FAKE MEDICINES: I was helping my house helper in getting medical treatment through non-invasive measures and thyroxine tablets for the last couple of years after he was diagnosed with thyroid malfunction. It took two years to bring his health conditions to some normality. For the last two months, his thyroxine levels started to rise to abnormal levels again. I got the shock of my life when the doctor treating his ailment revealed that the medicine was fake. It was a shock because I had purchased the medicine from a famous and busy store in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area. The doctor also informed me that the market has been suddenly flooded with fake medicines. As this could be life-threatening, the authori- ties concerned should immediately step in, and bust this fake medicine racket. This needs to be done urgently.

Tahir Hassan
Karachi

FIGHT FOR POWER: Efforts to get the ministry ‘of choice’ will mark the begin- ning of the coalition government. This naturally will be irrespective of differences in political ideology, manifesto and pre-election rivalries. We have all heard of the idiom ‘birds of a feather flock together’, but when birds of different feather, plum­- age and habitat flock together, it is either for feeding on a dead horse, or trying to prey each other whenever and wherever somebody turns weak. In this pursuit of ‘power’ or, say, greed for benefits, the poor are certainly going to suffer at the end.

Khayyam Durrani
Karachi

MATTER OF PRIORITIES: An active investment in the various domains of science and technology, in line with religious instructions on seeking knowledge, as well as the traditions of the likes of Ibn-i-Sina and Al Farabi, the Muslims can turn things around even today. It is all a matter of setting the priorities right. The fact that two billion Muslims have not been able to stop the ongoing genocide in Pale- stine is a mani- festation that the message of Islam has been seriously messed up, and we need serious retrospection and introspection.

Muhammad Noman
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2024