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.
Hard truths
This country was created by MAJ to be a modern democratic welfare state. Today we are neither welfare state that Quaid wanted, nor a security state, but a country in utter confusion. Instead of pursing vision laid down by the Founding Fathers, we have been dilly dallying in an endless debate of presidential or parliamentary democracy.
The hard truth is that it was under a so-called Presidential System imposed by likes of Iskandar Mirza and Ayub Khan, that Pakistan without any parliamentary debate, got itself embroiled in a proxy war, by offering Badaber Base for reconnaissance flights over Soviet Union ostensibly being part of CENTO, although neither Iran, nor Turkey were willing to do likewise. It was again under presidential system that Pakistan chose to disregard China’s advice to liberate the IoK in 1962, although MAJ had termed it our jugular vein, because all our rivers originated from there.
Pakistan suffered humiliation of defeat, surrender and dismemberment in 1971 under presidential system of Yahya Khan. Finally, after a series of failures, it was a civil government which gave this country 1973 Constitution, which was based on parliamentary democracy. Given our limitations to match India in conventional war, prompted this civil government, with help of parliament to hold historic Islamic Conference in Lahore. Immediately after this, the parliamentary democratic government decided to lay foundations for building Defensive Nuclear Deterrence, in spite of opposition by major superpowers.
The democratically elected government was removed by military dictator. A presidential system was again imposed, and 1973 Constitution effectively suspended and Pakistan got itself involved in Afghan proxy war. We continue to suffer consequences. What more will it take for us to realize that we must follow MAJ’s vision?
MALIK T ALI
Lahore
Human development
Human development is an important element of social development. In other words, we can safely say that without human development, it will be quite difficult for a country to build its society on healthy and stable footings. Unfortunately, human development has remained a far cry in Pakistan even after the passage of seventy three years to our independence. Mass illiteracy, poverty, beggary, poor health, unemployment, environmental pollution, violence, over-population, economic backwardness, drug-addiction, religious fanaticism, sectarianism, feuds, extremism, feudalism, corruption, ethnicity, robberies, etc are some of the issues which have hindered the proper growth of our population.
We, as a nation, cannot make a substantial progress until and unless we take serious efforts towards the amelioration of the socio-economic condition of our citizens because in human development lies the real progress of our society. The sooner we focus our energies towards human development, the better it would be for the social, political, economic and cultural development of our society.
ABDUL SAMAD SAMO
Karachi
PIA and COVID-19
While major international commercial airlines have grounded their fleet, based on scientific evidence that an aircraft cabin (metallic tube) with re-circulating air is an ideal breeding environment for COVID-19 to breed and spread, it is surprising that PIA headed by a serving officer has decided to operate flights. Out of 1800 passengers arriving at Peshawar from UAE, over 189 passengers tested positive. Is this a feat to be proud of? COVID-19 is being imported without putting in place proper infrastructure to combat it and not enough quarantine space, PPEs, ventilators, hospital beds and doctors, nurses etc to take care of expected surge.
Virgin Australia is the latest among more than 13 other airlines which have declared bankruptcy and laid off thousands of employees, including over 600 pilots.
This was an ideal opportunity for Federal Government to enforce restructuring of national airline, without any fear of industrial reprisal or blackmail. Instead what they do is enforce Essential Service Act at a time when airline industry has choice of numerous surplus rated pilots, engineers and all other cadres and even give them 75 Guaranteed Hours Flying Allowance when average utilization is below 20 Hours. Passenger traffic at London’s Heathrow Airport has decreased by over 95%. Worldwide aviation passenger traffic has dropped by over 86%.
PIA permission for operating direct ferry flights to USA with no passengers is no feat, because even earlier the airline was allowed non-stop from America to Pakistan. In any case America has imposed restriction on entry for all visa categories including Green Card holders with exception of a few essential categories like doctors, nurses etc. PIA’s losses will only accumulate with such commercially unfeasible flight operation.
GULL ZAMAN
Peshawar
Technical education
We are looking for ways to decrease the dropout rate. I am pretty sure, if we eliminate career and technical education, we are going to increase the dropout rate. The technical and vocational education in Pakistan has not been given due attention. It is not enough to have a number of technical and vocational education institutions and many are deprived of the facilities, teachers and learning equipment. A state’s population is one of its national power’s main elements. Once it’s eligible, it can become an advantage.
Unqualified population in the country means more unemployed people, thus having a negative impact on national development. It is necessary to make technical education part of secondary education. Classes must be included in the curriculum of carpentry, electrical and other technical training. The lack of technical education is a significant educational policy weakness that has never been historically centred. Therefore, the government needs prioritized management of technical education. The federal government is paying attention to vocational and technical training, but it is important to increase the efficiency of existing vocational and technical training centres in order to produce skilled youth.
CH RIZWAN AFZAL
Islamabad
COVID-19 surprise by 2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, a new type of Coronavirus detected in China in late 2019. First the novel Corona virus cases reported in Wuhan late December and in a month the situation was outbreak. China dealt with the virus amazingly. However, it spread all over the world. More than 3.4 million infections confirmed around the globe and at least 244,000 deaths.
According to the WHO it is an alarming situation for the entire world. We are stuck at homes, we can’t meet anyone, we can’t go outside especially for our work and we are dealing with Quarantine life. I am a student and I know our studies are disturbed. World’s economy is getting low day by day and people have no basic facilities of life. However, the positive side of the pandemic is that it has transformed the environment. We must follow precautions and keep social distancing. “Stay home, Stay safe”.
ATTIYA KOUSAR
Sumbal Sonawari, J&K
