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.
Marriage halls
Some marriage halls were recently demolished by city’s local authorities in Karachi on the pretext that these were illegally built by encroaching upon government lands. Walls and entrance of one such marriage lawn were demolished in Bahadurabad area recently and video of this demolition went viral on social media. After two weeks of its demolition, walls and entrance of the lawn were rebuilt by lawn owner and marriage lawn is doing roaring business since then. If the marriage lawn was legal, why it was demolished? And if it was illegally built how come the demolished walls were again rebuilt?
Similarly, many marriage lawns and halls don’t even have kitchens of their own. Cooking, particularly barbecue dishes are cooked on footpaths which not only produces thick smoke that creates hindrance in traffic movements but also burn clothes of people travelling on two wheelers due to small pieces of burning coals that flies due to wind. Stray dogs and cats are often seen around this barbecue preparation leaving no doubt about the hygiene of foods being cooked. I have never seen any agency of local government taking action against such marriage lawns/halls. Are actions of local bodies nothing but eyewash or do they really mean serious business?
M RAFIQUE ZAKARIA
Karachi
India’s
water war
By violating Indus River Treaty 1960, India is busy building dams and barrages on all rivers flowing into Pakistan. The work on constructing 12 dams on Jhelum River and 20 on Chenab River is under way. 40 pc of Indus River water is being put into Brahmaputra River through an arcane mine. It has expedited on project of Kargil Dam—world’s third largest dam—on Indus River in Kargil.
Pakistan is an agricultural country and many of its industries are agro-based, whereas, it has one of the world’s largest canal systems built; it is well-thought-out strategy to transform Pakistan into a desert thereby destroying its agriculture system and make its canal system redundant.
Given the water terrorism of India, Pakistan should pursue WAPDA’s 2025 vision on priority basis, under which four storage reservoirs viz. Yugo, Basha, Skardu and Kalabagh are planned. In addition, Pakistan should raise Indian grave violations of abovementioned treaty on international forums to stop India.
ZAHID ALI ZOHRI
Nagar, Gilgit-Baltistan
Land mafia
Karachi is facing huge problem of land mafia for the last many decades. “China Cutting” is the living example of this land mafia. In the city map most of the areas are having public parks but in reality, this space is use as a personal property and also some mafia groups make it their business hub. Food stalls and Pan Cabins are also constructed on footpaths that disturb citizens and force them to walk on roads, which increases accident ratio.
Couple of days ago honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan gave order to break the unauthorised and illegal buildings and shape the city according to master plan. Issues are being highlighted for last 50 years but citizens didn’t get fruitful results. Property of many widows, orphans and retired senior citizens were seized by the mafia but who cares? We awake when it comes to us and consider ourselves as a living nation.
SYED AREEB A SALAR
Karachi
Child labour
Child labour is employment of children for work that causes them mental, physical and social harm. Child labour remains one of the major problems afflicting Pakistan and its children. We live in an Islamic state and Islam has given equal rights to everyone, but despite that people use their powers in erroneous ways and depend upon children to do different tasks.
Child labour in Pakistan is exploited mercilessly and it becomes worse when they are being exploited, separated from their families and as a consequence they get exposed to serious hazards, becomes ill and sometimes end up dying. I urge government to take some serious action against child labour to eradicate it.
DUA IRFAN
Karachi
Keep public parks clean
I want to draw public attention to importance of public parks. In Western countries, Parks are regarded as lungs in big cities. But unfortunately, the trend of going to parks is not very popular in our country. Parks are few in number. They are not properly maintained. The parks that are in a good condition have entry fees. Common people cannot visit them regularly.
Parks provide an opportunity for healthy activities for people of all ages. The atmosphere of in parks provides a serene atmosphere to old people. They can go there twice a day. The air is of great value for their weak lungs. Parks are an ideal place for children. If there are parks in residential areas, children can have fun there. It is necessary for their physical growth. In parks, they can play different outdoor games with other children and in this way, they can also develop a sense of co-operation among themselves.
Whenever we are free or we want an escape from dull routine of our daily life, we go to parks and get refreshed. They are necessary for our mental and physical fitness. It is the duty of every government to provide parks in every residential area and it is our duty to keep them neat and clean.
BISMA YAQOOB
Karachi
Road accidents in Balochistan
Highways and roads are very important for socio-economic prosperity of any country. In our country people of Balochistan are facing surge in deadly road accidents. There is just a single highway in Balochistan which is connects Karachi to Balochistan. Further, it is connected not only to Balochistan but also to Iran and Afghanistan. These two countries are getting benefits but their benefits are destroying lives of Baloch people.
From 2019 till 2020, 6600 people died in road accidents. As a matter of fact, this highway is now known as killer highway, as accidents take place every single day. If this highway is not improved now, this will further deteriorate the fate of passengers. Before election, PM Imran Khan proclaimed about the modification but I do not see any changes in Balochistan but rather increment in frustrations. He can ratifies safe roads for Punjab, KPK and Sindh but can not pass even a comment regarding the single road of Balochistan. How unfortunate!
I urge concerned authorities to take concrete action to resolve this issue. We cannot afford any more incidents.
SADDAM ANWAR BALOCH
Karachi
