ACCORDING to a report, “Fabulous watch ticks loud in NA” (June 18), PPP MNA Shazia Marri revealed during a session of the National Assembly that a PML-N leader, whom she did not name, wears a watch costing $4.60 million.

The price in terms of Pak rupees was given as Rs450 million. This disclosure shocked many even in the parliament, what to talk of an average Pakistani like me.

A contemporary writer has observed that “a man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbour’s.”

Only a few days back there was news about a trader in Punjab who first killed his wife and children and then himself owing to poverty. If true, one wonders how that PML-N leader can wear such a fabulously expensive watch while thousands of his compatriots are committing suicides, selling off their children or kidneys, or losing their mental balance and health.

If one family of 6-7 people can be fed for Rs 10,000 per month, then Rs 45 crores would enable nearly 380 families or 2,280 to 2,660 individuals to stay alive for ten years. Alternatively, the gentleman could have set up numerous dispensaries, technical and vocational schools and industrial homes to provide health and economic security to thousands of Pakistanis.

Wouldn’t that have given him much greater happiness and peace of mind than merely wearing the watch, whose possibility of loss or theft must be a source of constant unease?

S. QADRIKarachi