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.
Curse of exploiting religion
This country has suffered enough because of exploitation of religion, to sow seeds of hatred and sectarian divide, starting from Zia onwards. It is time this insanity must stop.
Instead of MAJ’s modern democratic welfare state, Pakistan today is a country haunted by extremism, terrorism, ethnicity and sectarian divide. We are unfortunately, neither a security state, nor a democratic welfare state, but a country on the verge of bankruptcy.
The statement of a Federal Minister casting aspersions, based on Imran Khan’s most probably slip-of-tongue, statements in a politically charged public meeting, must be condemned by every sane citizen. Imran Khan must also refrain from exploiting religion in his public rallies and focus on politics and his agenda. Political Rally Fatigue seems to have set in on Imran Khan and recently there are too many slip-of-tongues by him.
We must not forget that in May 2018 there was an assassination attempt by a religious fanatic on the then Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal. He has condemned this irresponsible statement by PMLN’s Javed Latif.
The only politician who never exploited religion was Quaid-e-Azam, whose constitutional struggle, supported by members of all faiths, succeeded in gaining freedom for us, to live in his concept of a modern democratic welfare state, with a constitution as supreme law. MAJ never wanted this country to be a theocracy, but a democracy where Muslim majority would incorporate Islamic concept of tolerance, justice, equality and freedom for all citizens. His choice of Jogendra-Nath Mandal as first Law Minister, with task to supervise draft of the Constitution, to be adopted by First Constituent Assembly, should clear all doubts. He elaborated upon this in his 11 August 1947 to Constituent Assembly. Unfortunately, what followed is chaos and abuse of power.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
Evils of street begging
These days the number of beggars have increased in all parts of Pakistan. It has become a profession for some people because it is the easiest way to earn a living. There are many gangs that kidnap small kids and force them to become beggars. Some criminals also beg to hide their crime. Beggars of all age groups can be seen at railway stations, bus stands, outside mosques and public parks etc.
Our society is to itself blamed for encouraging begging. Our society takes pride in giving alms to the beggars and considers it as a religious obligation. Taking advantage of this inheirted kindness, many people who are physically fit, have taken to begging to earn the easy money. These beggars have become so clever that they always ask for cash. Any offer of a meal is usually refused, not with thanks.
There are anti-begging laws and the government should take hard measures to implement them. People should not give any alms to beggars. The government should help the handicapped and helpless people. Thus, the combined efforts of the government and the people can end this evil.
ADEESHA ZAHID
Lahore
Sonic pollution
Through the courtesy of your esteemed newspaper, I want to draw the attention of the concerned authorities to the issue of noise nuisance in the middle class society . Sonic pollution is the propagation of unwanted voices. We all are fighting against noises like loud voices, seller’s weird advertisement of products in the streets, begging voices etc that causes a lot of disturbance.
Noise pollution impacts millions of people on a daily basis. It is causing serious health issues. Sleep is disturbed by these unpleasant sounds. As a student, we feel irritated and stressed that affects the daily routine which is making us less productive and less focused. Old people as well as children are facing problems and fighting against this.
This pathetic issue is broadening day by day and no one is drawing attention over here. This is affecting the environment and social life of us very badly. Lahore Development Authority (LDA) should take notice and give direction to the authorities to control this serious issue which has made our life miserable.
HUMNA AFTAB
Lahore
How to win the T20 World Cup 2022
By the looks of it there are no chances about this T20 series vs English team will provide any benefit for the Pakistani players in their preparation for the World Cup matches. The main reason for the above apprehension was that our team management and captain are in no mood to accept their faults (our team’s score in the 6 power play overs was 37 runs with 19 dot balls out of 36 balls of power play in the final match, but no soul searching and planning is visible for overcoming this chronic weakness of our T20 openers) and the captain seems still NOT ready to take more risks, even when 8 English World Cup squad members will NOT be playing in the current series vs the Pakistani team.
Our team may not even reach to the semi finals stage of the World Cup, if our team management will prepare them for the T20 cricket of two decades old game. Our team MUST aim 200+ runs against the Englishmen, if it bats first and must aim to bowl the opponent out in 15 overs, if we bowl first, considering that this is an extremely weak team of England and we must push the performance bar few stages upwards, to test our maximum limits of mental and physical strengths.
Napoleon Bonaparte said that “if you build an army of 100 lions and their leader is a dog, in any fight, the lions will die like a dog. BUT if you build an army of 100 dogs and their leader is a lion, all dogs will fight like a lion.” Rest we should hope for the best, because in almost every high voltage T20 cricket match, generally the team which wins is the team which believes in the following maxim: “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win.”
SYED NAYYAR UDDIN
Lahore
