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.
Weighty school bags
Apropos to medical experts heavy school bags lead to damage to the spine and muscle which may go to have a negative impact on a child’s cognitive and learning capabilities. Some international researchers have suggested that the weight of school bags should be as low as 10pc of a child’s body weight. Furthermore, many students have to walk long distances to reach schools and back home, thus heavy school bags are a curse for them.
Currying heavy school bags is in addition to their daily homework and a leaden for students. One of the reason of getting strained for students is exhaustion which they feel because of carrying weighty school bags. It is just due to absence of proper facilities and arrangements. The government must provide lockers and cupboards to schools for books so that students may put their heavy learning materials in them.
FAIZA FAZAL
Kech
‘KP School Bags Act , 2019″
Recently, I came to know about “KP School Bags Act,2019”. Khyber Pakhtunkhaw Education Department has filed a worth applauding bill, according to which weight of school bags of Elementary and Secondary level students should be reduced, suggesting that each bag should weigh 15% of child’s weight.
This is very appreciating step by KP Education Department and let’s hope this bill soon converts into a law. I request Education Ministries of other provinces as well to take a notice on this very serious issue and lighten the weight off the children’s back. This heavy weight of books casts very negative impact on student’s mind resulting in lack of interest in books and studies. Besides this, heavy weight of books has many adverse effects on the physical and mental health of children.
MAMOONA SHAKOOR
Islamabad
Women as “symbol of sex” only?
God created this world, and in it He created human beings (both male and female) and gave them the title of “Ashraful Makhlooqat” (supreme of all the creatures). With such a title, it is proved that Almighty Allah has given respect to both male and female human beings, besides setting certain rights and duties for each other.
Allah Almighty has honoured a woman; no matter, then, she is in the capacity of a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife and has commanded that she should protect her chastity by not doing anything silly which distorts her pure image. But isn’t it really worrying as well as shameful that today’s woman is being presented in the world as a “symbol of sex” only? In many films, songs and dramas of the world, a woman is being treated and shown as a “piece of beauty” only and not more than that.
In other words, the positive and pristine image of a woman has been distorted to a great extent throughout the world including Pakistan. The songs like “Munni Badnam Hui” and “Sheela Ki Jawani” truly reflect as to how dignity of a woman is being corrupted and how she is being presented as a “symbol of sex” only. I would request to all such people to restore the original purity and sacredness of a woman by keeping her out of the “symbol of beauty” only.
ABDUL SAMAD SAMO
Karachi
Nepotism galore?
Ever since PTI government came into power, Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly reiterated his determination and commitment to create corruption free Pakistan. His led federal government also claims everything being done in a transparent manner without any nepotism and favouritism whatsoever.
But at least some members of the federal cabinet are reportedly doing contrary to what the PTI government claims and promoting nepotism and favouritism right under the nose of PM Imran Khan.
Almost more than 400 days of the PTI federal government and some cabinet members are taking ominous push back against “Naya Pakistan” and reportedly taking a grand U-turn towards “Purana Pakistan” by promoting their cronies left and right in flagrant violation of transparency and merit thus sabotaging the national institutions which quite obviously goes against the very reasons for which the people had voted for Imran Khan and his party PTI.
The Prime Minister is requested to take some time off his otherwise very heavy internal and external commitments and engagements and order an inquiry in the extra-ordinary pro-nepotism activities of some ministers particularly appointments made on their orders or instance during the last couple of months to ensure nepotism of any kind is strictly rooted out, merit and transparency prevails as time and again reiterated by him, please.
OSAMA BIN ASIM
Rawalpindi
What Ails Pakistan Ruling Elite
We live in a world where specialists in various fields, instead of civil or uniformed bureaucrats, can deliver. There is no place for men who consider themselves “jack of all trades”.
Ronald Reagan, the 40th President, a former actor with average intellect, was most successful president, because he had capacity for self-assessment and his personal limitations. He was elected as Governor California in 1966 and realized his own limited capabilities, relying on advice of apolitical specialists, not appointing a single crony. After two failed attempts he won nomination in 1980, defeating incumbent President Jimmy Carter to become oldest person at almost 70 years to hold this office. Reagan selected a team of highly qualified specialists to make policy decisions and when he left office in 1989 had approval rating of 68%, matching FD Roosevelt. Throughout his two-term tenure as President of USA, Reagan did not choose any of his former colleagues from Screen Actors Guild for prominent state assignments, because in his opinion it would be like blind leading blind.
The problem with Pakistan’s ruling elite civil, elected or military is that on assuming power they relied upon their cronies whose knowledge of economic, science, agriculture, education, health etc. was as limited as their own. In a country with no scarcity of highly qualified educated talented individuals, there is no justification of appointing men with no specialized skills, trained only as administrators to serve in policy making corridors. This has resulted in massive brain drain and erosion of former successful state institutions. Every uniformed dictator appointed his former colleagues and so did elected politicians with disastrous consequences for country. Imran Khan has made similar mistakes which MNS, AZ, Musharraf, Zia did. As long as blind lead the blind, Pakistan will continue to suffer
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
World Water Crisis
Water crisis could be a permanent stress for the world’s future. Within the past hundred years, water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of the human population. As water supplies continue to shrink, some parts of the world are facing a looming crisis. According to (WRI) World Resources Institute report in 2019, 17 countries in total are now experiencing extremely high levels of baseline water stress. WRI researchers have calculated that global water withdrawals have more than doubled since 1960.
It is a growing demand that no signs of slowing, and it is starting to get away from us. Today, WRI’s Aqueduct tool has identified no less than 44 countries experiencing high levels of water stress. Moreover, in this year the city of Chennai in India is close to running out of water while there is currently no global water scarcity as such, the United Nations say an increasing number of places are chronically short of water. Middle East and North Africa are the most water stressed regions. In fact, 12 out of the 17 most water stressed countries listed by WRI were located in this hot and dry regions, collectively known as MENA. Qatar, Israel, and Lebanon ranked in the top three.
India is the first country outside of MENA to show up on this list, although that does not necessarily mean its water issues are any less dire. With 1.3 billion people, India alone holds more than three times the population of the other 16 countries in the list. In MENA, the problem has more to do with recycling wastewater. Actually, over 80 percent of MENA’s water is not reused. Researchers at MIT say roughly half the world’s projected 9.7 billion people will live in water stressed regions by 2050.
If the world does not improve its agricultural efficiency, decrease its water use and recycle and reuse wastewater, water scarcity could be a permanent stress of future. In fact, water is the only and one thing that can save the world and living organisms. There is a dire need of saving the water and reusing wastewater in order to save the world from destruction.
IMRAN RASHEED, Kech
NCDs in Pakistan
As per the information shared by the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately 28 million people belonging to the low-middle income countries tend to die due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on an annual basis. In Pakistan, more than 52 per cent of men and 53 per cent of women under the age of 70 die of NCDs per year. It is an alarming rate for it reveals the bad condition of patients who suffer due to inaccessibility of medicines and lack of access to essential treatment needed in order to completely get rid of the disease. Therefore, people usually skip treatment and suffer the aftermath of the diseases they are suffering from. The country’s provincial and federal health departments must look into the issue of unavailability of drugs in hospitals and healthcare centres, and come up with solutions to cater the needs of the underprivileged.
MIAN MUHAMMAD DAWOOD MEHMOOD
Wah Cantt
Diabetes is increasing terribly
According to a report 38 million adults were estimated to be living diabetes globally in 2017. But this number terribly increased to 465 million in the on-going year and among them 55 million are only in Middle East and Northern Africa. It is also estimated that it is going to increase with the passage of time. Moreover Pakistan is among the top 10 countries with 19 million people living with diabetes.
Diabetes is the disease which makes the body unable to control the amount of sugar and body will not be able to properly use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar into energy. Moreover, if diabetes is left unchecked, it can lead to serious condition of problems such as, nervous damage, blindness, amputations, kidney damage and heart problems. It can become fatal if not checked and treated soon.
Along with other affected countries, Pakistan should take urgent steps for the prevention of this disease.
SAMEER ASLAM
Turbat, Kech
