FOR more than 20 years, we have been watching TV talk shows every evening wherein political opponents blame each other for various wrongdoings. The common man does not care whether the accusations are true or false.

What is unfortunate is that no quick justice is delivered to the aggrieved party if the accusations are referred to the courts. But why should such matter go to the courts when they can be resolved by people and through leaders’ immediate reaction?

In this connection, I would like to recall one incident of false accusation and people’s reaction on it. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a question-and-answer session on Jan 31 this year in the House of Commons falsely accused Labour MP Sir Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, saying that the latter had failed to prosecute serial paedophile Jimmy Savile.

Upon this accusation, one of Johnson’s senior advisers, Munira Mirza, asked the prime minister to apologise for this false accusation. She resigned on Feb 3 as a mark of protest. Mirza, who was working as director of the Number 10 Policy Unit, which is an elite body of policymakers based in 10 Downing Street, believed that such false accusation was something indefensible.

House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle rebuked the prime minister for making false insinuations. Similarly, many other Tory leaders and members of the public disapproved this false accusation against the leader of the opposition by the prime minister. Johnson rowed back on his controversial comments about Starmer and Savile after three days of pressure from Tory MPs for him to withdraw the smear.

I was impressed to note that when Johnson, the sitting prime minister, made a mistake, his own party leaders and one of his senior aides took a stand against him which is a good example of leaders standing with the truth. A nation which believes in truth and practises it is bound to succeed and prosper.

I believe we must learn from this incident and our politicians should try to bring a culture of truth in our politics by standing with the truth without thinking of the ‘consequences’.

Ejaz Ahmad Magoon
London, UK

TRAFFIC CONGESTIONS: The roads in Karachi are in a dilapidated condition and the exponential growth of population and rise in the number of vehicles are adding to the woes of the commuters. The appropriate solution is improving the road infrastructure. Employees have been losing their jobs for arriving late in office, and patients have been losing their lives on way to hospitals because of delays caused by traffic congestion. The authorities should look into the matter.

Asif Khan
Karachi

MENACE OF FEUDALISM: Recently, in Bahoo Khoso village, which is located approximately 40kms from Jacobabad, a 17-year-old boy dared to share a post on Facebook against the cruelty of the most influential feudal of the village. As a result, the feudal forced his family out of the village, got his hut dismantled, and demolished the family’s restaurant which was their only source of income. No one, including the local police, came to help the poor family. Feudalism is an embarrassment for society.

Javed Khoso
Jacobabad

ABUSIVE LANGUAGE: All one can watch on national news channels these days are politicians abusing other politicians. Everybody is confident of victory and yet everyone is losing the temper rather readily. There is nothing beyond derogatory remarks and political point scoring.

Cdre (retd) Sajjad Ali Shah Bokhari
Islamabad

TROUBLE IN STORE: The Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) has recently changed the Central Superior Services (CSS) written part examination’s date from May 30 to May 12. The decision has caused a lot of disturbance to the applicants as they had already devised their own respective study schedules. By bringing the deadline closer by as much as three weeks, the FPSC has done no good to anybody. Some of the aspirants had already taken leave from their offices, and they now have to take care of administrative hassles instead of focussing on their studies. The FPSC should revise the decision without any delay.

M.A. Shahzad
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2022