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07 Q. The fate of sports in our country is similar to that of education. Do you think that is why sports have not evolved in Pakistan? A. What we’ve seen in Pakistan is complete degradation, whether that be in education or in sports. I mean, there was a time when in squash, for instance, we were champions. I remember when I was your age, Jehangir Khan won eleven gold medals. Then came Jaan Sher Khan. So, we dominated the sport. Same is the case with hockey. By the way, hockey is still our national sport, but it was once very popular. Why? Because our national team was doing very well at that time. I remember we won the Olympics and several world championships, so as kids we had memorized their names. Now, do you know the names of the players these days or who the right-out, left-out or center forward is? In our times,, there was Hassan Sarfraz, Sami Ullah, Karim Ullah, Manzoor Junior. We remembered them like anything because they were superstars, legends. So, we used to look up to them. In cricket too, we had Imran, we had Majid Khan, Ramiz Raja, and Zaheer Abbas. We remembered all these names because they were super good. So, the point is that unfortunately we’ve degraded. Yes, I do agree, that developing countries do face issues. But then you don’t have cases where things actually go down. Rather, they improve. Look at India across the border, and I can give you a first-hand experience about the educational institutions there. They are supporting education standards. They might have inherited a better education system in the partition, but they’ve also added to it. So, the public sector universities in India are perhaps more at excellence than maybe Stanford or MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Their public universities such as Delhi University and various other colleges, compete with our students at LUMS. Now, can you imagine a public sector institution in Pakistan which is as competitive as any of our private sector institutions? GC (Government College) used to be a prime educational institution at the time of Partition and even in the 1950s and 60s. Similarly, Quaid-e-Azam University used to be very good till 70s and 80s. So in Pakistan, unfortunately, every sector has undergone degradation. Q. At a place so rich in culture and heritage, how would you balance innovation with tradition at Aitchison College? A. Aitchison College, since its inception, had a mission to educate young men so that they become progressive, civilized and educated members of the society. It was a colonial project in 1886 and this was a time when the British ruled. So the idea was to educate the off-springs of the ruling classes to make them responsible rulers. Obviously, now we don’t believe in selective admissions as Aitchison should be open to everybody who achieves that merit. But, in the end, what is the objective of human education? To improve your character and to make you good human beings, for you to have a sense of integrity, for you to become compassionate, for you to have a republic spirit and for you to contribute to the society, to your country and to the world. So that vision of Aitchison College has remained.