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.
CPEC project
China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is an excellent project for the country owing to enhanced socio-economic development. CPEC consists of infrastructure projects including roads network, energy projects and special economic zone.
Amid COVID 19 the CPEC project needs to be completed at fast pace to obtain fruitful results for well being of every Pakistani.
WAQAR BADAR KANDHRO
Larkana, Sindh
Importance of archaeology
We study archaeology to understand how and why human behaviour has changed from time to time, and how people used to live in the past. The historical sites located in Pakistan are Harappa, Taxila, Mohenjo Daro, Swat, Balochistan and KPK.
The study of archaeology contributes more to tourism, which helps country’s economy to grow. There are 10 universities in Pakistan offering courses in archaeology and Pakistan’s leading archaeologist was Dr. Ahmad Hasan Dani.
The government of Pakistan should contribute to the study of archaeology, anthropology and history, as it would attract more tourists and help grow Pakistan’s international image besides earning economy more foreign exchange.
ISRA ABDUL QAYUM
Islamabad
PM on PIA affairs
While addressing National Assembly on June 30, PM Imran Khan said that airline collapse is due to the reason that past governments, during last eleven years, replaced ten PIA Chief Executives.
He further said that even a cricket team would suffer a lot if ten Captains were replaced in eleven years. I agree with this statement of Mr. Khan.But, how our prime minister would justify his position where he has changed four Chief Secretaries in Punjab and equal number of heads (Chairman) in Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in just two years. I think, as usual, he must be having his own strange logic in defending this.
If it was wrong for previous governments to frequently change heads of PIA, then it is equally wrong for PTI’s government as well to frequently change Chief Secretary of the Punjab and Chairman of the FBR. Improvement in the functioning of a province/ organisation would come only when its heads would be given sufficient time to translate their vision into performance.
Frequent removal of heads from important departments would result in nothing but deterioration in the working of these organisations; no matter how competent a succeeding head is. Each head of the organisation brings with him/her own vision and style of working; which happens to be quite different from his/her predecessor. And, here starts the real problem for rest of the team to do away with good work done by his/her predecessor and start afresh as per vision of new incumbent. Thus at end of the day, it is department that suffers a lot.
ABDUL SAMAD SAMO
Karachi
Mental health
In our society mental disorders like depression, anxiety, epilepsy etc. are expected to be dealt on their own rather than to go for medical experts. Although, media has contributed positively to spread awareness about the issue but that has not changed the ugly picture of ignorance as there is no official Hotline/Helpline by government for people who are suffering from these mental diseases or those who want to end their lives by committing suicides.
According to a report, some shape of mental illness torments over 15 million people in Pakistan. But for a populace of 220 million, best 400 trained psychiatrists exist with few state-run psychiatric hospitals. The ongoing Covid-19 crisis and lockdown situation in the country will definitely add more to 15 million tally, so it is high time we promote mental health as a subject in the country and give government a wakeup call on this issue.
QASIM ALI
Multan
Illegal annexation
Middle east peace plan process initiated by US president Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister Netanyahu has been exposed for what it is a colonisation operation.
After Israel-Arab war in 1967, Israel built Jewish settlements in the west bank, Syrian Golan heights and east Jerusalem. Similarly, after five decades, Israel has now decided to annex further territory for Jewish settlements to complete control over Palestine. However, world has condemned this move.
In reality, Trump’s deal of century was meant to put pressure on Palestine to accept the plan or face consequences. However, Palestinians rejected this plan. Palestinian authority already warned that further annexation would be declaration of war. Therefore, world community must speak up for dispossessed Palestinians in order to maintain peace and prosperity in the region.
BILAWAL ALI LAKHO
Shikarpur, Sindh
Custodian killings
Custodial deaths in police stations will perhaps never end in our country. Lack of action against police officials is to be blamed for recurrence of such incidents. The force that is supposed to uphold law is routinely found misusing and disrespecting law of the country. We often hear of custodial deaths in police stations but no probe is conducted and no one held responsible.
Custodial violence is latest example of how police brutality results in loss of lives. The police responsible for death of Tamil Nadu residents P Jeyaraj and Benix on June 23 at the Sathankulam police station in Tuticorin need to be brought to justice as soon as possible. I hope the case reaches a speedy conclusion because police have political powers and are also shielded by government.
JUBEL D’CRUZ
Mumbai, India
