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.
Who is the actual loser?
Pakistan, once again, is wallowing in political, democratic and constitutional crisis. What has been going on since last three to six months – taking unconstitutional steps by both the government and the opposition in order to ‘’surprise’’ each other, does it depict a true sense of democracy? The PTI-led government says, it has won the game by defeating the attempts of horse trading and foreign intrigue. Contrarily, the opposition profess, it will get victory after the verdict issued by the Supreme Court against the unconstitutional act of the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly – rejection of no-confidence motion against the PM.
If both are the champions, then the question is: Who is the actual loser? One cannot escape the conclusion that State and its Constitution are the actual losers. Once again democracy proved ineffective in this country. I got astonished from the fact that no PM of Pakistan completed five-year tenure – the basic code of democracy. It does not mean democracy is not acceptable to this country rather it is the best form of government to welcome, also the vision of the founder of this state.
There are some politicians, who, due to their self interest of gaining power, tarnish the values of democracy. This is a moment of reflection for us that we could not implement the true sense of democracy in seventy five years of independence. If it continues in future it will not only deter our economic growth and political stability, but it will also attract geopolitics in the country. As it can be seen from the statements given by the major superpowers of the world – the USA, Russia and China – that ‘’ we are closely observing the current political developments in Pakistan’’.
ENGR ALI HAIDER
Lahore
Honourable Chief Justice
The whole nation’s eyes are fixated on the Supreme Court to bring an end to the current political detente. We, the ordinary citizens, have been subject to this political onslaught for last many decades. It’s mind boggling to see the tall claims by our key political leaders to fix the things which they themselves have broken. We had enough of democracy and as a nation we are thoroughly fed up by its gimmickry.
Extraordinary times need extraordinary measures. Kindly do the nation a favour by imposing a lifetime ban on all politicians and their families who participated in any type of elections be it national, provincial, local or any association etc. since the creation of Pakistan as they all have contributed to the mess in which we are all in today.
GHAZALA MALIK
US
Quest for quality education
There exists a few core necessities for having exalted prosperity, huge development, significant progress and mammoth growth of any society and nation.
Of these prerequisite requirements, education is the one. It is certain apparatus being proffered human beings with knowledge, skill, experience and intellectual capacity to cope with looming avalanches of challenges and difficulties.
Pakistan is hugely encumbered with so many challenges which include socio-political economic, cultural, diplomatic and so on. Unfortunately, all these daunting challenges are severely impeding the path leading towards the development, growth and progress of the country both at national and international fronts.
Not surprisingly, these challenges can be tackled provided pragmatic approach be adopted. Furthermore, one vital factor that can help in surmounting over all these big challenges is indeed an effective, sound and better education system which is the dire need of the hour.
Regrettably, our rulers have miserably failed to provide quality education to the masses—teeming with “retrogressive and conservative cerebration”. Our literacy rate is 58% as per the statistics of the government of Pakistan. This is way behind than that of the developed countries. Even in South Asia, we are behind disproportionately.
Moreover, our immediate country India possess 74% literacy rate while Sri Lanka stands at 90%. Pakistan, unfortunately, ranks at the world’s second highest number of out-of-school children with approximately 22.8 million in the age bracket of 05 to 16 years old. All these above-mentioned ingredients/factors highlight the deplorable and deteriorating condition of education system in our country particularly.
USAMA MUGHAL
Kandhkot, Sindh
Consanguineous marriages
In clinical genetics, a consanguineous marriage is defined as a union between two individuals who are related as second cousins or closer. According to a recent survey, in urban areas the percentage has increased from 51.3 to 53.1 percent while in rural areas the percentage of consanguine marriages is 66.9 percent.
Women are forced to do cousin marriages customarily. Most of the time they are forced to marry those who are less capable and competent than them. If a girl refuses to marry their cousin then she is killed brutally in the name of honour.
In a similar way, men are also pressured by family members to do consanguine marriage. Men are equally exposed to the threat of having an incapable and less competent partner. Sometimes they are forced to do so against their will.
In Karachi a man threw acid on his cousin after she refused to accept him as a partner. This issue seriously needs to be resolved. Due to globalization, more awareness about this issue is the need of the hour. Although the government has done legislation to combat this issue but still decisive and strict actions are still needed to tackle this major societal issue and control the schizophrenic people.
SARAH SAEED
Sahiwal
