R ECENT LY, the National Assembly (NA) af ter ages witnessed a disciplined parliamentary session where the speakers calmly and eloquently highlighted their stances on various issues. There was no use of inappropriate language by either side. It portrayed a picture of parliament that is vital for resolving the issues being f aced by the nation.

But the speakers were not our elected representatives; they were the children of our country. They spoke on diverse topics during the Convention on Children that was held in the assembly hall in connection with the diamond jubilee celebrations of the first Constituent Assembly. They asked questions on a variety of issues, such as child labour, single national curriculum (SNC), child harassment and lack of health and education opportunities. The session was also attended by some lawmakers and was headed by the NA speaker.

As I watched the proceedings, my mind took me on a rollercoaster ride of pride and pain. Pride on the maturity and awareness of our children, who are our future, and pain on the fact that they may also become a victim of the kind of politics we practise in Pakistan. The pride of our nation called for the ef fective implementation of Article 25A, which ensures education for all.

It made me think about the quality of education at government schools already on the ground. The quality of education most of our government schools provide is evident from the fact that the `children parliament` was full of speakers hailing from elite or private schools. It was indicative of the intellectual and social divide that has been created by our flawed education system.

Moving on, all the speakers discussed matters related to children; requiring the attention of our actual representatives, who are mostly busy playing blame game or in political rhetoric instead of coming up with solutions to the problems.

I have no idea to what extent our lawmakers will take the resolutions presented seriously, but there was a smile, almost a smirk, on the speaker`s face even though he was talking about important issues, like the Zainab murder case. Such an attitude on the part of someone chairing the session only showed how lightly such grave issues are taken by our lawmakers.It felt like it was mere role-playing for the actual representatives, while the children acted with great maturity. The 75th anniversary of the independence of our motherland demands a vow from our elected of ficials to learn a lesson from our children and to strive to build a better tomorrow for them.

It is time for the lawmakers to find solutions to the problems f aced by the people. I hope to see students from our government schools speaking as confidently on the same platform in the future as did those from private schools this year.

Shifa Chachar Hyderabad