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.
Water reservoirs
According to media reports water storage capacity in the country’s reservoirs have reduced by almost 30% or 5 MAF owing to silting in the last five decades and the proposed hydropower projects to be completed till 2025 the country will only achieve the storage it has lost since 1960s. Initially storage capacity in country’s three reservoirs was 18.645 MAF but was reduced to 13.681 MAF as around 4.965 MAF was lost due to situation.
The installed hydropower generation capacity in the country is 9406 MW. It is important to mention that Pakistan ranks third in the world among countries facing acute water shortage. Reports by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) also warn the authorities that the South Asian country will reach absolute water scarcity by 2025. Moreover, researchers predict that Pakistan is on its way to becoming the most water-stressed country in the region by the year 2040. It is not the first time that development and research organizations have alerted Pakistani authorities about an impending crisis, which some analysts say poses a bigger threat to the country than terrorism.
Furthermore, Pakistan has incurred total direct losses of $38.053 billion from 1950 to 2015, with 50% of it being incurred in the recent years, due to the shortage of dams which results in greater flooding. Government is executing a number of medium size dams in the four provinces and the government hopes that these dams would be completed on schedule. For the purpose, the Government should set up a system to monitor the progress and to ensure that the project is completed on time.
AFIA AMBREEN
Rawalpindi
Social mobility index dilemma
Pakistan ranked 79th among 82 countries on social mobility index of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on account of its poor performance in improving the quality of and access to education, health and employment opportunities. Social mobility refers to the movement in personal circumstances either “upwards” or “downwards” of an individual. It is an assessment of the impact of socio-economic background on an individual’s outcomes in life.
WEF assessment was based on parameters like health, education, technology, work and social protection and inclusive institutions. The WEF report stated that poor policy making and weak institutions are the main culprits for low levels of social mobility in developing countries. Apart from these, low literacy rate along with presence of multiple education systems is one of main reasons for low social mobility in Pakistani context. Education provides one of the most promising chances of upward social mobility. However, stratification of social classes and high wealth inequality directly affects educational opportunities for people, which in turn affects their chances of upward social mobility.
Higher level of social mobility means better opportunities for citizens to overcome inequality among different sections of society to reach their full potential. Despite a significant decrease in the number of people living in absolute poverty, Pakistan has a lot of room for improvement in providing equal shared opportunity. In order to improve ranking on social mobility index, Pakistan needs to improve the quality and ensure equity in education. Providing work opportunities along with good working conditions and social protection should also be on government’s agenda. It is important for Pakistan to invest in social mobility because a low level of social mobility might lead to damaging consequences for social cohesion and inclusive growth.
SHABBIR AHMAD
Via email
Non-functional oil terminals
There is a potential catastrophe brewing in our country. As you are aware, out of Pakistan’s three main oil import terminals, Oil Pier-1 and Oil Pier-3 are non-functional and are undergoing upgrades and repairs. Only Oil Pier-2 is operating at the moment.
It can be rightly said that these three oil import terminals are the jugular veins of Pakistan’s petroleum industry. It comes as a great shock that our country’s oil imports can so easily be threatened due to lack of foresight. The authorities say they will upgrade or repair the non-functional terminals but this will take eight months or so to make them both functional again. Knowing how fast repairs are done here, I am sure the actual time will be even longer.
As a concerned Pakistani citizen, my question for our relevant authorities is how and why are we so pathetically complacent to allow this state of affairs? God forbid, if something happens to Oil Pier-2, Pakistan’s oil sector would literally come to a standstill. This is indeed a grave situation. I would urge our planners to urgently find a solution to this crisis.
SYED OVAIS AKHTAR
Karachi
PTCL retired pensioners
I want to draw your attention towards PTCL retired pensioners issue. Pakistan Telecommunication Limited was privatized in 2008. After privatization their pensioners get half pension like government increase 10% per year but pensioners get just 5% and arrears have not been given to pensioners till yet.
My father was also a PTCL employee and took golden hand shake in 2008. The case is going on in court of law but every time honourable judges give a new date of hearing and it is getting delayed for the last approximately 12 years. It was my dream to study from a prestigious university and become an entrepreneur but my dreams failed to materialize due to non-payment of arrears to my father.
I request our honourable responsibles to please look into this issue because many orphan children are unable to get high education as well as many fathers are unable to get their daughters married and many widows asking for help to take full pension of their (late) husbands.
SYED AREEB A SALAR
Karachi
Fate of Ehsanullah Ehsan
The brutal massacre of 150 students in APS Peshawar in December 2014 was most heinous of terrorist attacks committed in Pakistan by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of TTP. Enormity and scale of this attack on innocent young children has left scars on thousands of their kith and kin and citizens of Pakistan who wanted justice to be given. This was Pakistan’s 9-11. Ehsanullah Ehsan was spokesman of this terrorist group which claimed responsibility of this brutality. He was involved in shooting of Malala Yousufzai in 2012. He was also involved in suicide bombing of Shias in Rawalpindi, killing of 9 foreign tourists and their guide in Gilgit-Baltistan and suicide attack near Wagah border and 2016 bombing of Easter gathering in Lahore Park that killed 75 innocent citizens and injured more than 300.
In 2017, he surrendered to Pakistan Army and was confined to prison. It is beyond my comprehension how this man managed to escape from jail. If this was a security lapse, lots of head need to roll. Criminals like him do not deserve any compassion. Lessons should have been learned which unfortunately is not visible. One fails to understand, why State should even contemplate giving concessions to men like Maulana Aziz, let alone agreeing to give him 20 kanals of land to build another seminary. What Pakistan needs are schools and colleges where affordable quality education be given in science, economics, arts, history etc along with moral science in schools, based on episodes in our Islamic history which highlights morality and ethics with tolerance for members of other faiths instead of extremism.
MALIK TARIQ
Lahore
Water scarcity
Pakistan is facing severe water scarcity and is not far away from being classified as water-stressed country. Water is widely wasted by the people of Pakistan without having knowing its importance. In Pakistan, we can observe that water is mercilessly wasted in the houses, offices and factories.
Pakistan is having less storage capacity, which is the major problem and the available sources like Mangla, Chahsma and Tarbela dams are continuously losing their capacity of storing water. Unfortunately, the government of Pakistan is unable to build consensus among the four provinces to construct more dams for the preservation of water. We can only get rid of this self-created crisis, if the federal government and governments of all provinces take strong initiative regarding this issue.
MARYAM NOOR
Wah Cantt
