A clarion call

ensure to keep committing of suicide on any count by their children tight-lipped andwell-guarded secret even from close relative.this scribe knows very well about some cases in which a young boy committed suicide when his widowed mother married her colleague in the organization where she was working and another family hushed up burial of the young girl who had committed suicide in quite mysterious circumstancesensuring no word went outside the house.

Students in Pakistan, like in other South Asian countries,experiencedimmense pressure for performing exceptionallywell in the educationalinstitutions from schools to the universities level regardless of the psychological toll it may be taking .Failure on the part of the studentsin coming up to high expectations was typically viewed with disdain.

Since education, particularly higher education inmedical or any other field, was so critical for achieving upward mobility, a failure to perform wellacademically pushed many intothe pitfallsof depression. Indeed, unemploymentand suicide, however, have always been co-related to each other. Medical students were especially vulnerable to suicide due to the very demanding nature of their studies. overbearing parents of such students somehow certainly do not help in this turning issue either If some young students choose to confidein their parentsor another forgiver, they were quite unfortunately, bluntly asked to suck it up. Expressing their feelings about depressionwas certainly not a luxurywhich most people could afford in the country.

Presently, moststudents in the country, somehow, lackedaccess to deserving and required support systemsin the form of mental health counselors or even a vague sense of community appreciation. Precisely speaking,this social alienation wasthat whichdried the people to take the extreme and extraordinary decision to end their lives. When the bond that united an individualwith their groupwassevered, they lose the stability to sustainthe pressurecoming to their life. Most studentsin the country,irrespectiveof their living in the urban areas or in a town or village, lackedthis direly neededsense of belonging, long hoursin the educational institutionsright from schools up to colleges and universities and even longer all nightsstudies for their examinations meant that there was no timeto develop and promote any sort of relationship. With no one left to turn, committing suedebecame an appallingoption: a de- pass off as honest, sound thinking. It is common observation that most people adopt a philosophy or a way of life based on pragmatic and emotional reasons. the logic or the rationale is searched later, and is often easily found. this is true of masses as well as the so-called intellectual-elite. but it is the more intellectual types who find this putting of the cart before the horse more problematic than their counterparts amongst the masses. they therefore need to invent ingenious ways to camouflage the trickery from others (and more importantly) from themselves. the formula of rejecting anything that is not quite up their alley merely by dismissing the group that it is (rightly or wrongly) associated with proves to be a godsend in such situations. the formula is accompanied by all the delicious utilities of ad-hominem. Repudiating an individual or a group altogether is much easier than constructing or de-constructing an argument. Instead of the difficult task of analysing and responding to an argument on its own merits, all that it requires is labelling of a group or a person unfavourably followed by dismissing the argument out of hand. A mere slogan then is successfully passed off as argument. For it is an unfortunate fact about the universe we happen to live in that way too many people consider slogans to be legitimate substitutes for thinking; and this includes the very men raising those slogans. When confronted with a point of view that is different from one’s own cherished opinions, a man has two options open to him: either to accept and adopt it based on its merits, or voice his objections on the reasoning that supports the conclusion. but this calls or hard work, and most people would rather die than submit to any of that. the other option is to (correctly or incorrectly) label the man or the group that has presented the idea as a liberal, a communist, a Wahhabi, or what have you, and consider the matter settled once for all – problem solved! the unsurpassed merit of this latter approach is that one can preserve one’s innocence for as long as one wants or till one dies, whichever comes later. the man who dismisses something he is uncomfortable with based on the ‘grounds’ that it comes from pressed person, ofany gender, was somehow unable torationalizeas to why he or she should continue to live in rather unfriendlyand unconcerned society. Since students were speciallymore vulnerable to suicide ideation,it wasessential thatthe educational institutions should integrate mental health diseases that were among than most of us were unfortunatelyinclined to assume, quite emphatically it was high timethat our educational institutions and their teaching staffas well as parentstake much overdueand ignored notice of this burning situation without delaying it any further.

In order to ascertain more views in this regard particularly from the students themselves, the other day this scribevisitedthe university of Lahore and there came across young Zunaira Qayyum Khan who is doing higher studies in ClinicalPsychologyand quite frequently intermingled and interactedwith fellow students, girls and boys and exchanged views on wide rangingsubjects particularly those concerning young people’s social and mental problems and issues.

Responding to some pertinent queries from this scribe, Zunaira Qayyum Khan said that both girls and boys ,undoubtedly, none wantedto end their own lives, there was always stress of this and that sort and loneliness behind these harmful thoughts and subsequent fatal decisions. When people do not getdue and expecteddeserving attention and care fromtheir loved ones, they obviously feel much depressed in their life and then they want to end their life when these things becomeintolerable any longer for them. She said that as a matter of fact she has always welcomed such people who having great stress in theirlives and tried to help them as her determined mission in life was not money but more importantly and devotedly to make such depressed and ignored people who were having issues of stress in life feel better.

It is a matter of bitter fact that psychological problems were pretty widespread in our society. According to onesomewhatconservativeestimate around 50 millionpeople ofall genders and ages were suffering from one or the other mental and psychological disorders. A wide range of psychiatric disorderswhich were generallyreportedwere depression, substance and alcohol use, schizophrenia, polar disorder and post-traumaticstress disorder. Even tensions prevailing in the families particularlyamong the parents also caused mental and psychiatric problems for the young girls and boys who

(say) a Wahhabi fails to realize (or deliberately chooses to fail to realize) that he shares numerous beliefs – fundamental beliefs at that – with the Wahhabis: oneness of God, the belief in the Hereafter, the nature of the test for man here on earth. the same goes for all such repudiations. It is hardly the smartest idea in the world to dismiss something on a ‘rationale’ that, were it applied consistently, would demolish the very foundation of one’s own belief system. but it is extremely convenient; hence the undying popularity of the approach. there is this old idea that one of the core activities in any educational program must be to make the same pupil plead the case from both sides of the aisle even if only to make him realize that there could be two (or more) alternative views on an issue. unfortunately, this is not put into practice nearly enough, with obvious results.

Acknowledgment and appreciation of the valid portions of the opposing party’s arguments in any conflict, or at the very least an understanding of where the ‘enemy’ is coming from are capabilities that very few possess. For the rest, the world is divided into heroes who can do nothing wrong and villains who are devils incarnate, with nothing in between. this urgently needs to be addressed. And since man tends to become more rigid as he ages, the earlier this training starts the better.

Educators, whether parents or professional teachers, must make it their business to start teaching the young ones to think for themselves. And their focus must be on how to think, not what to think. that way, they can be expected to cite much better grounds for their opinions than having to rely on hero-worship on the one hand or ad-hominem on the other. the great difficulty in this project is that the idea is alien to most of the educators themselves, who have come to regard education as the activity to teach their students the ‘correct’ things instead of inculcating in them the ability to discover for themselves the sound stance on any given issue.

The author is a connoisseur of music, literature, and food (but not drinks). He can be reached at www.facebook.com/hasanaftabsaeed somehow failed to comprehend as to what was wrong with their fathers and mother.

According to another estimate,a pretty large number of about 36 per centof Pakistanis sufferedfrom anxietyand depressions, which was often causedby strained family and friendly relations, negative feelings of beingunfit in the society, the unrealistic economic and political conditions which somehow very unfortunatelywere continuously prevailing in the country thus persistentlygiving to unemployment and poverty in the country.

It was generally said and believedthat if a doctor only listens to his patient attentively almost half of his/her ailment or painowing to disease was gone even using any formal medication.As a matter of fact, clinicalpsychologists and psychiatrists were trained to identify mental disorders and issues. And suggest suitable and affordable treatment to such patients.

In the backdrop of what hasstated above and cutting long sad storyshort, it was quite appreciable and encouraging indeed thatmore and more people particularly young women like Zunaira Qayyumwere now opting for studying and specializingin clinical psychology for treating theirfellow countrymenof all genders and ages . She claims herself tobean emphatic listener and pointedlystated that she was about to achieveher childhood dream of becominga successful girlin the medical profession wascoming to be trueas she was very close of becominga clinical psychologist soon and other half will hopefully be accomplished when she becomeswellknown throughout Pakistan as an emphatic listener.

Please join this scribein wishing all the best to her and many other young girls greatsuccess in life after they become fully qualified clinical psychologists and selflessly, sincerely, dedicatedly and devotedly serve and treat their sick and suffering people of all genders and ages as long as theyare livingand helping in particular the people getting rid of their suicide tendencies which werequite alarmingly increasing presently in the country.

Indeed that wasa clarion call whicha senior educationist of the high rank of the Vice-Chancellor had given regarding increase in incidence ofsuicide among the young students. but very unfortunately, allows this scribe to say, nobody in the government, educational circles have taken any much direlyneeded notice of it. Same may also be true about the parents to say the least. All concerned better act now seriously, collectively and genuinely before the ugly situation goes out of control, of everyone please.

The writer is Lahore-based Freelance Journalist, Columnist and retired Deputy Controller (News) , Radio Pakistan, Islamabad and can be reached at zahidriffat@gmail.com

Editor’s mail

EOBI’s contempt towards retirees

by virtue of the 18th Amendment, the labour laws were devolved to the provinces in April 2010. While all the other labour laws were transferred to the provinces, the federal government for some inexplicable reasons retained the management of the Employees’ old-Age benefits Institution (EobI) which was constituted under an Act of parliament passed in 1976. Since then, the pension scheme for the retired employees of industrial and commercial establishments has been facing tremendous difficulties, jeopardising its efficient running.

Any amendments brought to the relevant Act after the devolution now remain confined to the Islamabad Capital territory (ICt), and do not extend to the rest of Pakistan. the federal government is unable to even increase the amount of monthly pension under the relevant law.

Whenever EobI increases the amount of contribution by employers and employees towards the scheme, the same is challenged by the employers in the superior courts and they get favourable judgements.