People are talking about —

—- the ban on sale of toy guns during Eid and how it was flouted with impunity by retailers and customers alike. People say because of non-implementation by law enforcers, this happens with all things ‘banned’ - a classic example being of fireworks and their indiscriminate use, disturbing neighbors and causing stress among those who have suffered from terrorism and secondly, aerial firing, which even our elected representatives indulge in without a thought for the fact that they are supposed to uphold the law.

—- people say the growing intolerance against persons and places of those who have different beliefs needs to be checked on a war footing and the services of maulanas and scholars should be acquired to teach ignorant haters that our faith teaches tolerance and respect for others.

—- the emotional reactions that cricket matches elicit from our public and how stressful it must be for the team members. After all, it is a sport and losing and winning are part of all sporting events so ‘fans’ - as well as ‘experts’ - need to keep their negative emotions and remarks in check and wish the team ‘better luck next time’ rather than trolling them on social media and making them a subject of ridicule.

—- the Rs3.6 trillion fraud that surfaced in the public sector organisation of National Savings, supposedly by employees, thus breaching the trust of millions of persons, most of them old age pensioners. People say a better system needs to be adopted so embezzlement does not take place because it shakes the confidence of the saver who will get his/her profit but it is a deterrent to a positive mindset on saving, especially as the government is trying to encourage it.

—- the annual controversy over the sighting of the moon to initiate the marking or celebration of a religious event and how it takes place without fail because our ‘scholars’ cannot agree to sit together and resolve the issue. While many persons of all sects welcomed the use of technology to fix dates, the reaction of the Ruet-e-Halal committee to a ‘science’ based ‘sighting’ was not unexpected because of many factors one of them being the challenging of their ‘authority.’

—- the proposal to bring more persons into the tax net and how it needs to be implemented strictly to change the system. Thousands of retailers earn a good profit but do not make proper bills and receipts, even when a customer asks for one. These retailers are supposed to pay a ‘fixed’ rate set by the tax authorities but with deep rooted corruption rampant in revenue departments, more money goes into private coffers than that of the government.

—- how the restoration of the circular railway in Karachi keeps running into snags because influential persons are involved in erecting buildings on railway land and how the concerned authority appears to be bowing under pressure from them as many big buildings obstructing the tracks are still standing, according to electronic media. People say the SC should be sterner about its orders being implemented as too many are being flouted with hopes that a change in the top man will save them.