I AM a landline subscriber of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) (021-35840054). My phone has been out of order for the last several months and my various complaints have remained unnoticed.

This is because the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has been digging roads for the so-called rainwater disposal system. I say ‘so-called’ because the work is being carried out without any layout plan of underground and overhead utility service lines that are broken owing to the use of giant excavators for digging purposes. The speed of the development work is so slow that it will takes a few months, if not more, for the project to be over.

The residents are suffering in the absence of telephone and water supply, and their misery is made worse when the utility services send bills to subscribers for services that are never provided in such a scenario. Even though the phone at my place is not functional for the last over three months, my telephone bill for the month of April was Rs540.

Since judicial activism is only related to the political domain, there is no forum for the common man to seek relief in matters of everyday life.

The best hope of the common man is to wait for some kind of Divine intervention.

Ali Ashraf Khan
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2023