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.
Reckless driving
Road accidents are increasing day by day. In a typical day in Karachi dozens of people lost their lives in traffic accidents because of reckless driving. Reckless driving has become order of the day.
Drivers on roads profusely violate traffic rules and thus play with lives of citizens including children, young and old people.
They do not observe traffic rules and take pride in overtaking other vehicles and jumping signals at the crossings resulting in fatal accidents.
Traffic rules must be observed, so that safety is ensured for all. Underage drivers and those driving without license should be punished.
A reckless driver who speeds away after knocking down a person should spend at least one rigorous year in prison. The syllabus of each class must contain one chapter on traffic rules.
The problem can be easily dealt with spreading awareness about the issue as much as possible and also by taking timely action. I wish authorities to act upon it immediately.
NEHA ASHRAF
Via email
Soaring prices
Prices of essential commodities have been increasing at an alarming rate. The soaring prices of items of daily use have become a big threat to people and a big challenge to PTI government. Price hike is worst of all problems because it directly hits the poor class.
Furthermore, a common man cannot fulfil his basic needs what to talk of providing good education to his children. Similarly if someone is ill good medical treatment is a distant dream.
Inflation, black marketing, overpopulation and improper distribution system are major causes of price hike.
It seems that this government is totally unaware of ground realities and has failed to check unusual price rise that is becoming unbearable by each passing day.
SHAHAN MURAD
Turbat, Balochistan
Questionable recruitment process
Candidates applying through Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) for recruitment face many hurdles yet most appalling factor is absence of merit based selection.
Upper class-candidates, whether qualified or not, pull their strings for recruitment process while poor yet qualified face total disappointment.
Recently, some candidates lodged a case against SPSC in the honourable court of justice.
The court displayed utter displeasure against the Chairman and stopped SPSC for further recruitment process and ordered it to come up with an unambiguous policy of recruitment within two months.
It is undoubtedly a good move for candidates of Sindh, yet many candidates who had last chance due to over age are in deep trouble.
Therefore it is requested to honourable court to order SPSC to conduct interviews of those who already have qualified written test under camera.
Those who qualify the interview must be recruited on the basis of merit. Thousands of candidates are awaiting honourable court’s decision in this matter.
IMTIAZ ESSA HALEPOTO
Jamshoro, Sindh
Peril of fast food
More and more people are getting affected by health issues such as diabetes and heart diseases, which are linked to over consumption of fast food and processed food.
Some people believe the only solution is to make fast food less affordable by taxing it highly. Despite severity of the problem, I think this is quite wrong.
Increasing the tax on fast food would unfairly penalize people and may not necessarily bring about desired health benefits.
Many teenagers spend money on fast food not because they need to eat out but because this is how they socialise. Fast food restaurants provide a safe, convenient place for young people to meet friends.
For another group, low-income families, fast food can provide an inexpensive treat for their children. Denying people a small pleasure in life could affect their social lives or happiness.
Another important point is that if reasons for taxing fast food are to reduce obesity, it may be ineffective. It is true that fast food is high in sugar, salt and fat all of which causes weight gain and are detrimental to our health.
However, we also know that there are other factors that contribute to risk of obesity, such as lack of exercise etc.
Although imposing a higher tax on fast food could have some positive effects, these would be outweighed by many drawbacks.
For one thing, some sectors of society would feel victimised, and there is also the fact that simply raising tax would not result in a much healthier society. What we really need is greater awareness of diet and cheaper healthy food.
SAWERA ANWER
Karachi
Failure of civil administration
Prime Minister Imran Khan recently addressed the nation after a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre and asked people to follow SOPs.
Prime Minister said that if whole nation starts wearing masks and follow SOPs, half of the problems will be solved and we’ll be able to curb the spread of this fatal virus.
He also said that if our conditions become the same as India, then we would have to impose strict Lockdown in the country, which is unaffordable for poor.
Prime Minister also called out Pakistan Army to ensure the implementation of SOPs in the country.
Today, we have around 0.7m active cases in the country. This is because of failure of policies that were adopted by civil administrations in the country.
We can see Twitter accounts of many Deputy commissioners and Assistant commissioner posting about their activities concerning implementing SOPs but ground realities are different.
Restaurants were operating normally. Dine-in was opened in many hotels. Public transport operations were going on normally.
No one in markets is observing social distancing. All these reasons are responsible for increasing COVID cases.
M ZAINYAB TAHIR
Islamabad
