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.
Unequal justice
Without any doubt, everyone in Pakistan knows the alleged killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud on 13 January 2018 by a fake encounter staged by the SSP of Karachi’s Malir district, Rao Anwar (in-)famously known as “encounter specialist”, but law itself was lawless to catch the culprit. Before death he was kidnapped along with his two friends. However, they were freed but Naqeebullah was kept in captivity, tortured and then killed in a fake encounter in which he was shot twice in the back.
Very soon, the brutal killing in the shape of encounter sparked country-wide protests and a large number of people stormed to streets to protest against extra judicial killing but still officials treated Rao Anwar with deference and supporting the demeanour of a man who knew he had nothing to fear. The record of the Karachi police itself implicates the senior official in no less than 444 deaths in such operations but no action had been taken for his gruesome run of murders until the death of Naqeebullah.
At this point, the state had a golden opportunity to turn the page on police brutality and extra-judicial killings and demonstrate no one, absolutely no one is above the law. But the former SSP successfully evaded the law and not yet brought to book, which indicates the sorry state of legislation and their implications of only citizens not officials.
SAMEER UMRANI
Malir Karachi
Unruly ANF recruitment tests
Anti-Narcotic Force recently announced over 500 vacancies comprising Sub-inspector, Constable, Assistant, Steno typist, Photographer and all the way up till Driver, Naib Qasid and sweeper. An estimate of 271000 job applications were received by ANF. The department charged 350 rupees fee per application. But test arrangements were extremely pathetic and disappointing. Since the past one week tests were being held at Jinnah Sports Complex Islamabad.
A large number of the youth appeared for test and very nominal amount of staff were appointed to manage such bulk of people. No signs were placed for the applicants to guide them which way to go. After waiting in long queues they were telling that it’s not your Que. After passing this Godwin Austin, there was another Mount Everest waiting, the applicants had to take recruitment test sitting on the road. And only a bunch of them was allowed at a time. Therefore, hundreds of students (male/female) had to wait until their turn comes by luck.
In all such chaos, some wardens from Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) appeared and announced that car lifter would be removing vehicles parked on the roadside and in green belt shortly as the South African Cricket team is about to pass from Srinagar Highway. They said, due to security concerns they had to perform their duty to ensure the international team’s safety. And then a lot of candidates who were waiting to appear in the test had to leave fearing their cars could be damaged by the (unruly) police wardens.
Whole Srinagar Highway was jammed due to poor management and lack of coordination between departments. Now the question is who is responsible for the students who paid the fee and had to leave due to such disorder and were unable to take the test, what about waste of time and resources of those who came from far away cities. A big question mark remains on face of ANF top management????
M JABRAAN BASHIR
Islamabad
School for girls
The National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) has opened a girls’ community school in the village Tup Mamakhel Serai Naurang in Lakki Marwat district (KP) with the objectives to: increase net enrolment of female students, decrease drop out to less than 10%, provide quality education to the students of primary level through capacity building of the teachers, improve governance of the government schools through community participation in the affairs of the schools and develop better liaison between the community and the line department.
The objectives laid down for the establishment of the NCHD funded schools are, no doubt, ideal and worth appreciation, but their achievement, prima facie, seems a far cry. How can a school give better output and meet the objectives if it is divested of the basic facilities required for it? Can the little girls be interested in going to schools where black boards and chalks are not available, what to speak of the books essential for guiding the young kids? No.
The village Tup Mamakhel School is facing a similar situation in the current competitive academic period. Neither writing and reading materials are available nor are mats for sitting of the young girls existing there in this extremely harsh and chilly weather. And above all, the two local lady teachers engaged by the NCHD for teaching the students have not been paid salaries since May 2020 to date.
If spiritual mothers consuming their energies for building future architects of the nation have no salaries for seven or eight months, how can we expect them to be delivering in an effective manner and achieve the set goals. The federal government especially Chairman NCHD is requested to look into the requisites of the school and take prompt action for the provision of the basic material and books and ensuring payment of salaries to the teachers in order to achieve the basic objectives set for its future development.
GULDAR ALI
Lakki Marwat
Fraudulent in digitisation
The speedy world has become digitized now and everything has a second easier way due to it. Typically, most of the people prefer online shopping culture since they make purchases just sitting at home. During the pandemic more and more people are choosing online shopping. Despite giving so much of worth to online shopping, the companies trick the customers.
Lately, my brother ordered some electronic material from a famous online shopping company. Dishearteningly, the products he received were totally different from the products in the pictures that were posted for selling that he chose. However, many times the products are broken and second handed that’s why they do not last for too long. If someone calculates then besides the prize of the products and the commission and tax, companies demand more money.
Due to this fraudulent practices, such purchases from online shopping are nothing but waste of money. Such companies have looted a score of innocent people. The concerned authorities are requested to take care of such cases. Digitization should be a cause for the development of the country rather being a misery for innocents.
FARAHNAZ
Turbat
