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.
PDM and Madrassah students
As everyone knows that the date of long march has been finalised i.e. 26 March by the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) President Maulana Fazlur Rahman. The decision to drag all the students of Madaris into long march is not a good idea. In response to it, PM has strictly ordered the Interior Minister to prevent seminarians from joining sit-in seems a good idea.
As getting seminarians involved in politics will cast a shadow over the political discourse. The Madrassah students should pay attention to their studies. However, if we look at the past – it reeks of hypocrisy – we can see that when IK was in opposition he had too staged long march, dharna and had a bit of help from religious scholar Tahir-ul Qadri. Additionally, many of Dr.Qadri’s supporters were Madrassah students who joined PTI Dharna in 2014 in Islamabad. At that time, IK did not mind the inclusion of seminary students in demonstration and in politics as now he is doing so.
In Pakistan, where religion and politics are cheek by jowl , it would be impossible to implement any restrictions on seminarians participating in political activities. As above clearly mentioned that seminary students should focus on their studies, while political elements should not drag them into politics for their political purposes and it is also for those who have leveraged the resources in the past.
IRFAN ALI QAZI
Karachi
Post-colonial elitism
Recently, a video went viral on social media of two restaurant owners of Islamabad, who were interviewing their restaurant manager in English language and asked him to introduce himself in English, facing the camera. The reason for this nonsense was to get entertainment because they were bored.
Rather he responds well enough in English, but his accent was not much perfect as the western accent. They both laughed at him saying, is this the result of his English language courses for which he was paid with a high salary. This is seriously disgusting and the sign of low mentality, to tease a man for his speaking accent in front of camera.
This video is a clear picture of bullying and harassment. It also highlights the relationship between class and language. English, the language of the elite class is seen as a marker of success and prestige. An English spoken man is considered superior over others.
Some institutions mandate students to speak English language none another one. Elite class children tend to speak English by birth and all their education is done in English, so what he/she learn from it! That result in instances like the one in the restaurant.
Urdu speakers are still considered as uneducated or inferior because their accent is not much perfect as the western accent. In a society, speaking English is a sign of proud and superiority. Firstly we need to change our minds about this. Instead of judging people, we should appreciate them as much. This severe issue should be resolved by taking all the required measures against it.
USWA NAEEM
Lahore
Lean production techniques
One of the key factors determining the success of a business is how it grapples with the problems arising out of constantly fluctuating market forces, which subsequently lead to unanticipated, and indeed, sometimes unprecedented irregularities in the demand and supply of a particular commodity. While market forecasting has rendered many businesses great services in this regard, such problems continue to exist, especially for tertiary businesses that deal primarily with the sale of value-added food items such as fast food chains and restaurants.
While pre-ordering large amounts of stock, or, in the case of consumer perishables, keeping low amounts of inventory may seem suitable ideas to many, there are numerous complications that arise. So what are our alternatives? There are production techniques that seek to eliminate the disadvantages we have seen above, while simultaneously retaining the benefits of both over and under stocking. They are called ‘lean production techniques’.
There are many different Lean Production Techniques: 1. Cell Production: In this, the labour is divided into workgroups, each of which specializes in a certain aspect of a job, with more than one workgroup doing the same job. 2. Kaizen:
Under this, workers have two tasks-firstly, to perform the job itself, and secondly, to find better, and newer ways to do the job. 3. Just in Time: Also known as inventory management, this ensures that there is a cost effective amount of inventory available, neither more nor less.
HASSAN ALI
Islamabad
Lent
Lent, the period of prayer and fasting for Christians in preparation for Easter is 40 days long. But there are 46 days between Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar and Easter Sunday. How can that be? The answer takes us back to the earliest days of the Church.
Jesus’ original disciples, who were Jews, grew up with the idea that the Sabbath – the day of worship and rest – was Saturday, the seventh day of the week, since the account of creation in the book of Genesis says that God rested on the seventh day. Jesus rose from the dead, however on Sunday, the first day of the week, and the early Christians starting with the apostles (those original disciples) saw Jesus’ resurrection as a new creation and so they transferred the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
Since all Sundays – and not simply Easter Sunday – were days to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, Christians were forbidden to fast and do other forms of penance on those days. Therefore, when the Church expanded the period of fasting and prayer in preparation for Easter from a few days to 40 days (to mirror Jesus’ fasting in the desert before He began His public ministry), Sundays could not be included in the count.
Thus in order for Lent to include 40 days on which fasting could occur, it had to be expanded to six full weeks (with 6 days of fasting in each week), plus 4 extra days — Ash Wednesday and the Thursday, Friday and Saturday that follow it. Six times six is thirty-six, plus four equals forty. And that’s how we arrive at the 40 days of Lent.
JUBEL D’CRUZ
Mumbai, India
