“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more.”
– Oprah Winfrey 

Catastrophic monsoon season

With the arrival of monsoon season in Karachi, and unexpected heavy rains, Karachites faced catastrophic after-effects which resulted in the death of approximately 20 people due to electrocution, urban flooding and poor drainage system of the city. Moreover factors like unsatisfactory disposal of garbage, residue of the slaughtered animals on Eid-ul-Azha and rainwater led to the surge of mosquitoes, infestation of flies and spread of fatal diseases. The government should take immediate steps to eradicate the ongoing problems brought by the rains and make fool-proof preparations for the remaining monsoon season as showers are expected to last till the end of the month, and Karachi cannot afford more destruction.

Alizey Muneeb,
Karachi

The forgotten national sport

Ask any Pakistani what their favourite sport is and the answer will always be cricket. But loving one sport does not mean we completely eliminate the interest, hype and focus on other national teams. Hockey may be our national sport and once when Pakistan was known to own the hockey fields has become an area of dying interest. The poor performance in the recent tournament was a wake-up call to improve team selection, training and more. The management despite pocketing hefty salaries is not showing any concern for improvement and that is also due to the lack of public interest in the sport. It is about time the national hockey team was given more exposure at home.

Muzna Arif,
Multan

Role of tech in tax evasion drives

In a bid to identify tax evaders, ‘house to house’ visits by tax officials is reportedly on the cards. The plan will commence from Sector E/7, Islamabad and will then cover all posh areas in the country. The apparent aim of this effort is to locate property owners and establish whether they are tax filers and if so, are they paying appropriately. In this case, technology needs to be used in a historical perspective to identify tax evaders. Going ‘house to house’ can be adopted subsequently to plug gaps. The ‘house to house’ approach was used during General Musharraf’s tenure with dismal results. Repeating a failed exercise will only let down the Government and waste precious resources and time.

Farhan Irfan,
Karachi

Parental pressure on students

With an increasing importance being given to the grades and relative performance of students in academics, it doesn’t come as a surprise that it comes with a lot more pressure for students to deal with. Pakistan’s education system puts an unnatural amount of emphasis on memorising answers than actually educating the students. Somewhere in the process of memorising and the inability to perform in such a system, students generally develop a mindset of not being good enough, which can prove to be very harmful. Recently, a boy committed suicide for getting ‘poor' grades in exams, and left a suicide note for his parents asking for their forgiveness. The boy's lifeless body was found floating in a river and was retrieved by the rescue team. What would our Pakistani parents rather have their children become? Healthy, positive and confident individuals, or depressed ones who end up taking their life?

Reena Hassan,
Lahore