Hard times

KARACHI: Pakistan is passing through difficult times. But the electronic media mostly gives wide coverage to political parties and politicians. On the TV screen, all the time either there are politicians or talks or opinions of or about politicians. It appears that nothing else is happening in the country. There is no threat to our borders. People are quite happy with this state of affairs. There is no inflation, no price rise, no unemployment, no law order problem. People are getting uninterrupted supply of electricity and water in their taps. The country is making great strides in education, science and technology and culture. This is the impression one gets while watching television. However, the bitter reality is just the opposite.

The only steel mill in the country has been lying idle for long. This has rendered thousands jobless. Other factories are closing down adding to unemployment. See the despondency on the faces of those who are being rendered jobless. The despondency writ large on the faces of workers can well be seen after they see their factories boarded up. People are being robbed, murdered, serious accidents continue to occur killing dozens of people, children continue to disappear and subjected to abuse. Budgets of universities are being substantially reduced. The standard of education is rapidly going down. Favouritism and nepotism are rampant in every walk of life. But our media has no time for these grave issues. The airtime is only for politicians and their great deeds which has brought the country to this sorry state of affairs. We are only trying to hide all these grave issues under the carpet. The people are in a state of oblivion. They only know what our great politicians are doing. This whole state of affairs is disappointing.

Sarmad Ali

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2019.

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