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.
Monopoly of transporters
Ordinary people are living a miserable life. No one is ready to pay heed to their sufferings. It appears that all the saner voices that call for reforms or any positive development in society are falling on deaf ears. Tall promises are made on an occasional basis, but nothing concrete is done. Peoples’ condition is pitiable and getting worse with every passing day. Corruption and mismanagement are deep-rooted and can’t be rooted out through any superficial and half-hearted measures.
There are innumerable problems that people face and the mental agony that they pass through every day is unspeakable. However, I am to draw the attention of those at the helm of affairs towards the monopoly of transporters throughout Sindh in general and in district Mirpurkhas in particular. It is not a hidden secret that when there is a lack of implementation of laws, a few self-serving people reap the benefits of such laxity and try to exploit others for the fulfilment of their own selfish desires.
Public vehicles that ply from Naukot to Hyderabad and from Naukot to Mirpurkhas are owned by a very few individuals. They are capitalist in their orientation with strong political connections. They have a deep nexus with transport authorities/officials. The point which needs due attention is that the owners of these vehicles, in collusion with a few officials, do allow a very small number of their vehicles to ply which causes a lot of inconvenience to ordinary people particularly those who travel on a daily basis.
Owing to this deliberately-created shortage of vehicles, people have no other option but to wait for hours at bus stops and to travel in overloaded buses. Even a glance at conditions in which people have to travel daily, moves one to conclude that in our country there is no respect for the ordinary people!
SHAKEEL GHOURI
Mirpurkhas
Afghan peace process
Ongoing talks between the United States and the Taliban ignited some hopes to bring this decades-long conflict to an end. However, trust deficit coupled with the Taliban’s refusal to accept the Afghanistan government and increasing acts of insurgency can jeopardize the whole process. Earlier, talks were suspended after the US accused the Taliban leadership of violating terms of the initiative. The Taliban are also insistent on their demand of immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from the land, but, as per some sources, America, before pulling out troops, wants the Taliban to cooperate with the Ghani-led Administration, which they have denied.
This provides Pakistan an ample opportunity to actively engage with all regional players-politically and diplomatically – to bridge the gap and move these talks forward. Already, it has played key role in persuading the Taliban leadership to join the negotiations. Now, it should use its clout to convince them to participate in the intra-Afghan talks for the betterment of regional stability and prosperity.
ABDUL HAFEEZ JATOI
Hyderabad
Filling the formalities
In our country, government schools have ever been worst instead of improvement. As we are well aware of the fact that the government schools play vital role in terms of providing education but here the teachers are just filling the formalities, they just complete the syllabus without any teaching. When exams are taken, the students will cheat fearlessly. That is why private schools are full of toppers, genius, whereas the government schools are full of weak, narrow-minded and clumsy students.
If we compare the students of government schools and private schools, the students who are studying in government schools will be defeated in the first round. The government and teachers are responsible for it. Therefore, the higher educational authorities are requested to look into this issue immediately otherwise this catastrophic issue will increase the risk of illiteracy rate.
PARVEZ MOULA BAKSH
Malir, Karachi
Child trafficking
Through your precious newspaper, I would like to draw the attention of parents and government towards the issue of child trafficking. As we very well know that children are not able to protect themselves as well as they don’t know what to do or what not to do in a precarious situation. So, it is the responsibility of parents to guide them and they have not to leave their children alone in any insecure place as well as the government has to deploy security forces where the traffickers can traffic human beings. Each year almost 1.2 million children are trafficked in the world.
The children traffickers’ aim is exploitation of children, whereby they use the services to garner illegal interest. Thus, the government has to catch child traffickers and to provide security to children in the country. Also the parents and elder (brothers, sisters etc) have to take extra-care of their cute children.
PARVEZ MOULA BAKSH
Karachi