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.
China’s successful SOEs
All State-Owned-Enterprises in China are being operated profitably, producing high-tech products, involved in research and development, because those who head these commercial enterprises are highly qualified professionals selected on merit. The State exercises strict regulatory controls on all these SOEs, ensuring that they are not burdened with providing employment to rehabilitate retired paid public office holders or political cronies.
China today has emerged as a leading financial giant. In Pakistan we have seen PIA being restructured and run as a profitable organization briefly during the tenure of ZAB who gave a free hand to Rafique Saigol. He reorganized the national airline and handed it over to Nur Khan. It was PIA’s glory period because the government ensured minimal political interference. Unfortunately, Nur Khan resigned within months when Zia took over, because of political interference and thereafter PIA has been on the decline.
A country with free enterprise economy must have an independent judiciary, rule of law and state institutions working within the ambit of a constitution, and only then can it adopt the practice that “it is not the business of the State, to do business”. In such democratic free market system countries, the state exercises powerful regulatory controls, who are answerable to both parliament and an independent judiciary to ensure that there are no cartels, no conflicts of interest, and abuse of power.
State assets, land etc in such countries cannot be allotted to individuals or groups, except for public interest projects with approval from parliament, or sold in open auction to the highest bidder, with funds accruing from such transactions deposited in the national exchequer.
Pakistan’s economy is neither a free market based, nor a country where the SOEs are operated on merit as is done in China. What we have is massive abuse of power by a few, who plunder state lands and assets, with a compromised regulatory control by the state, whose public office holders are captive to their conflicts of interest and unchecked insatiable greed.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
Heart
and soul
A man wedded a wonderful young lady. He adored her so much. On one occasion she fostered a skin sickness. Gradually she began to lose her beauty. It so happened that one day her better half left for a visit. While returning he met with a mishap and lost his eyes. In any case, their wedded life continued as usual.
However, as days passed she lost her magnificence step by step. Blind spouse didn’t have the foggiest idea about this and there was no distinction in their wedded life. He kept on adoring her and she likewise cherished him definitely. One day she kicked the bucket. Her passing presented to him an incredible distress. He completed all her last rituals and needed to leave that town.
A man from behind called and said, “Presently how might you have the option to walk isolated? Such an extremely long time your better half used to help you”. He answered, “I’m not visually impaired. I was acting since, supposing that she realized l could see her skin condition because of a sickness, it would have tormented her more than her skin infection. I didn’t cherish her for her beauty alone, however I fell head over heels for her mindful and adoring nature. So I professed to be visually impaired. I simply needed to keep her blissful”.
Moral: When you really love somebody, you will go to any degree to keep your adored one cheerful and at times it is great for us to act blind and overlook each other’s deficiencies in order to be happy.. The beauty will blur with time, but heart and soul will be the same. Love the individual for what he/she is from inside, not from outside.
VEEZISH AWAIS
Lahore
Unrelenting problem of child labour
Through the columns of your Daily, I am writing to express my deep anguish over the unrelenting problem of child labour in our country. I feel a little attention towards the problem will be enough to initiate new campaign in eradicating the problem.
The problem of child labour is quite widespread across Pakistan. In spite of the many anti-child labour laws, the problem continues to spoil the life of thousands of children. The adverse effects of this problem affect the growth, development and progress of our nation.
Not only millions of underage children are forced to work in factories, shops, glass-blowing industry, workshops, etc., they are paid the minimum of wages. According to Census data, there are more than 80 lakh child labourers (aged between 5–14 years) in Pakistan. Our country needs more and more skilled manpower to achieve the objectives of growth, development and advancement. With so many millions of children working menial jobs, without education, is a sure recipe of destruction.
Therefore, I appeal to the Government to take some proactive and tangible measures to stop this problem of child labour and must ensure education for them. Undoubtedly, there are many laws against child labour; however, their poor implementation is responsible for the continuation of the problem.
MUHAMMAD TALHA
Karachi
