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.
Haqqani
in action
There is no denying the fact that Hussain Haqqani is now fully active in the USA playing in the hands of his Indian handlers. The EU Disinfo Lab report (p.49) mentions his interview to ANI where he is defending anti-Pakistan posters at Geneva on ‘Balochistan’, ‘Pashtun genocide’ and ‘Sindhudesh’ – all sponsored by India’s notorious Srivastava Group. The report mentions (p.6, 87) how HH has connections with RAW operatives and how this propaganda network spans a 15-year-period in 116 countries. “Free Balochistan” posters that HH was defending were actually organized and posted by Srivastava Group that runs the entire disinformation campaign. (p.26) Nabi Baksh Baloch of BNM produces Srivastava Group’s paid and sponsored material.
He is member of HH’s SAATH forum. Another member is Lakhu Lakhani of World Sindhi Congress who attended SAATH’s annual session in 2017. Another member Senge Sering linked to the same Srivastava Group organized conferences and anti-Pakistan propaganda on Indian ANI News Agency. He is head of “Institute of G-B Studies” at Washington DC.
FAROOQ ALAY
Islamabad
Plight of a crusader
Tribal rights activist Fr Stan Swamy is being punished by an inhuman regime because he had the courage to empower the Adivasis and marginalised of our country. He had selflessly championed their causes, especially their fight for justice and dignity.
The incarceration of Fr. Stan Swamy is a violation of human rights. This is the kind of inhuman treatment social activists get in India after the BJP came to power.
JUBEL D’CRUZ
Mumbai, India
Good decision on climate change
IT has been reported through media that the US President-elect Joe Biden is now having plans to rejoin/re-enter the Paris Climate Change Agreement as opposed to Donald Trump’s outbursts. This is a good decision by the new US regime. According to The Washington Post, John Kerry has now been appointed a new Climate Envoy in the USA. Even the new transition process from Donald Trump has started taking shape in a positive manner compared to a few days ago.
Given the various problems and impacts that have been emerging from the climate crisis, it is also time to look into other weather patterns like tropical storms. The recent storm called Cyclone Nivar had hit northern coastal areas in Tamil Nadu. However, the media, both local and national and the govts had been pretty instrumental in keeping people in safer places and creating great awareness/safety measures out there, thereby sustaining minimal damage. All those involved out there richly deserve appreciation for their work and detailed coverage.
Besides this, there has been great toil behind every food we human beings have been taking and even the experts would find it difficult to measure the real hard work out there in farming because the farming activities have been endless and innumerable. So farming crisis and farmer concerns should be looked into worldwide.
The human life expectancy seems to have been affected a bit for various reasons around. For instance, the great footballer Diego Maradona’s sad demise has shocked the world now. That apart, keeping the surroundings spick and span and living with the nature are all ways ahead to keep the world and human life so beautiful and even everlasting. My forefathers and others now in my native areas like Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu have been living and farming against backdrop of Nature’s gifts like water bodies, trees over there.
Any deviation and any farming crisis will definitely kill the human life worldwide by means of possible food shortage. Apart from America, international community should take continuous efforts and greater green steps to resolve this ongoing crisis called climate change.
P SENTHIL S DURAI
Mumbai
The curse
of underage marriage
Child marriage basically refers to an unlawful and illegal practice in which boys and girls are married off before they reach a minimum age of adulthood. Internationally, underage marriage is considered as human rights violation. Same as, in Pakistan there is also a federal child marriage restraint act 2015 in which clearly fix marriageable age.
According to UNICEF figures; 12 million girls marry before the age of 18 each year. If we don’t act now, more than 150 million girls will become child brides by 2030. It may seem difficult to find tangible solutions for tackling socio-cultural drivers of social issues but we must do something in this regard. While it is essential for laws to be put into place and implemented, we need to also call upon the government to take additional measures to address the issue of child marriage by focusing on increasing school enrolment, educating communities about the harmful impact of child marriage, providing youth with healthy recreational outlets, otherwise the law alone will never be able to curb the practice.
VANEEZA KHAN
Rawalpindi
Water woes
Karachi, the biggest city of Pakistan, is facing numerous problems including chaotic traffic, electricity outages, shortage of water and over population, however, I would like to highlight issue of water.
While hot climate leads to the evaporation of whatever water is left in the reservoirs, the little rainfall annually makes it even harder to reserve water. Despite several campaigns to plant more tress, nobody is actually playing his part
Everyone thinks of bringing about change, but no one actually takes the step we must try to conserve water by turning of f the tap when brushing the teeth, fixing the leaks (if there are any) and consumption of less electricity ETC remember power plants use thousands of gallons of water. The authorities concerned at also requested to please take some tangible measures for the redressal of the problem.
M ISMAIL SIYAL
Karachi
