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.
Library in a shambles
Library is meant to be a place where students and other seekers of knowledge can study easily yet unfortunately such libraries or readers’ clubs do not fit in our government’s priority. Although Turbat is second largest city of Balochistan, there is only one public library in this city. Condition of this library is deplorable.
Thousands of students come to this library on regular basis yet because of limited number of chairs and reading facilities students have no choice but to sit in the park. The library lacks facilities including no arrangement for clean drinking water. It’s time to realise role of libraries for promotion of healthy educational environment and advancement of knowledge.
ABDUL QADIR
Via email
People’s
concern
Rising inflation has made public life difficult. The situation is such that it is difficult to get three times meal, as rates of daily life commodities are too high. Unbelievably, a cup of tea requires Rs 50, while a Roti is priced Rs 20 and same is the case with other items of daily use. In such a miserable condition, our leaders are not thinking about people. Politicians visit their constituencies only at the time of election. After getting elected, they remain absent from the scene till next election.
Have they ever thought seriously that how people manage their lives in this time of brutal inflation? The need of the hour is to think about people’s fundamental concern. Leaders should bury their hatchet and join their hands to lead the nation towards progress. For this, they should at least sit together in Parliament sessions, think over practical steps to reduce unemployment, inflation, poverty and hunger.
ASIF MEHMOOD
Attock, Punjab
Expression through poetry
It has been long since we humans started verbal communication. Today on Earth, about 7,139 languages are present. Some are complex yet we can still learn them and easily understand them. It is easy to understand words of a language, but not every time. In every language, there is a hidden language present, mostly used to express feelings, emotions, pain, fury and that is poetry. We humans have not been able to find the first use of words as poetry, and we do not know when and where we first used poetry in our language. But we can guess that it has a long history because in every language, poetry is present. Poetry is not only sentences with beautiful fluency and rhythm of words, it carries love, hope, frustration, war, history and pain as well. Only a poet can tell what the poem actually means, but still we can understand and feel them when we relate ourselves to feelings of the poetry. Poems are not just about words that can be easily understood by us they carry feelings and emotions, which makes them language of the heart, understood only by those who listen to their heart.
USAMA MUGHAL
Kandhkot, Sindh
Qesco’s negligence
A precious life was lost only due to Qesco’s negligence and irresponsibility. On 12 June 2023, a member of Qesco team Ijaz Sabzal was asked to remove electricity fault in his area. He duly informed relevant people to switch off power as he was going to climb the tower. When he started his job power supply was restored, he fell down due to severe shock and received critical injuries. He was taken to teaching hospital at Turbat but due to lack of facilities was being shifted to Karachi but died on the way. The man always attended his duty, yet due to negligence of his peers lost his life. By widowing his wife, his children became orphans while depriving an ailing mother her son who was support of her remaining life. Strict action must be taken against all those who were responsible for this carelessness.
SHEMA ABDUL WAHID
Turbat, Balochistan
Street beggars
Karachi, according to an estimate, has around 300,000 beggars who are currently present in different areas of the city. These beggars belong to different cities and towns of Pakistan and have come to Karachi in order to earn through begging. However, these beggars not only beg but also commit different crimes like rape, snatching, mugging and some times killing innocent souls. Unfortunately the number of beggars is increasing with every passing day because of high rate of inflation and unemployment. Another figure highlighted that there are more than 25 million beggars in Pakistan and a great number is in Karachi. I request concerned authorities to control begging in order to make Karachi free from such issues.
MAHNOOR BAHADIN
Via email
Poverty cycle
According to the UN 10 percent of the world’s population lives on less than $ 1.90 a day. Globally 368 million are living in extreme poverty. Globally 23 percent of people don’t have electricity and 40 percent do not have clean fuels for cooking. Approximately 2200 children die each day due to poverty.
According to a survey, in Pakistan the poverty rate was 61.6 percent in 1998 that has reduce to 21.5 percent by 2008. But it is also a fact that 77.69 percent of population lives in poor conditions. 60 percent of labours depend on agriculture. In rural areas, it is possible to reduce poverty by adopting modern agriculture techniques and government must formulate and implement polices for a prosperous and sustainable future of all segments of society.
BANADI BALOCH
Turbat, Balochistan
Blamed for wrongdoings?
Our maid said that her fellow maid – who has just joined this profession – stole a scissor and a bar of soap from her employer’s home. After listening to this, I was thinking if maid could be blamed for stealing these items. Currently, our country is facing an economic meltdown and as a result we are facing very high inflation and prices of items of daily use have gone sky high. In such a scenario what one can expect from people who can hardly make two ends meet? Keeping aside everything, our religion Islam says that we should earn and eat fairly, without hurting anyone. However, despite knowing so much, masses are doing illegitimate acts. Whether or not one agrees, people themselves choose to be a culprit for fulfilling their desires. Sustenance is a basic human necessity. Not only are people being qualified aren’t getting to do anything, but also those people who are qualified enough aren’t getting jobs. So, again, who is responsible? Inflation, government, or people themselves? Zonish Muneer
Via email
Box letter
Free food in schools
In many countries provision of free education and free lunch is arranged to deserving students from low-income groups. It has been observed that students, who are unable to get balanced meals, lost their capacity to focus during classes. In our country 23.9 percent of population lives below the poverty line. Free food programme in schools would be a great help to needy and poor families, if it were successfully run under a government policy. Nourishing lunches would help sustainable health for future generations. Any kind of soup, pieces of bread, cucumber salad, milk and porridge should be constituted in a typical lunch in free food school. This is to ensure that giving all children free lunches will raise academic standards and interest of young children in gaining education. Every child should get the chance in life they deserve. Unfortunately, for decades, our so-called democratic governments have failed to provide relief to people in every aspect of life. It serves as a stark reminder to government to mobilise funds for free education, health and sustainable foods, as it is the right of a poor community. Such economical, affordable and low cost projects would not burden any government. It could also be arranged with the help of donors.
SYED SADAQAT HUSSAIN
Karachi
