Articles and letters may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space. They are published in good faith with a view to enlightening all the stakeholders. However, the contents of these writings may not necessarily match the views of the newspaper.
Sectarian violence
Fanning the flames of sectarianism is not new in our country. We have a skewed policy of harmony and peace among different sects. Prominent religious scholar Maulana Adil Khan was shot dead on Saturday in the busy area of Shama Shopping Centre of Shah Faisal Colony. The assailants fled from the scene after firing. This act of terrorism is highly condemnable. The recent wave of sectarianism is dangerous for all.
Killing the elite scholar is shameful. Government should have provided proper security to him. In the present scenario, it would be appropriate that security in civil dress is given to all prominent religious leaders to avoid any further loss of life. Moreover, prominent religious personalities should also restrict their movement for the sake of their own safety. It is hoped that the murderer will soon be captured and punished,
IFTIKHAR MIRZA
Islamabad
Mosquito-borne diseases
Mosquitoes are one of the deadliest animals in the world. Their ability to carry and spread disease to humans causes millions of deaths every year. According to World Health Organization, in 2015, malaria alone caused 438,000 deaths. The worldwide incidence of dengue has risen 30-fold in the past 30 years, and more countries are reporting their first outbreak of the disease.
Zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever are all transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. In Sindh, there exists a huge problem of mosquitoes. Similarly, they cause children, young and elders victim to Mosquito-borne diseases. In the past decades, there was anti-mosquito spray in every street, village and city. It, however, is no more because of poor governance and corruption in governmental sectors.
More than half of the world’s population lives in areas where this mosquito species is present. Sustained mosquito control efforts are important to prevent outbreaks from these diseases. There are several different types of mosquitoes and some have the ability to carry many different diseases. Therefore, Sindh Government should take remedies to get rid of mosquito-borne diseases. There should be anti-mosquito spray in every city, town and village. But especially, Jamshoro and Sehwan need more urgent spray. IMTIAZ ESSA HALEPOTO
Jamshoro
HEC e-portal
The Higher Education Commission has launched e-portal to facilitate students at their doorstep. It is undoubtedly excellent work. But there exists many problems related to e-portal account. It, suddenly, gets locked leading to depression among students. Recently, Ehsaas Undergraduate scholarship has been opened for registration. But owing to e-portal issue, a large number of financially poor candidates are unable to get registered. Many of my friends get despaired and complained on HEC ticket number given by HEC for resolution of any problem. It, however, goes in vain.
PM Imran Khan launched the country’s largest scholarship programme namely Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship for 200,000 financially backward students. But it appears that no proper accountability is there. Even rich and officers‘ offspring are given scholarship by Sifarish. Additionally, thousands of poor and financially constrained students do not apply because of e-portal account issue.
It is indubitably true that poor students have poor social contact with Internet and its facilities. Consequently, they fail to get their problems resolved. Therefore, we request he HEC authorities to keep E-portal Account accessible for all. The issue of repeatedly locking accounts should be resolved. There should also be proper accountability of candidates applying for Ehsaas Scholarship.
IMTIAZ ESSA HALEPOTO
Jamshoro
Pillion riding ban
After the killing of a religious scholar in Karachi along with his driver, Sindh government has once again imposed a ban on pillion riding. We all know for sure that this is not the solution. It has never produced positive results nor has it, in any way, helped the police and administration to minimize such attacks. In the recent incident, the killers shot the two people in the car, crossed the busy road on foot and then fled on a bike.
What if the killers had fled on foot? Sindh government would have banned walking on the road? One wonders who the advisors of Sindh Chief Minister are these days and why CM is not applying his own mind to stop this nonsense activity of banning pillion riding. On one hand, Federal and Provincial governments are asking people to maintain social distance and on the other hand, a pillion riding ban is shifting the load of people going to work on public transport. And we all know that despite social distancing SOPs, people travel on roof tops of buses.
If the government of Sindh is not capable of maintaining law and order in the province, why punish the innocent taxpayers? Ban on pillion riding must come to an end for once and for all time to come. Sindh government can ask pillion riding people to keep their original CNIC with them. If police on duty feels suspicious about any one, they can check their CNICs and also their job cards if necessary.
Imposing a complete ban on pillion riding is a punishment uncalled for to all the innocent people of Sindh. I request the learned judges of the Supreme Court to take suo moto of this as this provides a golden opportunity for our policemen on duty to mint money from innocent citizens.
M RAFIQUE ZAKARIA
Karachi
