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.
Right person for right job
One of the important reasons for bad governance in Pakistan has been that we fail to place the right person at the right job. Such is the system that in politics, we make a choice of those persons as Presidents, prime ministers, chief ministers and ministers at federal and provincial set ups who have no prior education, experience, vision and guts for running affairs of their office.
For example, we appoint a person as a minister for Information Technology or Science and Technology who does not have necessary education and experience for understanding and handling the complex affairs of the ministry. Likewise, for ministry of education, we make a choice of that person who himself/ herself is semi-literate. There are various ministries for which we require persons having sufficient education and knowledge about these departments such as agriculture, religious affairs, finance, health, law etc.
Likewise, at bureaucratic level, we see placement of those officers who badly lack necessary education and experience of working on technical, financial, and legal posts. So much so, bureaucrats are made head of those projects, which are of purely technical nature and where they require relevant technical skills to handle the matters of that technical project. Hence, there is a need to appoint right person at the right place. Only then will we be able to get required results in a department.
ABDUL SAMAD SAMO
Karachi
Stray dogs
Stray dogs have made life of the citizens miserable. Leaving aside small towns, even some of the organised residential areas such as the Lalazar Colony near Thokar Niazbeg has become a haunt for the stray dogs.
You find them in every shade and size. They move in packs and terrorise the residents walking on the road, especially women and children. Some empty plots with boundary walls have become the favourite resting place for these dogs. The Lahore Municipal Corporation employs fulltime dog shooters, with guns and vehicles, whose duty is to shoot dogs and remove them from the site. Lodging complaints with the Society President has been a futile exercise. Most apathetic situation prevails in the society because, on one side, wild dogs prowl on the roads and, on the other hand, no anti-rabies vaccine is available in government hospitals.
Mind you, Lalazar Colony is supposed to be an upscale neighbourhood and if the situation in this residential area is so badly neglected by the LMC, the situation of downtown areas could be well imagined. Even though the society has its own security guards, they are of no use as far as residents’ predicament of facing mad dogs is concerned. The society holds regular elections but the office-holders happen to sympathise with stray dogs more than with the residents of the society, it seems. I am compelled to request the Chief Minister Punjab to help the residents to get rid of the stray dogs.
IFTEKHAR A KHAN
Lahore
Exam stress
Through columns of your esteemed daily, I would like to point out the level of stress being faced by students appearing in exams. As exams are nearing, stress level in a candidate keeps on increasing. On top of that, parents and family members have high expectations from student, pushing them under more pressure. The faculty of school/college and friend circle also expect a lot from them. Due to all of this constant pressure, students are mostly unable to concentrate on their studies and their mind keeps on drifting.
These activities are common every year in a student’s life before appearing for an exam. Usually, high expectations from family lead to nagging about perfection and comparison with other people. If the marks are not as high as expected, it pushes students into more depression and anxiety.
The people around should know more and stop “expecting” and start “encouraging” students. Students must always be reminded that they should always put in all of their efforts no matter what the result is. Encouraging talks between family and no comparison with neighbour’s son will eventually lead to a calm mind for a candidate appearing for exam. They then have hopes of scoring better.
HAFIZ BILAL SHAH
Islamabad
Cyber crimes
Through this letter I wish to draw attention to growing rate of cyber crimes and its harmful effects on society. A Cyber crime is real threat to any society. Today’s world is exposed to Internet and things are a few clicks away. And most importantly all the data is accessible to everyone. But there are a lot of disadvantages to it as well.
People are constantly buying online things and storing their personal bank account details on the Internet. Potential hackers look for such information to use it to their advantage, there have been many cases where people have lost a hefty amount of money due to phishing or other online frauds. Many people have experienced their bank accounts getting hacked.
In this online world, we all need a safe and secure space to conduct everything without being worried. That’s why in order to achieve this online safety, need of the hour is a strict cyber law and its proper enforcement. I sincerely hope our government is aware of these threats and will take necessary actions to prevent them and punish criminals.
NASEEM SHAH
Islamabad
