The Inquiry Report of plane crash presented by the Federal Minister for Civil Aviation Authority Pakistan Ghulam Sarwar Khan showed some structural flaws in the overall system of the country. Addressing the National Assembly the other day, he revealed that as many as 860 pilots were working in Pakistan out of whom 262, which makes 30% of them, were having dubious degrees.

Meaning thereby they were laymen given the authority to fly a plane without any knowledge of aerodynamics. These pilots must have some links with the men in power who broke all the laws and positioned them on such slots where they can endanger lives of many people. This reflects deep structural flaws in entire system of Pakistan and shows that morality and sense of responsibility are totally alien words to this nation.

Had there not been such an unfortunate incident, the nation would never know about the pilots and other staff working on dubious certificates in Pakistan’s one of the most prestigious institutions. Given the fact that merit can be trampled anywhere in Pakistan, one can also doubt authenticity of the credentials of many officers holding important positions in various departments of Pakistan.

Whenever there is an investigation, such things come to fore. Previously, the fake degrees of politicians were in news as many were required to submit a BA degree to be eligible for an MNA position in the National and Provincial Assemblies. The incompetence and mismanagement in an array of departments from Pakistan Railways to the Administrative System of Pakistan can be attributed to such rotten practices in all the departments.

 Although they are selected through a competitive exam by Central Superior Services, there are many flaws in the selection process which have been highlighted by independent observers many a times and which leave much space for loopholes. The provincial civil services have also remained under severe criticism by many observers for having been failed to select the right person for the right job. Power and money are antithesis of the merit and both are prostrated in Pakistan beyond imagination.

When it comes to education sector, things are even worse. Education sector can be regarded as the mother institution which provides manpower to all the other institutions. If those who occupy important positions in the education sector are also of dubious credential like our pilots, the plane of the state is doomed to crash some day.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) linked MS and PhD with the promotion of teachers some two decades ago when Pakistan had only fewer PhDs who had earned their degrees through exhibition of talent and were well versed in research landscape of their own subjects. But countless people, who were appointed through unfair means as lecturers, wanted to have perk and privileges of higher grades and hence a race of churning out PhDs began in Pakistan with hundreds of thousands of PhDs with no quality and no impact on the overall development of society. Worse even, the same fake PhDs check papers for competitive exams and select officers for elite services.

 Such trends do not auger well for the country and Imran Khan must order an across the board investigation into the degrees of all the people holding important position in all departments in Pakistan so that black sheep are wed out of the system.