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City of Retired Bureaucrats Since the shifting of capital from Karachi to Islamabad after costing about Rs 60 billion, a very nascent stage of the independence of the country in the year 1960, and at a very distant place of about 1500 kms away from one corner to another corner, various types of buildings have been constructed in almost 50 years of its shifting from 1960 to 2010.The Capital was shifted with an utmost objective of having a very clean and pollution free atmosphere with wide and spacious roads, parks and greenery and attractive environments but with the approval of concessionary plots at very low prices by the discretionary power used by the high authority of the Govt. to all employees and bureaucrats serving in various ministries and organizations, corporations, Banks, companies and others who made construction of their plazas, high buildings and houses with the result that the original concept of pollution free environments has vanished and at every corner one can see the over congestion and pollution of traffic jams and rush of people going here and there due to migration and settlement of the retired employees and high bureaucrats. The city of small and single storey, clear and clean buildings has been now a city of glamour of buildings, narrow roads and parking places. Even with the shifting of Naval, Land and Air forces Headquarters even from Karachi to Islamabad has created more congestion, narrow spaces loosing all benefits of the original objectives of shifting Capital from Karachi to Islamabad within the years of 50 to its shifting. More civil amenities have therefore reduced to a very harassing level like shortage of water, gas, electricity, parking, narrow roads, traffic jams, traffics pollution and other unhygienic conditions. People have been compelled to climb on the Margalla mountain and started building housing societies. The residential houses have been built alongside the Lahore G.T Road at its Eastern side and G.T Road Peshawar to its Southern and western side. Even at its Northern side, alongside the Muree Road, people have started building houses and flats. This shows the neglence of planning of the CDA and Islamabad authorities to allow such over expansion and extension to the capital city of Islamabad. Each year, the Government of the time awarded concessionary plots to all their favourite bureaucrats who reside in Islamabad after their retirement. In this way, they left their original native places and resided in Islamabad along with their future generations. As such if authorities allow retired bureaucrats to reside in Islamabad, surely in a century time, no space will remain vacant in Islamabad and Islamabad will be connected with Murree, Lahore and Peshawar having all sorts of ills and evils in city of the capital of the country loosing all its objectives of shifting from Karachi to Islamabad. It is therefore advisable not to allow any expansion of Islamabad city .If Govt. has sympathy with retired people, they may be allowed discretionary and concessionary plots to the retired ones at their distt. of domiciles and not at Islamabad otherwise all will suffer from pollution and other natural difficulties.
DR ALI AKBAR DHAKAN
Education: solution to women’s plight THIS is with reference to the law passed in the lower house of the parliament towards eradicating domestic violence in Pakistan. According to it, “Those found guilty of beating women or children would face a minimum of six months behind bars and a fine of at least Rs100, 000”. This law indeed marks the ’beginning of a new day for Pakistani women’. However, the million-dollar question remains: will women ever find themselves in a position to raise their voices against their male counterparts -- be it their fathers, brothers or husbands -- when they are clearly dependent on them for everything? The uneducated population, which has forever been fed the idea of males being superior and hence capable of doing whatever they want, will not discard these beliefs in favour of those liberating the weaker sex. Thus, there is little doubt that our country needs a lot more than just passing and commemorating laws that liberate the traditional Pakistani woman. It is indeed unfortunate that domestic life is seen as an extremely private issue in Pakistan and hence there is absolutely no intervention from anyone in such matters. The image of a traditional Pakistani woman also entails a woman to ignore maltreatment from her male counterpart, giving her little room to exercise her powers to call up the police and ask for help. The result of all this will not be surprising -- most cases of domestic violence will continue to be unreported, bringing us back to exactly where we started. Therefore, these laws can be seen as a short-term solution to an extremely sensitive issue that needs relatively more attention from higher authorities. Most of the problems women face in our country can be eradicated if a strong move is initiated with the sole purpose of educating women. Educated girls become educated women who in turn influence families, communities and nations, thereby creating ripple effects across generations. Freedom for women constitutes not only containing the menace of domestic violence but getting rid of age-old traditions of categorising such behaviour as morally correct in our society. Protection from domestic violence is a woman’s basic fundamental right, and it is about time that they are made aware of this fact.
M. ISMAIL AKMAL
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