JOURNAL RECOGNITION SYSTEM: The much-hyped Higher Education Commission (HEC) Journal Recognition System (HJRS) needs to renew its rankings, as the list of approved journals has expired on June 30. Several emails to the HJRS have only returned empty assurances. Teachers are facing uncertainty regarding whether or not they should submit a paper to any of the relevant journals anymore. The HEC needs to speed up the already delayed process.

Dr M. Khalid Shaikh
Karachi

LARKANA LOADSHEDDING: The residents of Larkana, particularly of the local Bhains Colony area, are forced to put up with unscheduled loadshedding that consumes up to 15 hours of the 24-hour day. The outages make lives of the people miserable and bring activities of daily life to a halt. Contrary to its claims, the government has failed to provide uninterrupted electricity, but the amount of power bills somehow remains unchanged.

Abdul Khalique Jalbani
Larkana

FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION: Many in the country are directly or indirectly involved in corruption. Some people want to get rich overnight, while others pay bribes to get their work done. The people and the government need to work together to eradicate this problem. People must expose the corrupt officials, and the government should tighten its grip over the corrupt.

Abeer Fatima
Nankana Sahib

DISCRIMINATING BEHAVIOUR: Despite the clear order of the Sindh High Court in favour of paying a monthly allowance worth Rs25,000 to all government employees holding PhD degrees, the provincial government has made no arrangements. The government should pay the allowance to all qualified employees serving in different departments without any discrimination. If the amount is too much to bear, the government should reduce it to, say, Rs10,000 and pay it across the board rather than paying higher amount to some and depriving the rest.

Dr Syed Shakir Ali Shah
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2021