Why HEC is sitting on degree verification? 

The Combined Competitive Examination 2024 was meant to open doors for young Sindh residents seeking government careers. Instead, it has become a symbol of broken trust. Out of more than 4,300 candidates who sat the exam, only 70 passed. This low number alone raised serious doubts. When detailed marks sheets came out, those doubts turned into anger. Candidates found strange errors in their results. A single 100-mark paper in criminology appeared as two papers worth 200 marks. A similar problem showed up in environmental science. These are not small clerical slips. They point to deeper flaws in how the Sindh Public Service Commission handled this process. The protests that followed are justified. Students did not just complain online. They organised sit-ins. They held rallies. They formed the Movement for Restoration of Meritocracy. Their demands are simple and fair. They want the exam cancelled. They want a fresh test conducted properly. They want an independent inquiry into how the SPSC has handled recruitment over the past five years. The legal battle adds another layer of concern. The Sindh High Court suspended the results and asked the SPSC to produce full records. That was a reasonable step toward accountability. But the Federal Constitutional Court later suspended those orders, allowing interviews for the 70 successful candidates to continue. This leaves thousands of young people without answers while the process moves forward around them. This newspaper believes the SPSC owes these candidates transparency, not silence. A spokesperson refusing to comment while the matter sits in court is not good enough. Public institutions exist to serve citizens fairly. When thousands of young people spend years preparing for an exam, they deserve a system they can trust. Sindh’s youth are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for merit to be respected. The government and the SPSC must treat this seriously. An independent judicial inquiry would help restore public confidence. Anything less will only deepen the belief that government jobs go to the connected, not the capable. Young people who play by the rules deserve a system that does the same.

The Supreme Court has given a landmark ruling on women’s rights. It has declared that a woman’s right to seek khula, or judicial divorce, is a constitutional right. The court said that violence against a woman for exercising this right is an attack on the Constitution itself. A three member bench dismissed the jail petition of convict Waseem Abbas and upheld his death sentence. Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar wrote the four page detailed judgment. The court said women are fully protected under Articles 9, 14 and 25 of the Constitution, which guarantee their security, dignity and equal rights. It said anyone who uses violence against a woman seeking khula will face the full force of the law, and called the killing of a woman for exercising her legal right an act of brutality and open defiance of the law. The court also ruled that a person involved in a cold blooded and planned murder does not deserve any concession. It clarified that the testimony of relatives cannot be automatically rejected in cases that happen inside a home. Forensic evidence, including a match between bullet casings and the weapon linked to the crime, gave conclusive proof against the accused. The court found no flaw in the lower courts’ decisions. According to the case record, Waseem Abbas shot and killed his former wife, Shehnaz Bibi, on October 11, 2020, about 48 hours after she obtained a khula decree from a family court. A trial court had sentenced him to death, and the Lahore High Court upheld that sentence. This judgment sends a strong message and gives justice in this one case. But the law alone cannot protect every woman in Shehnaz Bibi’s position. Many women never even reach the court, because they fear exactly this kind of violence at home. A verdict can punish a killer after the fact, but it cannot undo the loss of a life. To truly protect women, society itself needs to change how it views a woman’s right to leave a marriage. Courts can deliver justice, but only a shift in mindset, at home, in communities, and among families, can prevent the next Shehnaz Bibi.

The Punjab government has set the new wheat release price at Rs3,800 per maund. This decision raises a serious question. Why is the province paying more now than it paid to its own farmers. Earlier this year, wheat growers across Punjab sold their crop at rates far lower than Rs3,800 per maund. Many farmers struggled to cover their basic costs. Fertiliser, diesel, and labour prices kept rising, but the government did not offer a fair price at harvest time. Now, months later, the same government is buying wheat from PASSCO at Rs4,150 per maund. This is imported wheat, bought at a much higher cost than what local farmers received. This gap sends a troubling message to the farming community. It tells them that growing wheat at home is less valuable than buying it from abroad. A farmer who works through the heat, spends money on seeds and water, and waits months for the harvest ends up earning less than what the state later pays for imported grain. This is not fair, and it is not sustainable. If this pattern continues, farmers may simply lose interest in wheat cultivation. Punjab is the backbone of Pakistan’s wheat production. If growers shift to other crops or leave farming altogether, the country could face a bigger crisis in the coming years. Food security cannot depend on imports alone. The federal and provincial governments must rethink this approach. Farmers need a support price that reflects their real costs and effort, announced before sowing season begins, not after imports have already been arranged. Punjab also needs to invest in storage and procurement systems so that local wheat is bought and stored efficiently, without forcing the province to rely on costlier imported stock. Protecting the price of roti for consumers is important. But that protection should not come at the cost of the farmer who grows the wheat in the first place.

The war in the Middle East is not shrinking. It is spreading. The recent Houthi attacks on Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea are proof that a conflict once confined to Yemen’s borders is now reaching into international waters, threatening ships that carry oil and goods for the whole world. This is a dangerous moment, and it deserves plain, honest words rather than diplomatic silence. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was right to call these attacks a violation of international law. Commercial ships are not military targets. When tankers are attacked in the Red Sea, it is not just Saudi Arabia that suffers. Shipping costs rise, insurance costs rise, and ordinary families far from the region end up paying more for fuel and food. This is why the prime minister called it a threat to the global economy, not only a regional dispute. Pakistan’s response also reflects a long and real relationship. For decades, Islamabad and Riyadh have stood together, through shared faith, economic support, and security cooperation. Millions of Pakistani workers live and earn their livelihood in Saudi Arabia. When Saudi Arabia faces a security threat, it is natural that Pakistan feels it too, not as a distant headline, but as something close to home. The prime minister’s message of solidarity, delivered alongside Field Marshal Asim Munir, reflects this old and genuine bond, not a hollow diplomatic gesture. But solidarity with a friend does not mean closing our eyes to the wider picture. A war that keeps expanding helps no one, not Saudi Arabia, not Yemen, and not the region as a whole. Yemen has already endured years of war, hunger and displacement. Its people deserve peace, not another chapter of conflict. At the same time, attacks on tankers cannot be excused as a fair response to that suffering. Two wrongs will only deepen the crisis. This is why Pakistan’s call for restraint must be addressed to both sides. The Houthis must stop attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia and its partners must also avoid actions that push the conflict further, and instead pursue a political settlement in Yemen. The Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz are lifelines for global trade. Keeping them open and peaceful is not just in Saudi Arabia’s interest, or Pakistan’s interest, but in everyone’s interest. The world cannot afford another war zone at sea.

The inflation rate has finally slipped back into single digits, and this is genuinely good news. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has confirmed that annual inflation fell to 9.2 percent in July 2026, down from 11.1 percent in June. After three straight months of double-digit readings in April, May and June, this drop deserves to be welcomed. It signals that the aggressive monetary tightening and stabilisation measures of the past year are finally showing results. Businesses that had been struggling with unpredictable input costs can now plan with slightly more confidence, and policymakers at the State Bank will have room to consider further easing of interest rates. But the government must resist the temptation to treat this number as a victory lap. A single month of improved statistics does not undo years of erosion in ordinary people’s purchasing power. For the average household in Lahore, Karachi or Peshawar, a fall from 11.1 percent to 9.2 percent is not something felt at the kitchen table. Prices of flour, cooking oil, vegetables and electricity remain far above where they stood two or three years ago. The inflation rate measures the pace of increase, not the level of prices, and that distinction matters enormously to families who are still paying inflated rates for basic goods every single day. The government also needs to be honest about how fragile this improvement is. A large part of the drop is due to the base effect, as last year’s high prices make this year’s comparison look better on paper. Energy prices remain volatile, the rupee is still under pressure, and any external shock, whether from global oil markets or domestic tax measures, could push inflation back into double digits within months. Claiming credit now, without acknowledging these risks, would be premature and would mislead the public about how far there is still to go. Real relief will only come when wages catch up with the cumulative price increases of recent years, when utility bills stop consuming a disproportionate share of household income, and when the cost of food staples becomes predictable again. None of that is reflected in a single month’s inflation reading. The government would do better to treat this figure as a modest and welcome data point, not as proof that the economic crisis facing ordinary Pakistanis has passed. Until people actually feel the difference in their monthly budgets, talk of relief remains premature.

The country is trying to build hospitals, schools and jobs for its people. But there is a big problem. The government does not have fresh data on how many people live in the country and what they need. The last full population and health survey was done in 2017 and 2018. This survey is supposed to happen every five years. It has now been many years since it was updated. This is not a small issue. It is a serious weakness that can damage the whole planning system of the country. The Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Special Initiatives raised this concern in a recent meeting. The committee, led by Senator Quratulain Marri, asked why the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics had not completed a new survey on time. This newspaper believes this question deserves a clear answer, not delays. Without updated data, the government is working blindly. It cannot know exactly how many hospitals are needed. It cannot know how many schools should be built. It cannot know how many jobs must be created. Planning without correct numbers is like building a house without knowing how many people will live in it. The committee was also told that a huge amount of money, around Rs1.68 billion, has been spent on importing contraceptives for population welfare programmes. Yet the committee was not satisfied with the answers given about how these contraceptives are being used and how many people are benefiting. This raises a fair question. If the government cannot explain how money is being used, how can citizens trust that the programme is working well? The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics must complete its new survey quickly. The Ministry of National Health Services must explain its spending clearly. Delay and confusion only weaken public trust and hurt the people who depend on these services the most.