WHERE war wins, peace perishes. This is what exactly happened in Ukraine. The clouds of war that were hovering over Europe for weeks, erupted suddenly when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country was going to carry out a military operation against Ukraine.

The consequences of this conflict will be catastrophic. No doubt Ukraine is the scapegoat for being lured by the United States and its allies into the Nato fold. This move was being tacitly manoeuvred by the US in order to keep Russia under pressure by gaining strategic benefit over Moscow.

To Russia, this step on the part of the US and other Nato countries was obviously a serious threat to its security. To put it simply, Russia-Ukraine war is another classical failure of the United Nations (UN) to prevent the planet from the vagaries of war. The UN was established with a view to maintaining peace across the globe, but to date, the global peacekeeping body has failed drastically in its avowed mission.

Though everyone is well aware of the bitter experiences of World Wars I and II, nobody is ready to iron out differences through meaningful dialogues between the two countries at war. Furthermore, the US decision to impose more sanctions on Russia is just like adding fuel to the fire. This will exacerbate the already volatile situation.

If history is anything to be believed, war never helps in promoting peace. Instead of depending on military might, the parties to the conflict must exercise maximum restraint and try to de-escalate the prevalent precarious situation through peace talks.

Muhammad Fayyaz Nawrha
Mianwali

A FAUX PAS: The recent reduction in fuel prices may aggravate the fiscal deficit position and force the government to resort to further borrowings. This is a frightening scenario that calls for utmost austerity. Instead of lowering the price of petrol, which is mostly used by private vehicles, the economic planners should have jacked it up along with the prices of all luxury items. Currently, the application of taxes is uniform for the affluent and the unprivileged.

Arshad M. Khawaja
Karachi

TRUST DEFICIT: Several decisions and pronouncements by the government in recent weeks have caused a trust deficit among the masses. For instance, in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the prices of petrol have been increased worldwide, which makes the decision to reduce the prices seems to be under pressure from the political opposition. Regardless of the reason, how will the government manage to keep things moving?

Huma Nawaz
Rawalpindi

COUSIN MARRIAGES: According to a study, children from first-cousin marriages have a high risk of genetic diseases and disabilities. In Pakistan, cousin marriage is playing havoc as around 100,000 patients are suffering from thalassaemia in the country, and every year 5,000 babies are born with this disease. The number of people suffering from genetic diseases in the country is estimated to be 14-16 million, and 1.6 million mutations have been found in Pakistan. This is all rather unfortunate.

Hamdan Sain Dad
Hub

FIGHT AGAINST SMOKING: This is with reference to the report ‘Pakistan ranked among worst-performing countries in cigarette tax scorecard’ (March 3). We should go beyond conventional strategies to curb the tobacco trade. Listening to the smokers’ views in terms of the help they need to quit smoking, making tobacco reduction part of the tobacco control policy, and ensuring accessible and affordable effective cessation services are essential steps to control smoking prevalence.

Junaid Ali Khan
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2022