People are talking about —

— the photograph showing the captains of the eight teams of the Women’s T20 Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and how embarrassing it was that seven of them were wearing kits that had the name of their country, while Pakistan’s kit had the sponsor’s name as the dominating feature. People wonder who designed this kit; who granted the approval and if the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials have any system to check such blunders that hurt sentiments and degrade the name of the country.

— the fact that the government declared a state of education emergency to address the alarming issue of 26 million out-of-school children a few months ago, yet despite the gravity of the situation, neither the federal nor the provincial budgets have allocated sufficient resources to fund such an undertaking. People say in spite of this, will the government go ahead and take decisive action or continue to pay mere lip-service to the critical matter of making our out of school children literate?

— the fact that here are many brave journalists who are unfortunately not given the platform to bring forward important topics, so an unsafe environment for journalists creates a vacuum for the people as they have no one to bring them answers, causing agitation; restlessness and distrust against authorities. People say freedom of the press should be a right; violence against journalists should not be ignored and the voices of those who shed light on the truth should not be suppressed.

— the announcement of free flats for workers in Taxila, Sunder colonies and the question can this country afford giving free flats, because on the one hand we have this scheme and on the other we cannot even enrol the majority of our workforce under the EOBI and give them basic pensions. People say the maximum number of workers in Punjab should be enrolled with the EOBI as Rs10,000 is not much but one can at least buy basic necessities for the month.

— the fact that Pakistan is the fifth largest country in the world in terms of population, two-thirds of them aged 24 years or less, a great asset for any country, provided the young are properly guided. In the past we produced great sportsmen in cricket, hockey, squash, snooker and other sports and there is no reason why we cannot produce more of them provided we give our young population the required facilities, opportunities and encouragement to prosper as well as excel.

— how, apart from tracks and vehicles, Pakistan Railways owns vast real estate and land of immense value besides service buildings, stations, workshops and staff residencies meant for operational and other services and much of this property worth billions has been left abandoned as redundant. People say proper utilization of the current value of this non-functional and discarded property can bring prosperity to Pakistan Railways and bring it out of the dire financial straits we constantly hear about in reports and assessments.

— the report that CDA is planning a major beautification campaign, but how it would be better if repairs to roads and other infrastructure were carried out first so that not only posh localities are worth living in or viewed by tourists. People say curious visitors sometimes venture into areas not on the tourist path and are quite shocked at the state of affairs in comparison to what is seen elsewhere, then post this on social media giving a negative image of the capital. — I.H.