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One solution fits all

BY A S H A`A R R E H M A N 2015-05-15
IN case you all have been wondering, the PPP is very much around, pressing for a one-dress code at schools which could as yet cradle the much-needed equality in the country the party has been chasing for almost half a century now.

Before we get down to discussing the immense possibilities thrown up by this one good gesture this is a slightly reduced version of the brief news story earlier this week: `The Pakistan Peoples Party has submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly demanding `one dress code` for both public and private sector schools in Punjab. PPP MPA Khurram Jehangir Wattoo submitted the resolution at the assembly secretariat here on Monday. `One dress code in schools is essential because it helps maintain uniformity and equality among the students, irrespective of their family and financial bacl
Uniform is a sign of unity and pride, and civil clothes may unnecessarily distract students from studies, the resolution says.

`The government should take immediate steps to ensure that all schools in Punjab must observe uniformity in uniforms,` it says.

It is not clear if Mr Wattoo, son of PPP president in Punjab Manzoor Wattoo, intended it to be one, but this is truly a master stroke. The formula he has proposed, with the aid of a resolution, no less, in the exalted assembly that he sits in, can easily be expanded to other situations and areas, for as the quacks say, immediate relief. It could blur all divisions and turn this factionalised country into one inseparable whole.

For an idea of its potential it would be illustrative to look at what the proposal seeks to correct at the very basic level, the school. How many of the wise have locl(ed their heads in search for a solution inherent in the unevenness in education given out to various groups.

PPP was itself exposed to some serious attacks by the so-called champions of quality when it nationalised education in its first tenure back in the 1970s.

Four decades and some years later, we learn from the party`s current custodians in Punjab that all Z.A.Bhutto needed to do was to order one uniform for all and the problem of inequality would have been as good as fixed.

That opportunity having been lost, there is still time for those who have been asl(ing non-stop for education reform to rally without party bias around the one-dress code, which, in its appearance and content, is but an extension on the one-dish austerity rule the wedding guests in Shahbaz Sharif`s Punjab are to abide by.There are so many who have been demanding a standard syllabus for all students. There are those who are, off and on, heard calling for the rationalisation of the fee structure, which is a process towards some kind of equality since a reasonable approach to fixing the tuition fee threatens to bring good schools at par with the not-so-good ones. They now have a solution.

Then there are the idealists who impossibly argue, as they must, about delinking the fee with quality, and hoping for some 1(ind of revival of the old government school and its conscientious teacher. All these improvements, revivals, reforms and revolutions would be surplus to our requirement once we agree to implement the remedy proposed which is an even bigger credit, probably thought up, by the MPA of a popular party trying to reinvent.

Imagine what great relief the optic would be to our own, frequently pricked conscience. Theywould all appear to us to be the same, camouflaging the undercurrents, hiding them from unduly causing any distress to the onlooker and guarding against the first glance unless someone really resolute comes this way and wants to get to the bottom of it.

These are some of the benefits of the ingenious uniformity-in-uniform scheme that immediately come to mind. And with not too much of an effort, the idea can be connected to how the party has been conducting itself for a while now, indicating continuity and uniformity of thought. All that is deemed necessary is to feign poise and calm and maintain a constant monotone on anything that is taking place in front.

Indeed this monotone, which events permitting can be accompanied by the famed grin, is at its most deafening in Sindh. From a distance at least, the official voice sounds so bereft of emotion and what is a far more serious problem, it is so lacking in concern.

What is on offer after each tragedy suffered by bruised and battered Karachi is the chief ministerial consistency, followed by the oblique and frequently painfully long exercise by the party `supremo` in saying it symbolically, which quite often amounts to saying nothing and silence.

Invariably, these explanations aim at pointing out how powerless a party in power can be, which is a little too difficult for anyone to stomach and not likely to be grasped at all by a people desperate for rescue.

Quite often, the advice for the Sindh government is to learn from Lahore, from those who are governing Punjab.

Now if that example cannot be followed for it being impracticable or discriminatory or anything, the PPP Sindh has the choice to learn from colleagues in the provincial assembly in Lahore: Some kind of a uniform, a single dress-code for every living being that prevents distinction between individuals, and sects and ethnic groups.

When no explanation is forthcoming the uniform will make things so much easier to explain. • The writer is Dawn`s resident in Lahore.