MEAGRE PENSION: After a life of hard work and financial contributions, Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) pensioners today stand hard hit by soaring inflation. Their meagre pension of Rs10,000 that was fixed years ago is hardly enough to be effective. The pension of government employees is enhanced every year, but the EOBI pensioners are constantly ignored. Recently, parliamentarians gave themselves a massive increase in their monthly salaries, but, when it comes to the poor pensioners, the government hides behind economic woes.

M. Bashir Abid
Islamabad

BLOCKED ROAD: The Fatima Jinnah Road in Karachi had been blocked by the authorities for a long time till it was opened for public recently. However, the road next to Zainab Market has now been blocked. Saddar is a busy area of Karachi, and the authorities should facilitate public movement in such areas instead of making life tough for the people.

Parmesh Marker
Karachi

DELAYED TRAINS: Railway tracks are in a bad shape, and train drivers have to keep the speed low and make several stops because of unreliable tracks and pathetic infrastructure. For example, the Rehman Baba Express has 14 scheduled stops till Sindh. However, the train drivers make over 20 stops during the journey. Sadly, no one bothers to take notice of this mismanagement, which wastes the precious time of the passengers.

Sadam Baloch
Ghotki

IN GOOD BOOKS: Since the post of deputy prime minister does not have any constitutional obligation, anyone in the good books of the ruling clique can be elevated to the post. A number of politi-cians who lost their seats in the general elections are still holding sensitive port-folios in the federal government. Besides, one fails to understand why some non-elected individuals almost always acco-mpany the president when he undertakes any overseas visit. Can anyone explain?

Khawaja Tajammul Hussain
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2025