computer hardware? How will they supply to the world, which requires software compatible to the latest machines? Data entry and medical transcriptions can not earn a country declarable foreign exchange. If India is expecting $10 billion by the year 2010 in foreign exchange through software export, then that software is directly related to the hardware systems. And for that India has worked hard. Before jumping in to the software business, it took all the necessary steps. The latest books on every technical subject are reprinted in India since long, under international licenses. India has well-established chip-manufacturing industry. Its engineering institutes such as IIT are some of the top ranking in Asia. Now compare this scenario with Pakistan's. With the passage of time, good and new books are fast disappearing from the shelves of bookstores and are being replaced by the Dummy Series. I was shocked to find in a bookstore, a book on Office 2000 just forRs400 and a book on State-machine approach to microprocessor Design for a mere Rs75. And the next day when a friend of mine wanted another copy of this seventy-five rupee book, I couldn't find it in any of the bookstores, while there was plenty of Office 2000.

We do not have a chip-manufacturing industry - plain and simple. Our universities do not have any ranking. The teachers who establish the ranking of institutes were systematically removed by the Big A. These qualified individuals, pushed to limits by environment filled with economic injustice and the dirty politics, were easily lured into the web of New World beyond the Atlantic, by the bait of better future.

Now the current desktop has the following settings: There is a government lavishly spending the borrowed money on institutions lacking qualified faculty. The institutions take pride in offering courses related to topics with very short half-life. The students think that by being able to learn Java and Oracle, they can get settled in Long Islands. The tiny software industry is satisfied being the janitor of software arena by holding a mop of data entry and medical transcriptions. One must realize that the knowledge of computer hardware is essential to the long-term survival in the computer industry. Programmes on which the applications are based change with time. Until one has a proper understanding of hardware, no one can ensure permanence in success at the Cyber world.

Another important aspect, which must never be forgotten, is that IT stands for Information Technology, which by definition is the knowledge of controlling flow of information, appropriately. And the definition of "appropriately" is provided by the people who control the hardware; the expertise systematically being removed from the Cyber Monks of this nation. Brain-drain, book-drain and hardware-expertise-drain are all part of a plan of the western manipulators - to keep us disabled in the face of competition. Yet, IT without control over related hardware is being promoted by the allies. It is for this reason that the field is made to look so lucrative. In order to visualize this picture of gloom; let us go back to the 80s. As the world was witnessing the demise of the second Super Power, plans were under way to establish a New World Order. A vast majority is familiar with this term, but very few understand the meaning of it. This New World Order is the civilization.

Everyone knows that in Pakistan, a vast majority uses internet for the pornographic material, which is otherwise banned in the country. We also know that in our villages, a vast majority cannot understand English. Then what was the purpose of extending IT facilities to remote areas in the name ofducation? What will those high-schoolers in the remote areas and even for that matter in the Urdu-medium section of the cities, gain?What happens is that they get slow and steady washing of brains. This is how the new civilization is made acceptable to our youth in the name of education. What VCRs and satellite receivers could not accomplish, because they were entertainment media, is now getting promoted in the name of education. On the other hand, in universities where you need internet, the connections being few in number are so heavily loaded that the researchers are unable to conduct their activities. Yet the places with immature minds are infested with so many of the IT facilities that the morals take hardly a night to alter.

What we do need is careful long-term planning, with emphasis on development of hardware expertise alongside the sharpening of reason and logic for enhanced programming skills. We need to establish a proper channel for the funneling of latest books into the country. We must give priority to the establishment of chip-manufacturing industry in Pakistan. We must stop the drama of manpower export, for these brains drained are sucked dry before they can send anything back to their own country. Proper incentives alongwith politics-free environment must be provided in the educational institutes and most important of all, IT facilities must not be provided to immature minds. Effective measures must be taken to block the undesirable sites and greater number of Internet connections with enhanced speed must be provided to a selected research group at the universities. Concepts of e-government and e-commerce must be restricted to PAN (Pakistani Area Network) without the possible interference from foreign sources and National Database Authority must be cleansed of any foreign reference. Only then can we truly use IT to our benefit, otherwise, God forbid, there will be future of IT, but there might not be any future of Pakistan.