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2 months ago | 
dawn.com | Naeem Sadiq |Jawed Naqvi
IT is the season of mindlessness. Seminars on climate change are in, while family planning services are out. Taking loans is in, while thinking with one’s own brain is out. Danish schools are in, while the 26.2 million out-of-school children in the country are out. Pakistan has travelled too far in the wrong direction and seems in no mood to course correct. There are at least four fundamental reforms that are needed for a turnaround.
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2 months ago | 
dawn.com | Abbas Nasir |Muhammad Amir Rana |Naeem Sadiq
Authors, and mother-daughter duo, Muneeza Shamsie (L) with Kamila Shamsie on the second day of KLF | Fahim Siddiqi / White Star Literature no longer exerts the influence it once did on contemporary culture and often relies on support from other art forms for its survival. This explains why most literary festivals have become cultural extravaganzas rather than pure celebrations of the written word.
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2 months ago | 
dawn.com | Harris Khalique |Abbas Nasir |Muhammad Amir Rana |Naeem Sadiq
At the 16th Karachi Literature Festival (KLF), the two incisive keynote speeches in the inaugural session, by F.S. Aijazuddin in English and Asghar Nadeem Syed in Urdu, set the tone and tenor for the three-day festival — the exchange of critical ideas between speakers and their audiences, courageously and freely, and raising matters related to culture, history, politics and economy that are seldom discussed in mainstream media.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
dawn.com | Naeem Sadiq
A 13-MONTH-OLD girl from KP’s Tank district became Pakistan’s 69th victim of polio in 2024. The numerous full-page advertisements and a commemorative ‘polio free’ postal stamp showing a photo of Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari, issued in 2009, could not eradicate polio in Pakistan. A disease for which the only reliable remedy is clean drinking water cannot be cured by newspaper ads or postal stamps of family members — all at the taxpayers’ expense.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
dawn.com | Naeem Sadiq
EXCEPT for the 92.97-metre javelin throw by our spirited lad from Mian Channu, Pakistan has been left behind the rest of the world, economically, technologically, and on all counts of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals — by a margin of many decades. The road to Pakistan’s progress has been firmly blocked by its own misgovernance, runaway population, structure and leadership. The need for reforms to reconstruct and transform Pakistan has never been more compelling.
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Nov 5, 2024 | 
dawn.com | Naeem Sadiq
EYEWASH arrangements are usually required at two locations: in industry, to provide emergency eye decontamination when a worker’s eyes are exposed to harmful chemicals, dust or material; and in politics, to throw dust into the eyes of the people by repeatedly hurling misleading or illusory statements, plans or promises at them. While the first is classified as a desirable ‘emergency control’, the second, or Type 2 eyewash is considered deceptive and detrimental.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
tribune.com.pk | Naeem Sadiq
No one could be more satisfied and self-congratulatory in celebrating the World Children's Day on 20th November than the Child Right Bureaucrats of Pakistan. Having surpassed all imaginable performance records and having created a mini heaven for every child in Pakistan, they deserve every credit, glory and award. But for the colour of their skin, even the prestigious Stockholm award could have landed in their laps many moons ago. Here is a miniscule exposure of our achievements.
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
dawn.com | Naeem Sadiq |Ghazan Jamal
THE least a state must know about its citizens is the date of their birth and the date they expire — also a legal requirement for all perishable products in the market. Pakistan, however, considers gathering this vital information an unnecessary hassle. Instead, complex bureaucratic procedures have been designed to dissuade citizens from providing this information.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
tribune.com.pk | Naeem Sadiq
The fact that we know of only 4,213 cases of child abuse in 2023 is an insult to common sense and arithmetic. About 26 million children are not attending schools; 3.3 million are involved in child labour; 1.2 million are engaged in begging on streets; and one in every four households employs children as domestic workers. These are brutally harsh statistics that define the extent of child abuse, neglect and cruelty in our society.
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Aug 23, 2024 | 
dawn.com | Naeem Sadiq
IMAGINE a country where 99.9 per cent of the citizens cannot file their complex and convoluted tax returns without hiring the services of tax lawyers. Imagine a country whose railway operates with 315 employees per train but refuses to learn from the Japanese who perform the same task with only 5.9 employees. Imagine a country that is stuck with a burgeoning total fertility rate of 3.6, but will remain oblivious to how Bangladesh reduced its TFR from 6.9 in 1971 to 1.9 in 2024.
