Breakfast leads to better food choices

Medical experts say that walking in the morning or evening is equally beneficial for weight loss, improving heart health and getting better sleep. However, the real key to good health is maintaining a regular walking routine. According to health experts, 30 to 45 minutes of brisk walking every day can play an effective role in improving heart health, losing weight, strengthening muscles and reducing mental stress. However, choosing to walk in the morning or evening depends on an individual’s routine, health condition and personal preference. Benefits of Morning walks Morning walks provide the body with natural sunlight which helps regulate the body’s internal clock, improve sleep at night and support the production of vitamin D. In addition, walking in the morning promotes the release of hormones associated with happiness which can improve mood, increase concentration and help maintain energy throughout the day. Experts say that people who exercise in the morning are also more likely to maintain their exercise routine consistently. Evening walks also have several benefits Experts say that after a full day, an increase in body temperature makes the muscles and joints more flexible. As a result, walking briskly and for longer periods may feel easier. According to experts, an evening walk can also help reduce mental stress, relieve fatigue and provide mental relaxation after a busy day. Regarding weight loss, experts say that walking in both the morning and evening can be effective provided that a healthy diet is maintained and a calorie deficit is created. Some people consider walking before breakfast better because the body may use stored fat for energy during this time. However, in the long term, weight loss depends on overall diet and physical activity. Morning and evening walks are also equally beneficial for heart health. Regular walking improves blood circulation and helps control blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It may also reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity and other lifestyle-related diseases. Walking and sleep When it comes to sleep, morning walks can help improve the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle while light or moderate-intensity evening walks can reduce stress and support better sleep. However, intense exercise shortly before bedtime may cause difficulty sleeping for some people. Experts say the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. Whether you walk in the morning or evening, maintaining consistency is the real key to a healthy lifestyle.

By Ali Hiader Pakistan has gradually become a testing ground for government projects. Governments experiment with massive infrastructure projects costing billions, and when the results fall short of expectations, another project of the exact same nature is launched. The tragedy is that while other countries may well be learning from Pakistan’s experiments, we have completely failed to learn from them. Punjab’s public transport system serves as a clear example of this. Currently, there are three major metro bus projects operating in Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Multan, while two additional projects are under construction in Faisalabad and Gujranwala. The total length of the existing metro bus routes is approximately 70 kilometers, served by around 167 buses. In Lahore, a city with a population of nearly 20 million, only 66 buses operate along a 27-kilometer route; this indicates that a substantial amount of public funds have been allocated to cover only a limited area. It is also essential to consider the cost of these projects. Approximately 30 billion rupees were spent on the Lahore Metro Bus project, around 38 billion rupees on the Rawalpindi Metro Bus, and about 29 billion rupees on the Multan Metro Bus; thus, the total cost … is approximately 97 billion rupees. However, the matter does not end there. Subsequently, Lahore was gifted another major transport project—the Orange Line Metro Train—with a total cost of approximately 300 billion rupees. The issue is not that governments are making a mistake by investing in public transport; public transport is indispensable in expanding cities and can play a vital role in improving the mobility of ordinary citizens. The real question is whether a developing country like Pakistan can afford a transport system that requires the government to provide massive annual subsidies for its operation. According to reported figures, Punjab’s three Metro Bus projects collectively require an annual subsidy of approximately Rs 21 billion, while the Orange Line Metro Train also requires annual government financial support. This means that, even years after the initial construction costs were paid, taxpayers continue to bear the expenses of these projects. Meanwhile, passengers still face issues such as overcrowding, long wait times, and limited service capacity. The Punjab government’s new green electric bus project merits attention from a different reason. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s administration has proposed a plan to deploy 5,000 electric buses across Punjab over five years at an estimated total cost of PKR 300 billion. While this cost is relatively lower than that of Lahore’s existing Metro Bus and Orange Line Train systems, the project offers the added advantage of not requiring heavy infrastructure—such as dedicated metro corridors or rail networks; existing roads and bus stops suffice, and operations are far more flexible than current public transport systems. A driver and a conductor are all that is needed to operate a bus. Most importantly, electric buses can provide public transport services to a vast population with relatively low infrastructure costs. In principle, this model is particularly well-suited to a province where millions of citizens still lack access to reliable public transport.However, Punjab has previously experimented with conventional bus-based public transport; projects like the Speedo service and BUSCO were launched in Lahore and its surrounding areas with similar objectives. The BUSCO project, in particular, ultimately became a prime example of how a public welfare system can shut down when governments fail to plan for the long-term management of public assets. Today, these buses lie in a state of ruin, whereas they could have been properly sold, relocated, or repurposed. This is precisely why the Green Bus project requires a different financial model. For developing countries like Pakistan, it is extremely difficult to sustain public amenities that rely on perpetual subsidies. Whenever the government faces a financial crisis or a shortage of funds, these buses will eventually end up as nothing more than wrecks. A transport system that cannot survive without billions of rupees in annual government aid is, at its core, a weak system. To ensure that the project runs effectively, it is essential to operate it on a “no-profit, no-loss” basis so that it remains sustainable for years to come. Fares should be structured so that, following the initial government investment, the system can at least cover its own operating, repair, and maintenance costs, as well as the expense of future bus replacements. While it is acceptable for the government not to make a profit, it must avoid creating a system that requires billions of rupees in annual subsidies merely to remain operational.At the same time, the number of buses must be sufficient for public transport to truly serve as an alternative to private vehicles. Currently, passengers face severe overcrowding, long waits, and uncomfortable journeys. If traveling by government bus means enduring extreme overcrowding, public transport cannot persuade people to leave their motorcycles and cars at home.Kasur serves as a prime example of this situation. The Kasur district, with a population of approximately 3.8 million, has received only 12 ‘Green Buses’ so far—buses that are smaller than those operating in Lahore. Yet, for a population of this size, the number of buses should have been far greater. If the government genuinely wants people to prioritize public transport, it must increase the fleet size to a level where passengers can travel in comfort and dignity, rather than having to grapple with one another just to secure a spot on a bus.Punjab now has the opportunity to learn from its past. Instead of viewing every public transport project merely as an occasion for inauguration or a publicity stunt, Maryam Nawaz should focus on its long-term sustainability. The true measure of a project’s success is not how impressive it looks on the day of its inauguration, but rather how effective, affordable, and financially sustainable it remains even ten or twenty years down the line.Punjab certainly needs better public transport. However, the province requires systems that prioritize sustainability, accessibility, and public convenience over political symbols. The government should undertake fewer projects that remain perpetually dependent on taxpayers’

By Syed Tahir Rashdi A long time ago, before the first computer, the first library or even the first book, people thought memory was the most important thing for knowledge. Whole societies relied on it. People remembered laws and stories by heart. Passed them down to their children. To remember something was not just to recall facts it was to keep your identity, culture and history alive. A long time ago in ancient Greece, people started to worry about memory. In a book called *Phaedrus* a man named Socrates tells a story about a god named Theuth. Theuth invented writing. Thought it would make people wiser and help them remember more.. The king of Egypt, Thamus did not agree. He said that writing would actually make peoples memories weaker. People would start to rely on written words of trying to remember things themselves. They would think they know something just because they can read it. They would not really understand it. Course that is not what happened. Writing did not hurt society it changed it. Books became a way to store knowledge and share ideas with people all over the world. Socrates was worried about something that is still important today. The question now is not whether we remember things because of books. It is whether we remember anything all. Today we have information stored somewhere than ever before. Our phones remember our conversations. Computers store our photos forever. We can find answers to questions in seconds. Machines can summarise books. Help us find information fast. Never before has much information existed outside of our own minds. This is a change in how people relate to knowledge. A man named Marshall McLuhan said that every new technology is like an extension of our abilities. The wheel is like an extension of our feet. The telescope is like an extension of our eyes. By that logic our phones are like an extension of our memories. They help us remember things. The problem is obvious. As we get better at storing information outside of our minds we get worse at remembering things ourselves. We do not remember phone numbers because our phones do. We do not remember birthdays because our computers do. We do not remember how to get places because our phones tell us. We are not trying to remember things much as we used to. We are just looking them up. That small change might be one of the most important things that has happened to our minds in the past century. It is easy to see why we like to store information outside of our minds. Who would want to go to using paper maps or big books to find answers? Digital technology has made it easy for everyone to get information. We can find things out in seconds that used to take days. The question is not whether this is useful. It is whether it is changing our minds in some way. Some psychologists did a study in 2011. Found out something interesting. They found out that when people know they can find information easily they do not try to remember it much. They just remember where to find it. This is a deal. Our minds are changing from storing information to finding it. We are getting better at finding the path. Not the destination. This is not a habit it is how we think. Remembering things is not about storing facts it is about using them to make decisions to imagine things and to be creative. When we remember things we can connect them in ways and have new ideas. When we store information outside of our minds that changes. A man named Nicholas Carr said that digital technology is not just changing how we get information it is changing how we think. The internet is great at giving us answers. It is not so good at helping us really understand things. If we get used to getting answers we might not be as good at thinking deeply about things. This does not mean that technology is making us less smart. It means that our intelligence is changing. The problem is not that we do not know things. It is that we are too dependent on technology to remember them for us. A student might think that they can just look up answers and not really learn anything. A professional might rely much on reminders that they do not even try to remember things. Machines are getting better at remembering things for us. That might mean we do not have to try as hard. Slowly remembering things is becoming more like looking them up. Knowledge is becoming about getting access to information. Thinking is becoming more about getting things done. Technology has definitely helped us store information than ever before. The question is whether it is also making us less likely to try to remember things ourselves. Memory is not just about storing information. It is about how we experience life. A computer can store every document ever written. A machine can look up every photo ever taken.. They cannot turn experience into wisdom. Our memories are not just storage they are how we interpret things. We forget some things we remember others. We use them to understand ourselves. A writer named Jorge Luis Borges wrote a story about a man who could remember everything.. This gift was actually a curse. The man could not forget anything so he could not think about things in a way. He was trapped by his memory. Borges was saying that forgetting is not a thing it is actually necessary for thought. This is not about how we think as individuals. It is about how we learn and how we understand ourselves as a society. Education used to be about more than learning facts. It was about learning how to think. If we just store information outside of our minds education might just become about looking things up. The same