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.
Border markets
I appreciate the government of Balochistan who has initiated the development work on as many as 13 border markets at frontier areas to boast business in the province. The border trade junction at Gabad and Mandredig of Gwadar district will be carried out in the first phase.
With the establishment of border markets, employment opportunities will be created for 20,000 locals from each market and the public will benefit from it. I request the CM of Balochistan to have such other work which would help public to work and earn their livelihood.
MAJID FAZAL
Kech
Bandhs aren’t solutions to problems
Hartals and bandhs have become a part of our daily life. All political organisations, irrespective of their ideological leanings, announce strikes quite often in protest. While it is their constitutional right to air their grievances and protest in the form of hartals, political parties as well as other associations must always ensure that strikes remain peaceful.
Strikes can be inconvenient for the common people in more ways than one and can also lead to immense financial losses. One report puts the estimated financial loss suffered by the Indian economy as a result of the nationwide bandh at Rs 32,000 crore. At a time when our economy has entered technical recession, any financial loss will only add to the miseries of the common people. The Centre must meet the demands of the protesting farmers. It is shameful that in an agricultural nation like ours, farmers have to struggle for months on end to get their concerns addressed.
JUBEL D’CRUZ
Mumbai, India
Metropolitan issues
Through the columns of your esteemed newspaper, I want to highlight the problem of rapidly growing metropolitan issues. Pakistan is among the most urbanized countries of South Asia. As challenges mount, urban planning is gradually finding space in the policy discourse. I would like to discuss the pace of urbanization and the major problems associated with it.
Urbanization has overbrowned Pakistan’s biggest cities so rapidly that they are unable to deliver public services and create more productive jobs. The problems associated with it are: over-population, inadequate infrastructure, lack of affordable housing, flooding, pollution, slum areas, crimes, congestion and poverty. This problem of over-population is caused due to the heavy rate of migration from rural areas to the cities. Flooding is a very serious problem faced in some metropolitan areas during the rainy season. The drainage is poorly constructed leading to difficulty in accessing the roads due to the flood leading to the flood disaster.
The growth of slums in cities is one of the serious problems created by the rapid industrialization and urbanization. The crime rate is also increasing due to the increase in population. Congestion is another main metropolitan issue. It could be in traffic and overcrowding. In traffic there is an overcrowding of a route, leading to slow and inefficient flow which makes movement difficult. At the end, I would request the authorities concerned to take some tangible steps to solve some, if not all, issues mentioned above.
RABIA SHOKAT
Karachi
Street crimes
This study is unique in its perspective as it considers both criminals and victims of street crimes. Through the convenience sampling method, 34 victims of street crimes were selected and interviewed. All the victims were students of the different universities in Jamshoro. The results indicate that all the victims belong to the young age group. It is interesting from the perspective of law and order that culprits used bikes that were unlisted or lacked license plates at the time of the crime.
The timing of the criminal activities was critical, as 79% occurred between 2:00 pm and 7:59 pm. Furthermore, 62% of victims belonged to University of Sindh Jamshoro. Insight into this type of misfortunate activity suggests that vehicles that are unregistered and/or lack license plates must be banned to control street crimes. There is a great need to polish the image of the police in public eye. Furthermore, “community policing” may serve better for this purpose.
IQRA LIAQUAT
Rawalpindi
