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.
Government
promoting local manufacturing
Pakistan has suffered a lot economically, public is still struggling with jobs and necessities like electricity, fuel, gas and even economic consumer goods. During these tough times, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain and Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Syed Amin Ul Haq have commented and encouraged local manufacturing of various kinds of consumer goods especially local mobile phones. For the citizens of Pakistan, it is a great omen. Local manufacturing will enable the people of Pakistan to conduct business in the local sphere carrying out new economic cycles within our GDP.
The people of Pakistan have a huge potential in every industry, the mobile phone industry in particular has a lot of ground to be covered. Imported mobile phones are very expensive as they offer a lot of utilities to the customers. In these lines, our local mobile manufacturing companies must come up with great products having maximum consumer utility while being convenient in the pricing range.
Pakistan will soon be 5G ready as PTCL, Ufone, Zong and other telcos have already initiated the 5G technology. Naturally, it will be important that the consumers in Pakistan have a cost-effective 5G enabled product range that will be compatible with the state-of-the-art 5G networks.
ATIF IQBAL
Rawalpindi
International Day of Mathematics
It is shocking that teachers including Mathematics teachers in Zimbabwe are underpaid and the working conditions are appalling. One cannot add up the qualifications of Mathematics teachers in Zimbabwe and the salaries and working conditions they are experiencing because there is no logic.
The hunger and quest for Zimbabwean students to pursue Mathematics with high interest and motivation has diminished because the teachers in Zimbabwe have lost value and respect in society because of their miserable pay packages.
Mathematics is of central importance to modern society. It provides the vital underpinning of the knowledge of economy. It is essential in the physical sciences, technology, business, financial services and many areas of ICT. Zimbabwe was once the envy of Africa in Mathematics education but ZANU PF government destroyed all the achievements in education. The Zimbabwean President and his unstable government should reform education system in Zimbabwe and promote Mathematics education in Zimbabwe or should resign immediately.
KUDZAI CHIKOWORE
London
Condemnable behaviour
The recent incident of a group of people burning the face masks in Idaho in the US is bizarre and it deserves condemnation. When the people and countries have been encountering the coronavirus pandemic and aftermath to date, such silly things as burning the surgical masks must be discouraged and should be subject to legal action.
The hard truths that so many lives have been claimed by the pandemic worldwide cannot be taken lightly for granted. Still, countries have been in the middle of the virus pandemic, desperately crying for help. The mask mandate apart, COVID vaccines have to reach out to so many places out there in the world.
The media should concentrate only on those things relevant to the fight with the pandemic rather than giving attention to unnecessary things like mask burning incidents. As a serious recap, I still remember how the people and occupations had been severely affected in the middle of the pandemic in my native areas like Korkai in Tamil Nadu.
To end with, the countries and governments should take a lot more serious steps coupled with vaccines to end the pandemic sooner than expected aside from keeping such bizarre acts as burning masks under control.
P SENTHIL S DURAI
Maharashtra, India
Homelessness in Pakistan
Through the courtesy of your esteemed newspaper, I want to highlight the social issue of homelessness in Pakistan. It is one of the major problems in our country. Pakistan is one of the most populated countries of the world. Static shows that almost 20 million people are homeless in Pakistan. The main cause of homelessness is poverty. About 35% of total population lives below poverty line. A large number of people are jobless in our society and cannot afford their basic needs of shelter, medication and food.
Natural disasters also contribute a major role to homelessness. Due to floods, earthquakes and climate changings, people have to leave their own houses. They have to sleep on footpaths. As they have no shelter so there is no guarantee of safety of their lives and luggage. The Government should pay serious attention to it and should start different housing schemes and shelter house systems for them.
FAREEDULLAH
Quetta
Charging double fare
is unfair
I had a bizarre experience the other day. Some passengers were going to Jamshoro from Dadu in a van in which the majority was of students. It is sorry to say that our country’s transporters have become too much greedy and selfish that they cannot compromise even with students. They collected fare of four hundred instead of two hundred and fifty rupees from everyone sitting in the van.
However, everyone sitting in the van particularly students requested the conductor not to increase actual fare. Resultantly, van driver stopped the vehicle on the spot and ordered everyone either get off the vehicle or pay the amount of fare we want. Apart from this, they (the driver and conductor) in their mobile phones took photos of the students because of insisting a little on this illegal act. And all the students were threatened if anyone of them would report against transporters, he would have to face a lot of problems in return. On the one hand, passengers are charged double fare that is illegal.
It would be no exaggeration to mention here that the students sitting in the van had reported immediately against this malpractice but received no response in return from the authorities concerned. How long, on the road N-55 (Dadu-Jamshoro) people will have to face this issue. Therefore, I approach the government with the request to pay attention to this public issue. Media should also voice against the malpractices exercised by transporters so that one who is poor can at least get the benefit from the law existed in the country against this corruption and malpractices that has been done since long time.
ABDUL JABBAR BALOCH
DADU
