April 2arachi.
My job with the SSGC was not only a source of earning for me but also a strong message to the menfolk of Baloch community that a woman can stand firmly and with dignity on her own feet and that she is not inferior to her male counterpart in any sense.
This also encouraged a number of girls of my community to get admission in schools and colleges.
But in 1997, all of a sudden the Nawaz Sharif government started downsizing and I, along with other trainees recruited during 1995, was removed from service. I even did not file a suit against the SSGC as did the others and am awaiting for justice since then.
Now whenever I urge the people of my community to get their girls educated, they ask me one question: “What did you get from higher education?”
I appeal to the President to order restoration of my service with the SSGC.
RAZIA DILMURAD BALOCH
Karachi
Newsmen’s walkout
I READ newspapers to get objective reporting, not personal reactions of annoyance and intolerance. The reaction of the reporters is a classical example of the type of intolerance found in our society.
It is the duty of a reporter to report objectively and without any bias. The walkout by reporters during the Faisalabad rally was unjustified and uncalled for.
The reporters had no business exhibiting a semblance of trade unionism at a public rally. This is what they can probably do with their newspaper owners who are reluctant to give them the benefits of the latest wage board award. Wiser counsels should prevail and my advice comes in that category.
ENGR KHALID QURAISHI
Karachi
Overseas voters
THIS is with reference to the Election Commission’s declaration on April 16 that overseas Pakistanis will have the right to cast their vote in the forthcoming referendum. It was stated that Pakistan embassies and consulates abroad will have full information as to the modalities of casting the vote.
However, when I telephoned the Pakistan embassy in Washington as well as the consulate general in New York, both of them said that they have received no information in this regard from Islamabad.
It appears that overseas Pakistanis in the United States will remain deprived of their right to vote in the referendum.
KHURRAM SHAMSHER LALL
Orlando, USA
Saving the saviour image
GIVEN the backdrop of the highly charged political and economic events of the last three years and Gen Musharraf’s leadership that steered the country through these challenges, it would seem that a vast majority of Pakistanis believe in his leadership and are willing to give him a mandate to continue reforms, paving the path for a sustainable political infrastructure.
However, Gen Musharraf would have done himself tremendous good and to the country’s political future even more if he had turned in his uniform, stepped down and contested the forthcoming October elections.
It is evident from the recent events concerning the referendum issue that the saviour image of the ‘man of hope’ is being tarnished because of the presence of some crooks of previous regimes, around him. This would not only undermine a healthy political evolution, bu |
