Misunderstood Magic

Aesthetically speaking, industry that deserves the most investment and gives the best profit is none other than ‘Human Development’ as enlightened minds produce enlightened societies.

In May 2006, I interviewed Dr. Naim Siddiqi- a well known psychologist having ten years of experience in different capacities in UK and currently serving in Agha Khan University Hospital, Karachi- on behalf of ‘The Mediator International’. My objective was to not only discuss the social problems and hurdles in social development but also come up with a road map of solution that best suit our society. Dr. Naim intellectually unfolded the root causes and suggested amicable solutions in light of logic and wisdom.

He started with explaining psychology as “knowledge and study of human behavior and the way to implement that on society” According to him psychology was extremely important in human development because unless we studied, analyzed and understood it, we could not shape current and coming generations. “We must have right idea that where something is going wrong, if we wish to correct it”, he stated. With this he added that it does not mean that to address any social problem we should always have formal psychological knowledge. Traditional wisdom incorporated too much of formal psychology as those bedtime and other stories told by our Nanis & Dadiz included moral that was reflected in children’s personalities either at that time or in future. Dr. Naim doesn’t think it logical to label a psychologist and leaving that traditional wisdom part credited less.

He stressed on working innovatively to utilize available resources to develop such system that could benefit the nation. When asked about ideal social system his reply was ‘Justice’. According to him it was justice as a main ingredient that was missing from national curry and resultant was bad taste. Justice is the only thing that could put our nation on the right track. When inquired about details he explained it and supported with a small (big in meaning) example of queues out side banks where utility bills are submitted and anyone who has relations with either bank manager or even a peon gets the work done and emotionally hurts rest of the people in queue. He said it was very common practice in our society and reflected the general behavior. Whether that was recourse allocation, upbringing of children, employment, merit evaluation, day to day living and listening to the people’s problems or anything if the perspective remained justice centered, no issues could touch alarming stage he added.

Continuing with ‘Justice Centered’ philosophy he explained that youngsters had great potential to work beyond the limits but when they see they can not get their goals by right and honest means, they go for short cuts and this is how crime rate increases. He further prolonged the topic and said when these practices continued they reached their threshold level and from there either situation aggravates as we experience these suicide bombings in recent years in Pakistan or there is always a possibility and hope for things to neutralize. For that he believed that elite class was responsible to great extent as they had the power to which they used their way and some how did not let justice rule all over. Other factors that play as hurdles in social development were deplorable literacy rate and dire basic public service conditions according to Dr. Naim.

For past many years Pakistan is struggling with sectarian violence and religious extremism that is damaging the international image of the country and also disintegrating our society internally. No doubt some NGOs and individuals are doing concrete efforts to neutralize the conditions but still many leaves are left unturned and adequate planning is desperately required from government to completely get rid of this large scale activity. I had a long discussion with Dr. Naim in this regard as well and found his view purely rational and well justified.

“I am not a religious scholar but have my personal views”, he emphasized. There was a school of thought that believed religion should be in everything and another had opposite views but there was some sort of intermingle between the two in our society he assumed. He asked if there were religious parties who preached other than five time prayers and other ibadaat that were no doubt important but much needed to be addressed like taking care of your neighbors, keep away from bribery, do not break laws and other social duties. “It is some how portrayed that only Ibadaat entitle whole religion that promotes extremism”, he mentioned. He referred a religious scholar proving islamically that to break red signal was actually a sin because when driving license is acquired the licensee submits his will to abide by traffic rules and to break the rule is a sin. Similarly he put forward those so called babas in discussion as their practice of brain washing the innocent people and looting money from them and involved in some indecent activities as well. In this regard he discussed the story of patient, a teenage girl, at his charity clinic who was brought there by her mother. The mother wanted Dr. Naim to convince the daughter to go to ‘Pahar Ganj’ in Nazimabad, Karachi to aastana of that baba (The place where that so called religious baba treated his patients). When he inquired the girl why she did not want to go there the girl revealed, “He touches my private parts”. Dr. Naim could not believe the response of the mother as she said, “Doctor sahib jahan bala hogi baba wahan haath to lagain ge na”. (The baba will obviously touch that part where he knows the problem is).He said that the mother who had sacrificed her daughter’s dignity was an icon and such were used by those so called babas. He said his professional colleagues will not appreciate much but he was willing to invite those babas and quakes to discuss and tell them the CMD (Common Mental Disorders) in humans and the ways to treat them with mental therapy and some medication. To address this issue collaborative efforts were required and those will those efforts would keep them off from getting involved in ill practices he clarified.

“Psychologists do not have ready solutions for their patients’ problem but their job is to make patients realize their problems and go for the best possible option and do the medication if case is extreme”, he expressed. The common norm that ‘only mad people need psychologist’ was a very false assumption according to him as it was only the most extreme case. He said that if somebody has a problem with eyesight or limbs we do not call them blind or disable similarly if somebody is struggling with CMDs to call them mad was wrong approach. Unfortunately people did not approach psychologists even in extreme cases he added.

Finally Dr. Naim valued our family support system, and traditional values we carry that incorporate morals and ethics and stressed that if practiced intelligently and honestly, our values will help us transform a very good and stable society. He further said that we needed to be more thankful to God and more content to lead a satisfactory life.

Captions:

“I am not a religious scholar but have my personal views”

“It is some how portrayed that Ibadaat are only part of religion that gives room to extremism”

“Elite class is responsible to great extent in not letting justice rule”

“People go for short cuts when they see problems in getting things in the right way”

“We innovatively need to develop a system by utilizing available resources that could benefit whole society."

“We need to be more thankful to God and content to lead a satisfactory life”