Our national shoulds on 14th august

Our national Shoulds on 14th August

We are celebrate   14th August as our independence day once more. I as a Pakistani, propose fourteen SHOULDS on this occasion. These SHOULDS, I promise can change the destiny of our country but this requires   paradigmatic changes in our national priorities. Here goes the list:

1. Education should be at the top of our priority list with at least 20 percent of our annual budget spent on providing quality education to the people of Pakistan.

2. As a sage once said, 'If you want to see the condition of a nation, see the condition of the teacher'. So teachers should be the most valued (in the real sense of the word) people in the country.

3. Our hospitals should be our second principal priority after education.

4. We should make every effort to establish complete peace with our neighbouring countries including our arch-rival India. In this regard we can learn from European countries such Germany, France, and the UK.

5. We should devote ourselves to spreading a network of playgrounds in each and every city and town and village of our country.

6. There should be a network of libraries in each and every one of our cities and towns with latest books, magazines, journals available, and with computers and internet facilities

                                                                                          

7. There should be immediate and complete ban on pressure horns on roads and streets and gradually the ban should come down to any kind of horns, of course people need to be educated through electronic and print media against indiscriminate use of horns

8. There should be a centrally controlled system of mosques in every city and town. The Imams should be properly educated, trained, should be at least secondary school graduates and should be recruited by the local administrative authority. They should be paid adequately for their services with the help and cooperation of the local population. The Friday sermons and teaching of these Imams should be monitored closely and they should be trained and educated to present the peaceful, inclusive, humanitarian face of religion to the people .This will guard against the tendency of turning religion into a sectarianism, extremism and the resultant violence.

9. Democracy should be embraced, nurtured and practiced in the true sense of the word and for that to happen efforts should be made to take the power centre out of the feudal class and to bring it down to the reach of the common people. The first step in this regard is for political parties to themselves become truly democratic and shun hereditary and dictatorial practices prevalent inside their ranks. Our armed forces once and for all decide not to ever interfere in our political system and confine itself to it constitutionally rightful place: that of the guardian of our (primarily) external security and (if need be) the internal security. Let soldiers be soldiers and not political leaders. Let us for the coming thirty years, at least, try democracy in its true sense and then decide which way to go. Let our democratic system correct its own course without anymore interference. Let us show to the world that we can be truly professional in our respective fields, whichever that might be, as soldiers, military officers, teachers, doctors, politicians, lawyers, judges, engineers, bankers, religious leaders, farmers, labourers, craftsmen, technicians, journalists or people from any other profession. 

10. A Pakistani nationalism based on an international, humanitarian philosophy should be nurtured through a nationwide system of inclusive education. The purpose should be to broaden the horizons of the Pakistani youth to feel a part of the rest of the world instead of looking at every other nation as an enemy out to destroy our dear country. For this the concept of 'positive national ego’, should be promoted. This will help the Pakistani youth feeling a responsible part of the rest of the world, shouldering the burden of the entire humanity instead of asking others to always extend a helping hand to our sinking ship.

11. Strength in terms of economic and social development should be our primary goal driving our national policies and not just military might and our capability for destruction. Live and let live should be our motive from now onwards if we really want to continue to exist and flourish in the comity of nations in the twenty first century.

12. Rigorous measures should be taken to control our dangerously growing population, which is already beyond our means. Poverty, illiteracy, ignorance and a false understanding of religion are primary source of this menace. The role of religious leaders is of special importance in this regard. A majority of our rural population devotedly listen to and follow the sermons of our Imams who unfortunately actively encourage people to produce more children and discourage them from population control which they think is an act against the will of God. This perception must be changed and religious leaders must be educated, trained, made aware and later on used as a task force to create awareness among our people against uncontrolled population growth

13. An important indicator of the degree of civilization of a society is the way women are treated in it. Women emancipation through a process of education and awareness among the masses should be one of our top priorities. Pakistani women are exemplary in their devotion to their families and the welfare of those around them and this extraordinary source of our strength must be taped by giving them their due place in the social, economic and political spheres of our national life. Again the role of religious leaders is of primary importance in this regard, who unfortunately think of women as nothing more than a tool of domestic utility . These religious leaders use their enormous clout as opinion makers against the economic and social freedom and autonomy of our women. This trend needs to be changed and women be brought into our national life as equal partners and stakeholders.

14. We should, as a nation make it a core principle of our national ethos, that a society cannot live for long in the presence of injustice and endemic corruption. It should, therefore, be one of top-most priorities to clean up corruption in our legal, administrative and political system, to have an independent, well-paid judiciary and an excellent, efficient and corruption-free police force.

P.S: Does it look like a loony dream? Well, may be. But then many dreams come true.

Maria Asim

Section D 

PTA bans list of 1600 'obscene' words from text messages. SERIOUSLY ?!

    You may all have come across the news that PTA (Pakistan's Telecommunication Authority) is contemplating to enforce a law that would result in the ban of using over 1600 words that PTA has deemed obscene or vulgar.

For some this may seem as a strong move to get rid of vulgarity and crudeness, but for me it seems to be a pointless and a baseless decision that would do more harm than good.

    Not only would it will be an extremely difficult task for the local mobile service providers to implement the decision but it would also be next to impossible for the users not to use some of those fairly innocent words.

    The list contains fairly innocuous words such as glazed donut, tongue, bull, deposit, fairy, bull. 

- How on earth is one going to order from the best fast-food restaurant in Lahore - Cock n Bull ?!

- What if I feel like having a glazed donut in the middle of the night and cant text my friend to get it from Dunkin Donuts. Should I now refer it to as 'The-Donut-That-Must-Not-Be-Named' ?

- How would banks go about their daily routine of bothering us poor souls with texts that remind us we have not made bank deposits for a long time. 

- What if someone has nicknamed her daughter fairy and text her to check whether she is safe outside.. the text may not even reach her thanks to our country's amazing policies.

   PTA has ridiculed itself by releasing the list and suggesting that the words may no longer be used. For most of us 99% of the words were not even used by us and 90% of the words were never heard of before. This move has sparked reactions from the citizens of Pakistan and they wish to oppose the ban. The controversy is ongoing on twitter as well under twitter hashtag - #PTABannedList - 

   The ban may give rise to the debate of the free speech in a democratic country. If an organziation can control what we can or cannot say, who knows what they can do next.

The entire list of banned words can be found here : 

   

GOD SAVE PAKISTAN

- Abrar Salim Chohan - 

is a student at Lahore School of Economics

studying Marketing and Media Studies.

How Pakistan Army Marveled in 2010

How Pakistan Army Marveled in 2010

Pakistan army is the 7th largest army in world. It has some achievements in 2010 which have gone unnoticed and I felt that these should be brought into the attention of the Pakistani youth.

A soldier of the Pakistani Army set up a Guinness world record by planting maximum plants in a time period of 24 hours by an individual. Muhammad Yousuf Jamil, Lance Naik in the Pakistani army, succeeded to sow 20,101 plants in 24 hours breaking the former world record of 15,170 which was made by Ken Chaplin, a Canadian citizen in 2001.

Pakistan Army’s Wrestler Azhar Hussain won 1st Gold Medal for Pakistan in 55 Kg free style weight category at 19th Common Wealth Games New Delhi, India by defeating his Nigerian opponent E.Welson. He has also won Silver Medal in Greeko Roman category at 19th Common Wealth Games and has brought laurels for the whole Pakistan nation.

Pakistan Army Win Gold Medal in “Cambrian Patrol” which is said to be one of the toughest patrolling test for military personal.

Exercise Cambrian Patrol is an annual patrolling competition that takes place throughout the Cambrian Mountains of mid-Wales. An internationally recognized military exercise, previous participants have included numerous European states, in addition to Commonwealth countries and the United States.

            These achievements have been off the war zone and show the capabilities of our army while they are in their homeland and not on the border. This indicates that Pakistani army marvels not only during the war but also when they are inactive.



Mian Hassan Nasir 
Sec D

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF PAKISTAN

The enormous debt that Pakistan has taken in the past and present has not been spent on important development issues like health, education, and infrastructure, but mainly on defence. Pakistan spends less than 2 per cent of its budget on education and less than 1 per cent on health. The rest of the world by comparison spends about 20 per cent on health and education. As a result of low spending, 75 per cent of Pakistanis are illiterate and about 50 per cent do not have access to health care facilities and clean drinking water. Pakistan is ranked 116 of 127 countries in education and 100 of 127 countries in health by World Bank and IMF.
The biggest national security threat to Pakistan, in my opinion, is that of financial bankruptcy. In the worst scenario, financial bankruptcy can force government to close public schools and hospitals and temporary power shortages might become permanent. Moreover, clean drinking water might not be available to the people. Some tests conducted recently by international scientists showed that drinking water in Pakistan, in villages as well as major cities like Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Karachi, is contaminated with bacteria, chemicals, and lead. Studies have shown that lead can cause mental abnormalities, especially in children. Also, Pakistani government might even fail to pay its own employees. This is what happened in Zaire just recently where soldiers started looting and shooting after not getting paid due to lack of funds, killing thousands including the French minister to that country.
I recognize the legitimate defence requirements of the military, however, Pakistan cannot afford to spend more than what it earns. Pakistan's defence expenditure of about 40 per cent of revenues is one of the highest in the world. The rest of the world (including India) spends less than 20 per cent of its revenues on defence. This excessive defence spending has drained Pakistan's economy and has undermined our national security. Other countries that spend a high percentage of their budget on military include the former Soviet Union, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Their experiences prove that economic weaknesses and military adventures only result in misery and tragedy to the people and destruction to the country involved. The best defence for any country is a strong economy. In surveys undertaken in US, a majority of Americans considered Japan instead of Soviet Union as the bigger threat. Why do they fear Japan - a country with a small military force and no nuclear weapons more than the former Soviet Union - a country with the largest military force in the world and 30,000 nuclear weapons! Because they understand that in this era economic soundness can do a country far more good than a large military machine. Soviet Union used to spend about 40 per cent of its resources on military but the military failed to save a country that was economically weak.
It is time that we change our priorities from non-productive defence expenditures to productive expenditures such as health, education, infrastructure, etc. Increase in productive expenditures today will help the economy grow in the future and therefore, more revenues can be raised by the government. This will in turn allow for increase in defence spending in the future without putting undue burden on the economy.
Today Pakistan is almost bankrupt and foreign donors have also refused to provide any more aid until Pakistani government cuts its defence expenditure. If the Pakistani government decides not to cut defence expenditure then the only other option it has is to keep on printing currency which will result into even higher inflation. Inflation is running at about 20 per cent according to many estimates. And my own prediction is that inflation can reach 100 per cent a year in 2 to 3 years. This means that price of every thing will double every year. Similar excessive government spending and mismanagement has resulted in inflation rates of 1000 per cent or more in Latin American countries in the past, and former Soviet Union even today. Many people in Pakistan do not understand how inflation is going to affect them. It is the duty of the economists and journalists to provide people with information that they need to defend themselves against inflation. Here I will provide a brief overview of inflation.
Lets say you can buy a pair of shoes today for Rs. 100. Instead you feel that the government is offering you an attractive interest rate of 15 per cent and decide to invest your Rs. 100 in a bank or a government savings certificate. Your Rs. 100 will become Rs. 115 after one year. However, if inflation rate is 100 per cent, the price of that pair of shoes will be increased to Rs. 200 from Rs. 100 in the same time period. Therefore, you have actually lost a significant portion of your investment. You would have been better off buying the pair of shoes today. With 15 per cent interest rates and about 20 per cent inflation rate even today people are actually losing the value of their money in banks without even knowing it.
If you invest your Rs. 100 at 15 per cent for 5 years, it will become Rs. 200 at the end of 5 years. However, your Rs. 200 will be worthless than Rs. 10 if inflation is running at 100 per cent. Many people in Pakistan keep their money at home rather than in a bank. They will suddenly find that their money is worth only a small fraction of what it was just a year or two before. Millions of people can loose their life time savings this way in a matter of a couple of years, all because of mismanagement and excessive government spending by the bureaucrats.
There are ways an ordinary person can reduce, if not eliminate, the impact of inflation on his/her money. One way is that instead of putting money in a bank or a government savings scheme invest the money in some business. If the investor does not have the know-how or time for a business, invest in the stock market. Studies have shown that business profits do not drop significantly with inflation because firms can increase the price of their products. Another way to protect against inflation is to buy something material rather than keeping cash. Property might not be the best investment to buy as the real value of property might fall during inflationary periods. Yet another way is to keep the money in a foreign currency, say dollars instead of rupees. Today $4 is equal to Rs. 100. However, with 100 per cent inflation there is a very good possibility that $ 4 will equal Rs. 200 after a year. And a final thing that people can do, and certainly should do, is to put pressure on the government to set its priorities straight. Cut defence and civilian government spending, privatize white elephants like WAPDA, PIA, Railways etc., and use this money to pay off the huge debt Pakistan owes before it becomes too late to avoid destruction of the country.
FAIZAN HASSAN MIR
SECTION D

Worst Traffic Conditions!

Current Traffic situation is an ever-increasing nuisance. With road accidents claiming up many invaluable lives and damage to property, it can be assumed that safety is a neglected concern in traffic management. Moreover, traffic mismanagement causes a queue of cars on the roads, causing unnecessary delays, noise pollution and fuel inefficiency. Not only is this situation psychologically frustrating but poses a serious threat to the road communication in Lahore, impacting the society in many undesirable ways. As Traffic problems speak of the growing inefficacy of the civil services and security, there is a strong need to take up this matter seriously and to suggest various policy and practical measures to overcome the negative outcomes.

This clearly reveals that the government has failed to manage the traffic system. Another reason for which traffic authority is unable to fulfill its duty is the problem of road engineering. Most of the roads are still the same as they were ten years ago. But the number of vehicles has drastically increased. There is illegal construction of buildings, shops and even houses which further decreases the area of roads. With more number of cars on these roads, there is less room for vehicles which enhances the chances of accident.Roads are mostly blocked because of the protests and rallies. In which people without thinking of others burn the tires, busses and whatever they get. This causes a long queue of public and private vehicles and wastage of time, fuel and property. In a country like Pakistan where the fuel prices are increasing day by day, this is a big disaster.VIP movement causes citizens to wait for several minutes and the whole traffic stops. Due to this, valuable time of people is lost, roads, which are already narrow, are filled hence it causes long queues of cars. Over-speeding is another problem that requires attention. Even though instructions about speed limits do exist but no one pays any heed to it.


Other than Government Our society is also at fault; especially the ir negative attitude towards the traffic system. This is because people are habitual of bribing and abusing traffic police officers.Education programs should be organized by Government to educate the people and overcome the traffic crisis.




Muhammad Farhan Shafi
Section :D

Our country Our voice

                                                                   

Today our country is encountering issues like extremism, poverty, corruption and what do we do about it ? We sit around, watch the news and mock the politicians. We go around telling people how much we love our country and we can die for it but do we really do anything ? Why would we since we're so busy living our lives, polluting the streets and blaming the leaders for the menace this country is in .WE ARE TO BLAME !

In this era of chaos and crisis Imran Khan seems like a ray of hope. All the other major political parties are directionless, corrupt, opportunist and tested. It's time to bring about a new leader who can lead this damaged country to prosperity. Let's be apart of a possible change so in the upcoming years we can face the future generation rather then telling them "I had a chance to make a difference and be a part of a change but i was too busy criticizing the political system. " There might be times when you might think it's one thing to be a fair captain on the cricket ground but to become a leader of a confused nation is an inevitable bumpy ride for a lifetime . Well stop thinking and do something about it ! Sure Imran Khan regime of power may not guarantee a solution to the country's never ending problems but it's worth a try. Imran Khan paved his way through the historic rally in Lahore 30th Oct 2011 , we just have to give him a path.

We have a choice: support , vote and help Imran Khan or take our ailing country to the same old politicians who sank it's boat in the first place .

I've made a choice , it's about time you made one as well !

Sana Iqbal Imran 

Sec : D

PML-N OUT IN THE COLD

                PML-N OUT IN THE COLD

Since the wave of change has begun from Minto Park Minaare-e-Pakistan Jalsa of PTI, PML-N has lost its mind.
The massive public support to PTI right in the heart of PML-N fort lahore, has surely made their nights sleep-less and right ofter the Jalsa all the cadres of PNL-N starte uttering ridiculous statements. With every passing day these anti-PTI statements have got more and more ridiculous. The biggest goon of PML-N Mr. Rana Sanaullah came out with his best non-sense talk beating his previous best against Late Salman Taseer. Despite his loose talk Rana Sanaullah was unable to grab attention as everyone took it as normal routine of Rana.

And even the statement from the Gen. Nawaz Sharif was not a shocker as he accused Army of backing Imran Khan and warned General Kiyani to stop this right now. The wounds 12 October 1999 carried by Sharif has not healed yet and has made him insecure regarding Army. He always blame Army and agencies of conpiracies against him but never talks about his royal attitude towards Army and they way he has humilated Army twice during his rule. He was responsible for bringing forth Pervez Musharaf thorugh non-transparent process and by by-passing the deserving and competent Generals just to serve his personal liking. Musharraf proved to be a cancer not only for Sharif but also for the entire nation whether it be Economy, Politics, Army, Society, religion and Judicial sytem. Pakistani nation has paid heavily for this un-forgiveable mistake of Nawaz Sharif
Does't it amaze you that agencies and Army as claimed by PML-N were able to bring out so many people out of their homes to participate in PTI jalsa. It means that the popularity graph of the Army has risen which was badly affected by the acts of Musharraf. Lets suppose that Army is supporting Imran Khan, then whats  wrong about it. Army is one the most important organs of Pakistano state and the most powerful also. If they are inclined to an honest and upright politician whom they think will take this crisis-ridden nation out of this chatotic situation then what crime they are committing.

I (Murtaza Abbas) have never attended a political rally in my entire life and have no political affiliation whatsoever but Imran Khan’s 30^th october rally was the first i have ever attended and  was not forced by anyone to go there nor were any of the other people who were present there at that point of time to witness a change in history.

Listen  PML-N , Imran Khan has not been backed by military establishment, he has reached to this point after long and hard struggle. They are just attracted to him due to his neat and clean character, his unquestionable patriotism and dedication to serve the Pakistani nation and his heroics in Pakistan cricket. The continuous struggle of Khan speaks of his mental and inner strength. Attaining, this very position in this society which is politically misguided and is dominated by Fuedal partnership between 2 parties PML-n and PPPP, was just a miracle and a man of Imran Khan's caliber can make such micracles happen. The roar of Imran Khan has awakened the nation and nothing can stop this change from coming.

SYED MOHAMMAD MURTAZA ABBAS

SECTION D