The Unsung Heroes of Pakistan

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Recently I got to read about a young girl – Arfa Karim, who was talented beyond her age, someone that we as a nation should have been proud to call our own. In 2005 she received numerous awards for being the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world. However, on the 14^th of January 2012, our very own Small Wonder, past away in CMH after weeks of treatment.

The sad part to all of this is how the government wasn’t able to provide any support to the family in terms of treatment. Besides the treatment, what did the government do since 2005 to try and foster the genius of this child, did they put her in a special advanced program, did they offer her opportunities to further her skills, perhaps making it possible for her to spread her ideas and develop more geniuses such as herself? So far to my knowledge, they did nothing!

This got me thinking, we have so many more gifted people in our country and yet we hardly hear anything about them. The media shows one interesting story about these people and then goes back to how our country is going to the dogs (no pun intended).

Unlike what our own media shows, we’re not a bunch of terrorists or idiots begging for America to love us and show us their mercy – that’s just our government. The nation on the other hand is a bunch of highly gifted individuals with the potential to do great things, inspire others and perhaps be the future think tanks of the world. Here are some examples of individuals from Pakistan that I was able to come up with in a matter of 20mins on Google.

1.    Ali Nawazish – took 23 subjects in his A’levels and scored 21A’s, 1B and a C. He didn’t require any tuition, just a lot of hard work and a lot of energy drinks. He’s currently enrolled to study in Cambridge University.

2.      Pakistan’s First Fuel Efficient Car – Made by 12 PAKISTANI students from NED the car is able to do 80km in a single liter. The last report on these individuals indicated that they were trying to secure sponsorship to take their car for a world competition back in 2010, whatever happened to them, is still unknown. I’m sure we can use such cars in Pakistan nowadays, but unfortunately I’m sure no one from the government has tried to make this project into a reality.

3.      Solar Powered Car by Pakistani Students – Although the video on this project is doubtful on credibility, but I do remember reading something online for a similar car. Just goes to show we have the intelligence to make such inventions, but what lacks is the exposure to the creators and business opportunities and investors. The government should provide investment opportunities to such deserving inventors. Something on the lines of the Export Promotion Bureau, which was set up to promote our industries should be set up for the identification of investors and venture capitalists.

4.       Car + Power Generator – A Pakistani Invention  - Necessity is truly the mother of all inventions and we in Pakistan therefore have a lot of great inventors. A generator that can power your house is also used to run a car. The person who made this invention isn’t even college educated. Speaks wonders for our people and yet no one from the government cares.

5.     Moin Khan travels the world on a motorbike – Moin Khan travelled half the globe from America to Lahore, Pakistan on his motorbike as part of his campaign called “A different agenda”. He too realized that Pakistan wasn’t presented in the best of ways and wanted to do something to change all that. His story is one to be shared and learned from. He was able to change the minds of many regarding Pakistan and its people, during his 6month trip. He could easily be used as a good will ambassador by our country for the youth across different countries of the world, but then again that would require the Government to give a hoot about its people and the image of the country, which it currently does not.

With so much talent in our country, why does our government not invest in education, vocational training and infrastructure development? We need to fix our problems ourselves and not rely on the so called friendships with other nations. We have all the potential we need to do this, all we need now is for the government to listen and act.