ATTESTATION FEE: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is charging Rs1,000 for attestation of an original document and Rs700 against a photocopied document. Such exorbitant charges are unjustified by any yardstick. The HEC should not turn attestation into a revenue-generating stream to bolster its budget.

Mustafa Abdul Husain
Karachi

REVIVING K.C.R.: To fully revive the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project, the government should remove all encroachments on the railway tracks. Owing to negligence on the part of the government, people of Karachi have been suffering immeasurably. It is more than a year now that the orders of the Supreme Court in this regard have not been complied with. The possibility of handing over this responsibility to Pakistan Army may be considered with full legal cover. After all, it is called up during catastrophes, like earthquakes and floods.

Safir Siddiqui
Karachi

TROUBLESOME MONSOON: Karachi was plunged into darkness after the first monsoon rain because K-Electric feeders tripped and people had to bear lengthy outages. Consequently, pumping stations stopped working, causing water shortage in the city. People are now aware of these problems and tackle them on their own because they know that the authorities concerned will not do anything.

Ammara Nadeem
Karachi

BI-ANNUAL HUMILIATION: Like every pensioner, I have to provide proof of life twice a year to draw my meagre pension. I fail to understand why the bank staff loves to humiliate old people by making them run from pillar to post. We live in the digital age. The authorities must consider introducing an app for the elderly so they can give proof of life from the comfort of their homes. Some of the banks already have a biometric verification feature for their customers in their respective apps. Why not provide a similar facility to the pensioners and save them from the bi-annual humiliation?

H.A. Karim
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2021