source: Sindh Courier

The writer has PhD from Stanford University. He was a Dean at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Provost at Habib University in Karachi.