LAKHS AND MILLIONS: A common person who has to deal with banks often finds it difficult to differentiate between millions, billions, lakhs and crores. The problem is not just restricted to money. International reports about our population, for example, are difficult to interpret because the figures are expressed in millions or billions. We, on the other hand, are more used to lakhs and crores. We should uniformly adopt the international number system in Pakistan. I suggest that such conversions should be taught at schools. Also, banks may display conversion charts to facilitate such ‘learning’. As a result, people will not struggle when it comes to the value of any number. Most importantly, such knowledge will save everyone’s time.

Syed Zohaib Rizvi
Karachi

THIRSTY THATTA: The Thatta Bachayo forum has been protesting peacefully against the ongoing acute shortage of drinking water. Unfortu-nately, mainstream media has not bothered to cover the protest even though a minor disruption at the Dhabeji Pumping station grabs headlines. Thatta provides water to Karachi. Ironically, the people of Thatta themselves do not have drinking water available. Neither the administration nor the stakeholders have taken any measures to address the lingering issue. The national media should actually behave like national media.

Shoair Ali
Thatta

CONSUMERS’ WOES: Consumers from Tando Qaiser taluka and Hyderabad Rural district were recently called by Federal Ombudsman in a case regarding the performance of the Tando Allahyar division office of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), which falls in Circle-01. The case was called at the Mirpurkhas office which is a good 70 kilometres away, and caused hassles to the consumers who wanted to appear in the case. The Hyderabad office is situated only 23km away, but the hearing was held in Mirpurkhas. I wonder why. There is no point adding to the woes of the consumers.

Waqar Ahmed Nizamani
Tando Qaiser

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2023