The question is not whether Generation Z will change Pakistan.
asserted
Z → change → Pakistan
The question is whether it will be ready, and little in the way this country is arranged suggests it will.
uncertain
it → arrange → way
Their task can be stated in a sentence.
asserted
task → state → sentence
The Constitution of Pakistan on paper and the Constitution as it works on the ground are two different documents, and the distance between them is what this generation has to close.
asserted
generation → work → what
I was 14 when martial law came and a young man when that general died.
asserted
general → come → ?
My generation learnt a dangerous lesson: power does not explain itself.
asserted
power → learn → itself
The man who speaks out is transferred; the man who stays quiet is promoted; the judge who insists upon his independence is superseded.
asserted
who → speak → independence
Caution, practised long enough, becomes accommodation, and accommodation becomes submission.
asserted
accommodation → practise → ?
We learnt to accommodate power.
asserted
We → learn → power
Our institutions learnt it too.
asserted
institutions → learn → it
The courts found a doctrine for every occasion: revolutionary legality in 1958, necessity in 1977, validation in 2000.
asserted
courts → find → 2000
Havel wrote of the greengrocer who displayed a slogan he did not believe because it was safer.
asserted
it → write → slogan
Parties became family enterprises; student unions were banned in 1984 and never restored.
asserted
unions → become → 1984
What we built governs without consent.
asserted
built → build → consent
Pakistan’s next generation will not be formed by protest.
asserted
generation → form → protest
It will be formed by argument, and the place to begin it already exists.
asserted
place → form → it
So what must this generation build first?
asserted
generation → build → what
I have watched men who stood fearlessly at the bar change after reaching the bench.
asserted
who → watch → bench
The comfort of office begins quietly to weigh, and each surrender is called realistic.
asserted
surrender → begin → office
Character is what resists that, and character is built by exposure to lives larger than one’s own.
asserted
character → resist → one
That is what history, literature and poetry are for: to make suffering legible, so that conviction has something to rest upon.
asserted
conviction → make → something
But reading alone will not do it.
asserted
reading → do → it
What is read must be argued about, and the structure for that argument is already built, already funded and sitting idle.
asserted
structure → read → argument
Every class, in every discipline, should be run as a small republic, and the argument should be about the discipline itself.
asserted
argument → run → discipline
Let the law class argue whether a judgement was rightly decided, not merely what it held.
asserted
it → let → what
Let the medical class argue triage, consent, and who receives the last bed in a public ward.
asserted
who → let → ward
Let the engineering class argue what was built, who paid, and who must live beside it.
asserted
who → let → it
Let the business class argue what a wage ought to be, and whether a balance sheet that is lawful is therefore honest.
asserted
that → let → what
Every syllabus buries such questions beneath what is examinable.
asserted
what → bury → questions
Let each class elect its office bearers, for a fixed term and with real duties.
asserted
class → let → duties
Let the elections be contested, and let students lose them, because losing an election and returning next week to sit beside the person who beat you is the most useful hour of civic instruction this country could offer.
uncertain
country → let → instruction
Let the dissenter be protected by rule, not by the goodwill of the majority.
asserted
dissenter → let → majority
That is how a democratic mind is made: by being outvoted by someone you believe wrong, and having to work beside him afterwards.
asserted
you → make → him
Argue any of these questions honestly and it will not remain within its discipline.
asserted
it → argue → discipline
Ask an engineering class whether the dam should be built.
asserted
dam → ask → class
The answer requires a lawyer on water rights, an economist on who bears the cost, a doctor on what happens downstream, and someone who has met the people being moved.
asserted
who → require → people
A faculty can contain a syllabus; it cannot contain a real question.
asserted
it → contain → question
Memorisation keeps a student inside his discipline; argument drives him out.
asserted
argument → keep → him
Debate and multidisciplinary education are not two reforms but one, and the first produces the second.
asserted
first → produce → second
This is also where the politics lies.
asserted
politics → lie → ?
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
