افقرؔ موہانی
دوسرا حادثہ اُردو کے بزرگ شاعر افقر موہانی کی وفات کا ہے، اپنے معاصرین میں وہ تنہا رہ گئے تھے، ان کی عمر کا اب کوئی شاعر زندہ نہیں ہے، وفات کے وقت ۸۸ سال کی عمر تھی، وہ استاد فن تھے بڑے اساتذہ کی طرح زبان کی باریکیوں پر اُن کی نظر بڑی گہری تھی، اور شاعری میں اس کا بڑا اہتمام رکھتے تھے، ان کے دامن تربیت میں بہت سے شعرا پلے، ان کے تلاندہ کا دائرہ وسیع تھا، صاحب قلم بھی تھے اسی زمانہ میں ایک رسالہ جام جہاں نما کے نام سے نکالتے تھے مگر عرصہ سے لکھنا چھوٹ گیا تھا، مگر مشق سخن برابر جاری تھی کبھی کبھی معارف میں بھی اپنا کلام بھیجتے تھے، حاجی وارث علی رحمۃ اﷲ علیہ کے مرید تھے ان کی یادگار میں ہر سال بڑے اہتمام سے مشاعرہ کرتے تھے، ان کی موت سے ایک استاد فن شاعر اٹھ گیا، رمضان المبارک میں موت یوں بھی ذریعہ مغفرت ہے، اﷲ تعالیٰ اپنی مزید رحمتوں سے نوازے۔ (شاہ معین الدین ندوی، نومبر ۱۹۷۱ء)
Textbooks produce specific minds so are believed the best way to promote peace and harmony in a society. Policymakers draw ideological lines for specific goals and educate the coming generations through the contents of the textbooks. Whatever agenda a nation has, peace and social harmony cannot be compromised so syllabi mean to promote nationalism along with integration. Although history and social studies textbooks address coexistence and tolerance but even then many writers share their reservations about some points. K K Aziz (1993) in Pakistan castigated the governments and the textbook authors on ‘distortion’ of the historical events and deleting important segments of history from the syllabi. Mariam Chughtai shared her reservation regarding the textbooks being published in Pakistan. Romila Thapar in India raised objections against the BJP government’s effort of ‘religionising the syllabi’ and tried her best to introduce non-communal approach based on social harmony in the textbooks while writing history books but her effort remained a mere desire because the ‘religiously’ extremist political party occupying the main corridor of the national government and having no compatibility with her ideas refused to accept the undisputed historical facts. Dr. Mubarak Ali opined while writing on the textbooks that ‘defective textbooks create a defective mindset. Ideology limits people from acquiring new knowledge in order to understand the fast changing world’ (Dawn, April 16, 2016). ‘National History’ reflects national point of view to produce a generation who represents some specific land, culture, religion, political ideology, art and social ethics. Children are taught to grow with their own culture, religion and social norms. This study finds that syllabus of the subjects of History and Pakistan Studies produced by the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) aims at educating the ‘national interpretation of history along with respect for other religious groups’ to the posterity therefore no gaps seem in the textbooks of History and Pakistan Studies. Criticism arises mostly on the old textbooks while the PCTB had revised the textbooks massively and all the historical periods including Indus Valley Civilization, ancient India, Sikh rule, etc. Are being taught at the school and college level. The ‘history textbook’ is not a ‘history’ rather it offers interpretation of the historical events. This article further pinpoints some issues such as communal interpretations in the British India, space in the textbooks, administrative, social, political and religious narrations, and the undeniable position on nationalism and patriotism which cannot be overlooked. The textbooks are playing their role in promoting social harmony and this policy has resulted in a coexistence, tolerance and peace in the society.
There are three components to making a career decision: knowledge about self, knowledge about success and what it takes to be successful in a certain occupation, and finally knowledge oflogical reasoning and knowing how it can be used to determine if a match exists between the two (Parson,1909). The aim of the research was to investigate the way postgraduate students of a private university in Karachi, Pakistan make their career decisions, as well as to highlight the factors that influence them and explorethe career advice they seek for making their career choices. The qualitative data was collected through a selected sample of postgraduate regular students (N=4) studying in a private university of the city of Karachi. Semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted with students during university hours. The findings of the study revealed that all the students make their career decisions in different ways. Mostly the decisionsare made with the influence of male members within families particularly with the influence of the ‘father’ due to which students areunable to pursue the careers they dream of. The other factors that influence the career decisions of postgraduate students are: conditional family support; contextual factors such as lack of career guidance and counselling, lack of knowledge about labour market and emerging career trends. Therefore their main focus remains on finding a job that enables them to get high remuneration rather than focusing towards a strong career. Furthermore, it was also found that thestudents’ career decisions change overtime at various stages of their lives. This indicates a low satisfaction and confidence level of students regarding their future careers. Moreover, difference in ways of making career decisions is found among male and female research participants. Males gain more independence in making career decisions as they start earning and grow professionally, while females remain dependentuponfamily instructions throughout their lives pertaining to their career decisions.