THIS refers to front page picture of the House of Commons in London where British MPs meet to address the problems of a common man (April 30). Its simplicity has always impressed me. We should not lose sight of the fact that this ‘island nation’ was once the British Empire on which the sun never set.

I was about to turn my attention to one of dozens of other issues facing our nation when I casually turned to the front page of Metro, which had a picture of four children sitting on the ground, enjoying a doled-out meal. This is the reality, whether you care to notice it or flip over to another page in a hurry.

A similar picture of our parliament will be a good contrast. Looking at the grandeur of Parliament House does not appear to be for the help of our hand to mouth masses, but for ruling our poor folk. Whom are we trying to impress, by the way?

Nobody in the world is in any doubt about the fact that we are under a very heavy burden of debt. The world is definitely not impressed by our outwardly show of sham grandeur.

In my opinion, it is time we used the parliament building for international scientific meetings and conferences, and utilised it for discussions at higher education seminars and shifted the present users to a smaller, simpler premises for service to their poor masses; pure and simple.

M. Masud Butt

Lahore

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2020