CHANGE FOR BETTER: The outgoing army chief in his last public speech talked about the need for tolerance and acceptance, which he highlighted in the context of the prevailing political chaos in the country. Beyond the political parties, the whole nation needs to follow the advice and practise tolerance in all spheres of life. Individuals are the building blocks of any nation. If we change, the nation changes automatically.

Ummara Kashif
Rawalpindi

BEING PRIVILEGED: This refers to the editorial ‘Privilege and policy’ (Nov 24). As we all know, laws in Pakistan are made to be broken, but this ‘privilege’ is only for the rich who retain power. They are the ones who make laws, and are ‘allowed’ to break them. Recently, an ex-bureaucrat’s son killed an on-duty policeman in Karachi for simply asking for identification papers. During the argument, the person shot the policeman and fled the country even before immigration authorities could be alerted. This was some ‘use’ of privilege.

Haani Mustafa
Karachi

MEDIA COVERAGE: The recent International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) was an excellent opportunity for the country to boost its export of defence and security products, and to improve its image among the global community. However, the media coverage of the exhibition was somewhat disappointing as many mainstream print and electronic media organisations depicted the event as a ‘fun activity’, with photographs of visitors from the general public holding weapons in an amusing manner like children when they enter a play area.

Naveed E.
Karachi

DOUBLE STANDARDS: The ongoing World Cup in Qatar is a wonderfully hosted event, but there have been relentless campaigns from the West to find one controversy or the other. The Qatari government has rightly called it slander and double standards of the West. Such sporting events are meant to unify nations, and that should be the top priority.

Faraz Hassan
Chiniot

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2022