"A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work." – Colin Powell

Going solar

Solar energy is a renewable source of energy and currently the entire world is benefiting from it. While Pakistan is slowly coming to terms with the importance of solar power, its progress has been rather slow. At the moment, most of our country’s power generation relies on thermal power plants; where electricity is generated through burning of fuels (e.g. furnace oil), proving extremely harmful to the environment. The government has its focus mainly on establishing and backing fossil fuel based power plants, and neglecting the country’s potential to utilise solar power. Efforts must be made to harness and utilise this natural resource to the nation’s economic and environmental benefit.

Saad Haque,
Karachi

Addressing gender disparity

We are living in the 21st century and yet gender disparity is a common issue of our society. With more awareness about their rights, the females strata of our society have just one thing hindering their empowerment and that is the lack of acknowledgment and acceptance of their talent as an individual. Despite being educated, most men find it hard to digest the fact that a woman can be neck to neck with them in different fields, let alone being ahead of them. Let us vow to eradicate these gender differences and encourage men to embrace hard work and quality output, even when it’s coming from a woman’s end.

Saleem Hasan,
Karachi.

Stereotyping in Pakistani dramas

The public really enjoys watching Pakistani dramas but lately I have grown frustrated because almost every drama portrays female characters as the damsel in distress, whereas educated and independent women are always viewed as immoral or viciously cunning. The entertainment industry needs to branch outside of its comfort zone and stop stereotyping women. We need to stop perpetuating the image of successful women as deceitful and rebellious. Dramas should instead focus on how challenging it is to be a working woman and why we should appreciate these ladies for all the sacrifices they make to juggle with family and office responsibilities. We have already had enough of the saas-bahu dramas and would like to see better content on TV. Our drama industry lacks inspiring characters that could help motivate and encourage women to pursue their dreams. This is especially important because a large number of young girls watch Pakistani dramas and are influenced by the characters they watch on television.

Sabeen Shah,
Karachi

Data protection laws

Every day, our phone are swamped with text messages from different businesses throughout the day. Is it just a coincidence that you get a text message about a business in the area you have just moved to? On a closer examination, it seems like a breach of one’s privacy. Pakistan needs to come up with stringent laws to prevent personal data to be leaked from legal frameworks. We need to enact laws to protect data from falling into the wrong hands and become subject to misuse. An independent authority must be established to give due attention to data protection compliances.

Miraj Hassan,
Islamabad