By Adil Najam
It has been a tradition for as long as I can recall that on the 25th of December a contingent of cadets from the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), Kakul, takes over as the ceremonial honor guards at the mausoleum of the Quaid, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This year, Jinnah’s 130th birth anniversary, was special because the PMA honor guard contingent included eight female cadets and one Sikh cadet.
The two pictures here are from Dawn and Daily Times. Indicative of the importance is the fact that the two newspapers use the titles ‘Winds of Change’ and ‘New Beginning’ to headline the pictures, respectively.
According to an Associated Press report in the Daily Times (27 December, 2006):
Eight female cadets from the Pakistan Army’s elite training academy on Monday became the first female honour guards at the mausoleum of Pakistan’s founder, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. State-run television showed the female contingent, clad in khaki cadet slacks, some wielding swords and others holding guns, marching to military tunes with their male colleagues in a ceremony at the mausoleum of Mr Jinnah, the Father of the Nation, in Karachi. In November, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the Pakistan Military Academy Kakul opened its doors to women. In March, women also broke into the all-male air force when it inducted four women pilots.
Forty-one females joined the army academy to undergo a rigorous six months of military training along with men before being inducted as officers in various branches of the army. President Gen Pervez Musharraf, who attended ceremonies in Karachi marking the 130th birthday of Mr Jinnah, laid flowers at the mausoleum and praised the female cadets who are to graduate next April. “I am really impressed by the girls,� Musharraf said. “This is the future of Pakistan.� Previously, women had only served in the army’s medical corps without being trained at the academy. But the 41 female cadets at PMA will join the army as non-combat officers in the communication, engineering, legal and education branches.
Comments on this issue have already been flowing elsewhere on ATP but I thought these pictures were worth sharing and highlighting here. Readers would remember that earlier this year Aviation Cadet Saira Amin had won the coveted Sword of Honour for best all-round performance at the Air Force Academy in Risalpur and became the first woman pilot to have won the Sword of Honour in any defense academy of Pakistan. I should confess that a few days ago when I had contemplated naming an ‘ATP Pakistani of the Year’ she was one of the people I thought would make a great candidate as a symbol of women breaking into traditionally male-dominated professions.
A further point:
It seems to me that the concept of ‘Roshan Khayali’ triggered through the higher powers of our country are some what limited to nach gana, and other such associated activities.
Wouldn’t it be more meaningful to somewhat change the meaning of roshan khyali or perhaps extend the definition to say:
1. Having one Eid instead of three (a joke in itself)
2. Elimination of feudal system in our country which sets us back to stone ages
3. Improving the infrastructure of the country
4. Enhancement to the education system
5. Removal of barriers which withhold freedom of speech for both media and individuals.
6. Higher power accountability for their deeds.
7. Elimination of safarish and encouragement of merit
As you would agree I can sit here and add points till the cows come home. The fact is a lot needs to be done.
This is not something new. Recently another Pakistani girl named Mariyah Moten
misusedused country name in a similar beauty contest. Many 30 plus guys here wouldn’t have forgotten Amber and Anita Ayub who officially wanted to take part in a beauty contest.This is a great achievement for women in general in our male dominated society. Even if this is merely a stunt, there is still a good-feel factor associated with it, I am sure it will give hope and strength to many more women and individuals from minorities in Pakistan.
There is certainly a change in the way our society thinks, the perception of what is right or wrong is certainly deluded. The above example is a positive one, whereas the website I cam across a few days back gave me the chills. http://www.toxicmagazine.com/665.shtml
Here we have an economic graduate who has decided to take part in a beauty pageant and has represented Pakistan in doing so. I could not believe my eyes when I saw this, our own Pakistani girl in a bikini! Some call it ‘roshan khayali’ I certainly do not think so.
I believe that people should be allowed to do what ever they want to do, but when it comes to representing our nation, one has to bear in mind that their individual actions may have a serious impact. I am sure Sehr Mehmood could have put her economic degree to a better use, and could have represented Pakistan in a much more dignified manner.
wat ever change comes is given as looked upon as a stunt!a suspicion and rightly so i guess that pictrures wont change stats!woman comin in front is gud thing but the way its done by presenting them as some change overnight is wrong!we stil need to educate women so that the torch bearers of the nation shud have a golden ring of education at their hands rightly said by Napolean “give me goood mothers ill give u a great nation”
plus we shud differentiate bw stunts and real progress!Mushs govt is more stunts than any change as he has created mnay rifts in society than to unifying them wisely just like Zia divided the nation with a name of islam an now hes enlightening the nation!
Gud to see our women in military but they r working b4 too in medicine IT telecomm education etc.now if this msg is intended to west to show we changing the society then i must say its sad that we have to do all this drama when we theres loads of work to be done for the women like mukhtaraan shazia an unprivilidge women in villages!
[quote post=”492″]Thanks for demeaning a whole section of a society that lives in lalookhat[/quote]
I’m just using an expression that’s part of the Karachi vernacular. Lalookhetis live in all parts of Karachi, not just in Lalookhet.