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A tragicomedy of academic oppression in Pakistan

17 4
11.08.2024
You might be thinking being a professor in Pakistan is supposed to be a glamorous gig, right? Tweed jackets with elbow patches, philosophical musings over steaming cups of chai, and the chance to shape young minds like a sculptor molding clay. Sounds like a dream job, doesn't it? Well, let me burst that iconic bubble for you, folks. For those of us on the Tenure Track System (TTS) in this country, it's more like waiting for rain in a drought: no salary increase but higher taxes in every budget. Now, before you start clutching your pearls and gasping about how ungrateful I sound, let me tell you the background. After getting through highly reputed western academic platforms where you spend the best part of your life in labs, seminars, and workshops satisfying all the criteria to achieve highest academic standards. Then, you return to Pakistan, leaving many lucrative opportunities behind. Here, you spend years, nay, decades, slaving away in the hallowed halls of academia, jumping through each bureaucratic hoop like a circus animal, all in pursuit of that coveted brass ring: tenure. You sacrifice your social life, your weekends, hell, even your sanity, all while navigating the treacherous waters of academic politics and backstabbing colleagues who wouldn't hesitate to throw you under the bus (literally) for a chance at that cushy, tenured position. And then, just when you think........

© The Express Tribune Blog


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