Show: Out Of Bounds

Hosts: Faisal Kapdia

Topic: Inauguration of The Orange Tree

Description: The Orange Tree is a Mother & Child Support Program in Pakistan. It is inspired by the Kiran School System in Lyari that aims to provide Montessori education to children for a year and teach mothers English Language and vocational skills. The mothers will also learn how to self-groom themselves through a proper process.

Language: Urdu and English

Show: Campus Awaz

Host: Faisal Qureshi

Topic: Pakistan main kaamyaab hona mumkin hai

Description: It is very easy for foreign institutions to select the most intelligent students from Pakistan, hand them a scholarship and send them abroad. Those students become very successful engineers, doctors, architects and what not. What’s left in Pakistan, is nothing.

The amount of money invested in foreign education could built a hundred universities in Pakistan. But no, it hasn’t happened. Though people accuse Pakistan of not developing, there are still people who are tremendously successful by living here.

So success is possible in Pakistan. But why don’t people believe in it?

Language: Urdu

Show: Economic Views

Host: Zeeshan Merchant

Topic: Regional trade beneficial for Pakistan?

Description: Pakistan has been trying to grow its regional trade. Question is: Is it beneficial for Pakistan? Is there an opportunity for it to grow here?

Language: Urdu

Show: The Infamous Five

Participants: Adnan Maqbool, Ayesha Tajwar, Hibah Naz and Shiroy Mansoor Ali

Topic: Pakistani journalists can be bought?

Description: A news has been spread via email that an American has claimed that Pakistani journalists can be bought over a cup of coffee. He even took names of those specific prime time analysts who can or already have been bought by the western countries.

How far do you think this news is true? Do you think our journalists can be sold that easily? If this is true, how do you feel about it?

Language: Urdu

Written By: Omair Alavi

The teachers may not agree, the parents would consider my stance rebellious and friends would call me a chicken, but the truth is that going to school in Pakistan is more of a nightmare, than a dream come true. The latest case featuring a 13-year old student in Faisalabad is an eye opener as the student (and his parents) claims that he burnt himself after the headmaster refused him an entry in the building. The headmaster on the other hand claims that the father is to blame since the child was absent for nearly a week, and was unable to bring his father to the school to get reinstated as a student.

Whatever the case, I believe schools and education institutions are the villains here because of their rules and regulations. The teachers, supposed to instill confidence at the youngsters whose parents have entrusted their children to them, are to be blamed specifically. I know that for a fact because my Sindhi teacher in school was one of the most loving characters, and that’s why I managed to score 72 out of 75 marks in the board examination, despite never reading Sindhi before Class IX! On the other hand, the Islamiyat teacher was also settling scores with me, because I had done his parody in a function, and thus I didn’t get the marks I was expecting.

It was in the 90s that the Board of Secondary Education decided to hire teachers who have at least done graduation, and that created a stir amongst small schools since they didn’t have teachers with a degree. Most employed former students who had done matriculation from the same institution and were looking for jobs during the intermediate break while others went for those old ladies who had nothing else to do after disposing off their children (read getting their children married). In a renowned school, there was a science teacher who was without doubt born in the days of pre-electric iron, yet she was teaching science, or trying to. I had a Pakistan Studies teacher who spoke so fast that we couldn’t understand anything, yet he was there because he was an experienced teacher (frankly he seemed a distant relative of Quaid-e-Azam!)

Parents believe that by sending their kids to reputable schools, they are doing their part, but that’s totally wrong. Their role in checking on their kids is as important as the teachers’, and they should open themselves to their child(ren) in order to know how he/she feels about going to school. My mother isn’t well versed in English because she hated the subject when in school, yet she always kept a check on me, asking questions and checking my copies, and that’s one of the reasons why I don’t hate the subject at all. I am sure all those reading this would agree that the undivided attention of a parent or both makes a hell of a difference.

Coming back to the case of the kid in Faisalabad, I don’t want to debate whether his father is lying or the headmaster is not telling the truth, but both should be reprimanded – the father for not taking his kid’s plea serious, the headmaster for not showing leniency. In an era when we have telephones everywhere, the headmaster could have called the father and summoned him, and one doesn’t have to be a genius to think of that.

Finally, let me ask you a question: How many of you have visited you school once you were through and busy in your professional lives? I am sure those who reply to it in negative outweigh those who say yes and the reason behind is that we consciously don’t want to relive the haunting memories we have left behind for good. A change must happen on parents’ and teacher’s front otherwise the youth of today will be scared of getting educated at all.

Show: Out Of Bounds

Hosts: Awab Alvi and Faisal Kapdia

Topic: NATO supply routes being opened as predicted

Description: The NATO supply routes have been opened as people had predicted-  after Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani’s statements. Awab and Faisal discuss why it was bound to happen.

Also, Faisal raises an important question over the clean up of terrorists in the northern areas of Pakistan. How is it that the Pakistan Army plus the US Military hasn’t been able to wipe out the terrorists yet? Combined together, the two forces could’ve taken them down easily, but they haven’t been able to. Why?

Language: Urdu and English

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Show: Ladies’ Club

Host: Sadia Abid

Topic: What do teenagers have to say about their issues?

Description: Parents are always complaining about their kids especially if they’re teenagers. “They don’t listen”, “They want they’re own privacy”, “What’s gotten into them!?”, is what you hear most parents say.

But have parents ever tried talking to their teenage kids? How do they feel? What their problems are?

Language: Urdu

Blogger: Nida Syed

Topic: Double standards

Description:  Is our hate towards the criminals, the corrupt and the fraudulent hypocritical? Why punish the smaller crooks for theft when we leave and allow the high powered influential to loot away our money by misusing our tax, steal away from our resource and sell away our land?

Language: English

In this world there are different types of religions. And these religions have all sorts of monuments and sculptures. People make these kinds of objects to show their own religions perspectives. But who respects them? Who is taking care of these beautiful art works?

Let me give a recent example of destroying property of Chinese monuments. There was a shoot that took place in China and in it was a part where the crew used a Ferrari to drift and screech around the monument during their shoot. It was an ancient place of the Chinese. And these advertising companies just can’t respect others’ religions and caused damage to the monument, by making screech marks on top in the roof.

This isn’t only an issue in China; it is in around the globe. People can’t take care of the countries’ monuments. For example in Pakistan, people are disrespectful to many historical memorials. Many have stolen artifacts to make money. Is this the reason why the monuments are there – to make money out of them like this?

Who is responsible for taking care of them – the government or the citizens?

Show: Ladies’ Club

Host: Sadia Abid

Topic: Why does the Pakistani youth want to go abroad?

Description: The youngsters in Pakistan want to go abroad immediately after their studies or even before that. They have an urge in them to do so. What charm does the world outside have?  Why are kids so keen to fly out of the country?

Language: Urdu