.. by Javed Khan

The two factors that will spell continued disaster for us, lack of quality education and a high birthrate and both these are interlinked, presently, and that too is a conservative estimate, we are adding approximately 15000 a day which comes to 4,50,000 a month and nearly 5 and a half million annually, even a rich country can’t afford to look after such a growing mob, yes most of these will remain uneducated, jobless, uncouth and unhappy.

Pakistan today has the highest number of diabetics in the world and we also lead in breast cancer in women and guess why is this , poor diet and total lack of health awareness amongst the majority. As a nation we are addicted tea drinkers and smokers, most households including babies breakfast on spurious tea and left over roti greased with some unhealthy oil, ironically our government encourages this because they have forsaken the vital responsibility of healthcare, our government hospitals are basically built to steal funds in billions, just as our government schools.

Pakistan imports tea worth over 700 million US dollars annually, despite dairy being our biggest agricultural product we earn zero from this because all of this milk is consumed in drinking tea, each cup is laced with at least 2 spoons of sugar and this beverage is consumed day long come summer or winter, hence the high incidence of diabetes.

If only awareness against this is made public we could save precious funds , add value to our dairy and protect against disability and this brings us to the pathetic state of our education where private schools are fleecing parents already burdened with the daily rise in cost of living and all they are providing are useless degrees and diplomas which in most cases are not worth the paper they are printed on. I wish our caretakers and undertakers would give some thought to this instead of gimmickry of crackdowns on money changers and two bit sugar stockists. .. Javed Khan, 12 Sep 2023