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.
Tax evasion
From day one, Pakistan has faced the malady of tax evasion and this is one important reason why the country has not been able to make any progress on the financial front.
For many years, it has been the effort of the Federal Government to put in place a Track and Trace system so that tax evasion can be prevented.
The sectors that had been initially selected for this purpose were tobacco, cement, fertilizer and sugar.
Nevertheless, the said Track and Trace system was never finalized and the sectors in question continued to evade taxes, as did all other sectors.
It was a happy omen when the contract was finally given by the Federal Bureau of Revenue to one firm recently to monitor production of the tax evasion prone sectors.
Installation of a Track and Trace system has also been made mandatory by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if Pakistan is to seek future funding from it.
However, when it was found that the firm to which the Track and Trace system was awarded was culpable of committing conflict of interest, the Sindh High Court granted a stay order since, allegedly, there was a lack of transparency in the award of the five-year deal which was worth no less than Rs.25 billion.
The decision of the SHC is really laudable. It is hoped that all requirements of the bidding process will be met in a fair and square manner so that Pakistan can finally have a proper Track and Trace system.
AQAM-UD-DIN KHAN
Karachi
Foreign scholarship opportunities
Most of the students have dreams to get higher education in foreign countries. Students have some hurdles to fulfil their dreams such as lack of financial support, home issues and lack of scholarships.
Another side, Higher Education Commission has recently announced different foreign scholarships for undergraduate and master students.
Although HEC has announced multiple foreign scholarships for Pakistani students, they (students) have multiple difficulties to get them.
Therefore, I want to draw attention of the authorities concerned towards a big issue i.e. most of the students feel difficulties to fulfil forms and they don’t have proper guidance and awareness about scholarship process.
There are multiple issues such as filling forms, documents uploads, currier, scholarship assistance etc; and they don’t apply for scholarships or their forms are rejected.
In order to avoid these problems, HEC should go through some process such as there would be a proper seminar, platform for queries, video update about form and other guidelines are included so that the students don’t feel any difficulty to fulfil the forms.
Hope the authorities would pay heed to the genuine request/demand of the students.
WASAND ALI LANGAH
Sukkur
Covid-19 and ignorance
The dilemma of Covid-19 has put the country into two different school of thoughts. One who believes the sheer amount of damage done by the SARS cov-2 virus to be true and others see this to be just a myth.
The amount of people who doesn’t believe the existence of the virus gradually fading away seeing the nationwide damage done by it day by day.
This virus has made us realize the importance of our life in real terms. It has enabled us to look after one another more cordially than ever before.
The city where I live has got very little and fabricated knowledge of the disease. Much of the people aren’t aware of the actual damage this virus can do to a person. SOPs are set of rules never heard in my city.
Lack of knowledge about the procedures to halt the disease combined with the ignorant nature of the people gives rise to a society that encourages Covid expansion.
Awareness about the disease must be encouraged and people must be enlightened about the depth of the disease.
Precautionary measures should be entertained and a much more serious approach be made to halt further damage.
SAUD UL MULK
KP
PPP’s Sindh Govt
Once the PPP was a people-friendly party under the charismatic leadership of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. Both were supporters of democracy, and sacrificed their lives.
It is irony that the Party’s present Sindh Government has failed to solve the problems of common people.
People of Sindh are suffering from a plethora of issues such as corruption, nepotism, favouritism and list is a quite lengthy one.
In a nutshell, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has failed to provide relief to the common men.
We, the downtrodden of Sindh, appeal to the Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari to kindly exert their influence on the CM to please make people-friendly policies.
SARFRAZ SOOMRO
Sukkur
