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.
Trump offers mediation
As stated in the editorial, during a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan at Davos, US President Donald Trump again offered to help Pakistan and India for the resolution of decades-old Kashmir dispute. However, it seems unlikely that Trump’s initiative will produce concrete results. First of all, India has totally rejected the offer saying that under Simla Agreement of 1972 and Lahore Declaration of 1999, all disputes between India and Pakistan have to be resolved through bilateral negotiations, without the intervention of any third party.
Also, even assuming that Trump succeeds in doing the impossible by bringing India and Pakistan to the conference table, the negotiations are unlikely to produce any worthwhile results because of wide divergence in the views of Indian and Pakistani leaders on the Kashmir and other issues. And when it comes to expecting Donald Trump to use his influence and put pressure on India to adopt a humane policy in respect of Muslims in India-occupied Kashmir and elsewhere in India, well, America’s own record in this respect is not particularly brilliant.
Now, the President of a country like the United States which, in recent history, has invaded and devastated Iraq, Syria and Libya, and Trump, who has personally gone far beyond any US President in extending illegal, immoral and illegitimate support to terrorist state Israel, is hardly in a position to criticize Narendra Modi for what he is doing in the IoK and elsewhere in India. Our friend and dependable ally China is doing all it can to help us. In fact, China is the only country which has the capacity as well as natural interest in resolving disputes between India and Pakistan, for durable peace, progress and prosperity in the region.
S R H HASHMI
Karachi
Modi’s secularism: 1950 – 2020?
India celebrates Republic Day on 26 January, every year, since 1950, dancing for – secularism – after killing thousands of minority members (especially) Muslims. Hindu fundamentalism is on extreme and dragging Indian society to the brink of destruction. Theoretically, Indian Constitution protects minorities, but BJP has thrown it into Bay of Bengal long long ago. Even then, UN, UNSC, UNHRC and ICJ are sitting idle? Because; Muslims are main target and; there is no Muslim-representation in these Organizations (!)
According to a report released by ‘Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission “extreme immoderation against religious minorities in India became continuous marvel by using violence and disavowal of constitutional rights by Hindu extremists. India is terrorist; intolerant and unliveable country for minorities. So, RSS leader Rajeshwar Singh recently said (openly) Christianity & Islam will be kicked out of India by 2021. Certainly; animosity of BJP against minorities is not new. They have never accepted Indian Muslims, thus they are the prime target of Hindu antagonism!!
Sikh community is second to Muslims of Hindutva’s target. Because; Sikh ideology condemns caste system and worshipping idols which is fundamentally correct in Hinduism. Sikhism was downgraded up to the status of a sub-sect of Hinduism, so, demoralized and subjugated badly. 17,000+Sikh were crushed during Goldon Temple crackdown, demanding for Sikh State promised by Nehru. Thus this year, the World Sikh Parliament, UK, joined anti-Modi protest along with Kashmiris!!
UN does not know that India is involved in gross human rights violations in the IoK, where curfew has been going on for more than 170-days (?) This is not serious for UN; because Modi is killing minorities by using guns purchasing from her members – say it’s a business deal? India is sitting in Afghanistan for helping Israel & Co., for crushing Iranian-Muslim and approaching CA States after sitting in Chabahar; and CAB is the latest example of Modi’s secularism: 1950-2020??
M AZAM MINHAS
Tatrinote, AK
Killing those viruses
The outbreak of a new virus called corona-virus in China has literally started descending on the international community now. Right now, there have been heavy fears of the corona-virus fast spreading to other countries like America, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand given that China is now encountering most travel-related activities of the year. There have been so many reports about the cause of the new virus. However, digging deep into such mysteries is very crucial at this point of juncture. In fact, such outbreaks are not new to Asian region. Having been the hubs of most of world population, Asian countries have been largely hit by such virus outbreaks down the years.
As a person, I usually take great inspiration from the people in my native areas, who have often been visiting their doctors nearby to take care of their kith and kin – proving that how health-conscious they have been all along. The World Health Organization has now been in consultation with experts and authorities concerned to take possible steps to check the spread of the new virus.
P SENTHIL S DURAI
Via email
Wheat prices skyrocket accords the country
Sindh CM has said the provincial government had procured 300,000 tonnes of wheat from the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Service Corporation (PASSCO), of which 70,000 had been brought to the metropolis, obtained from Punjab and Balochistan. The delay in transportation was caused due to transporters’ protest and wheal jam strike to protest against the shortage of supply along with government measures to keep the prices of roti unchanged. There are also credible reports that the crisis is mainly attributed to unhindered smuggling of wheat and flour to Afghanistan as both the Federal and Sindh government closed their eyes to the illegal activity with a telling impact on supply and pricing of the commodity. It is ironical that despite claims by PM to provide relief to the people during 2020, the price of staple food has jumped by hefty Rs.70 seriously upsetting family budgets in the backdrop of skyrocketing inflation. Minister for Planning Khusro Bakhtiar has claimed that sufficient wheat-stocks were available to meet domestic requirements, expressing firm resolve to take strict action against those involved in hoarding, profiteering or creating ‘artificial’ crisis of the commodity, but the question arises that the Government only woke up at the probing of the media which showed people queuing up outside shops to buy flour at exorbitant rates.Since then, we’ve been told that wheat in large quantities was being released from the federal stocks and urgently dispatched to Sindh, KP and Balochistan — the areas that officials say face an acute shortage and manage market sentiments until the next harvest. Let’s hope for the better.
SIKANDAR SAJJAD
Larkana
Job vs candidates
It is a dream of every aspirant candidate to get job of his/her choice after achieving higher degrees from university. The candidates burn midnight oil to study at their best for better opportunities in their entire career. They look for FPSC/SPSC/PMS and other testing organizations for vacancies from respective departments. The jobs are announced few in number where every year thousands of students acquire degrees from private as well as government universities.
The testing pattern is very complex and ambiguous because their syllabus is General and covers all areas of knowledge i.e. science, social and humanities. This is unfair and unjustifiable for single disciplined master/degree holder to cope up with all areas of knowledge for passing the exam of the Commission. The dilemma is that these testing services show extra efficiency in conducting examination test because they feel overburdened of conducting and checking the papers of thousands of candidates.
They also cause mistakes in the question papers of multiple choice questions and also subtract the marks by negative marking to the wrong attempted questions. The merit of candidates is also big issue for qualifying for interview and another is delay in final selection result. It takes two to three years for issuing offer letter until joining letter. Candidates are reluctant about the final selection during appointing process. The other query for fresh aspirant candidates is related to job experience to the vacant post announced by concerned department through advertisement is totally unfair because how a fresh pass out candidate from university acquires during his study years. How can he gain experience without job? Until and unless he serves in the concerned department, his talent is wasted.
MUJEEB ALI SAMO
Larkana
