LIFE BEYOND MEDICINE: Among the professions considered lucrative and ‘prestigious’, medicine tops the list in our society. This notion makes parents put pressure on their children to pursue a medical degree. This pressure actually works negatively for a massive number of students. Even among the medical students one can find many who are there only because their parents wanted them to be there.

Most of such individuals end up being bad doctors, or do not practice at all, which means wasting a seat that someone more inclined towards the profession may have made use of. There is life beyond medicine, parents!

Himayat Abdali
Karachi

ENDLESS WAIT: I had applied for three posts advertised by the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) in 2021, but there has been no response yet. Like me, all the candidates have been waiting for the initial test to take place. Indecision on the part of the SPSC is agonising for those who are currently in the age bracket of 27-30 years. There is no age relaxation for them, which is making them lose hope.

An Aspirant
Islamabad

WITHOUT SCHOOL: Balochistan has the lowest literacy rate in the country. Within the province, Dera Bugti has the lowest literacy rate, and Sangsella, a tehsil of the district, stands at the lowest rung. The tehsil, with a population of around 8,000, does not have even a single functional school. The demand for a school has been raised multiple times, but all in vain. The wait continues.

Akhtar Bugti
Dera Bugti

MENACE OF SMOKING: After a plethora of health advisories and public health messages regarding the negative impact of smoking on human health, the market has found an alternative, which is just as deadly but is being presented as a ‘safe’ option in the shape of vapes and e-cigarettes. There is an urgent need to banning both the cigarette and its alternatives. The authorities should pay attention to the problem before it gets late.

Fatima Maira
Faisalabad

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2022