People are talking about —

-- how the prospect of enacting legislation against domestic violence inevitably throws certain sections of our society into a moral panic. People say misleading arguments referring to traditional and religious values are used to give a patina of legitimacy to what is essentially a desire to preserve a misogynistic culture predicated on men controlling women. Unfortunately, it seems that for many in the PTI government, the protection of women is subservient to pandering to these regressive elements.

-- the harassment case that has been making the headlines these days and how it is a good thing that it has been taken notice of because most of such incidents are not reported or even made public for different reasons. People say the impunity with which the gang has been operating is mind boggling and what is even more so is that the accused has confidently stated that he will be out of captivity soon to take revenge on the authorities.

-- the upsurge in COVID-19 cases and how the government removed the restrictions too soon seeing as new variants appear to be developing at a fast rate. People say reluctance to get vaccinated often happens because of adverse messages on social media especially if they are not travelling and only those who work abroad where vaccination is mandatory are thronging centres, so the government needs to amp up its efforts and stop saying it will not be mandatory because it should be.

-- the state of the pension system in the country and the sad fact that the Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) is run as an inherited institution, where some individuals are illegally appointed or sent on deputation to hold key posts even though they happen to be non-cadre officials. People say the whole system is managed on an ad hoc basis by these officials who have taken the institution hostage, turning it from Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution into Elite Officers’ Benefits Institution.

-- the development of the historical Hinglaj Mata Temple located in Lasbela district which is visited by thousands of devotees every year from across the world as it is one of four important religious temples in the world for Hindus. People say since promoting tourism is one of the government’s priorities this development is encouraging as proper infrastructure plays a big role in attracting visitors but even more encouraging is the fact that local Muslim youths protected this historical temple.

-- the fact that there is an immense dearth of counselling professionals in the country, leading students to choose fields that are not a good fit for their mental abilities. People say most schools emphasize on the same three career paths -namely business, engineering and medicine that have long been oversaturated with fresh graduates, so private and public sector schools must play an active role and assist students in choosing careers that match their interests and are more suited to their abilities.

-- the Green Line mass transport project in Karachi, which has run into more snags as the foreign firm lending its technical support and services for the project, has accused one of the local contractors of billing the federal government over 2.7m euros (Rs502m) for some material, whereas the issued invoice was for a little over 0.5m euros, alleging that the false invoice injured the name and goodwill of the company as well as caused a huge loss to the national exchequer. — I.H.