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.

overpopulation and its consequences

What is actually overpopulation?It is where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment.Pakistan is one of the fastest growing countries in the world.  Pakistan is one of the country's who is facing this problem.With its scarce resources Pakistan has to face dis problem. According to the latest surveys Pakistan’s population has reached up to 174.59 Million.

   The main cause for the rapid growth of the populations is due to the unbalanced growth rate.As Pakistan is the third world country the awareness among people is lacking.The growth rate is amongst the highest in Pakistan about 3.1% per year.By the year 2020 it is expected that our population will reach 208 Million.

   One of the other main reason for the overpopulation is people moving from smaller cities and villages.In this way, rural land is remained unused and cities become crowded having high density of people.This also effects the efficiency of the systems and the government neglects development in rural areas.

   There are many problems which have risen in Pakistan due to overpopulation.There is lack of energy resources such as gas, petroleum and electricity as consumption is higher than what is being produced.It also causes shortage in food supplies.

   Due to overpopulation in Pakistan there is uncleanliness everywhere due to which the living conditions are unhygienic.Many diseases spread. It leads to overcrowded living conditions, malnutrition and inadequate, inaccessible, or non-existent health care; the poor are more likely to be exposed to infectious diseases.

  Not only this but crime rate also increases which has risen in Pakistan since a few years.As people have big families they tend to indulge in crimes to fulfill their family needs.Not only dis suicide rates have also risen in the past few years.

   Therefor,Overpopulation indirectly and directly causes a lot of problems.Therefore,major steps have to be taken to stop overpopulation and more awareness should be created among people. 

Muhammad Hamza Mir

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