Happy New Year Pakistan! - Hira Shaheen (Batch of '17)

New year has started with sparkling colors and magnificent display of fireworks, all around the globe. Although technically it is just a change of date, the immense association of this change with hope can't be ignored. New beginning is always a hope. A hope that things will change. A hope that coming days will be better. And a hope that darkness we see around us will fade. Talking about past year, our country faced a change of governance. New government took charge and oath to take Pakistan to the path of prosperity. Personally, I have not seen any noticeable positive change until now and all it seems is old business with new faces. Division of power among some particular people, corruption, low literacy rate, shortage of all basic resources including electricity, gas, and fuel continues. Prices are sky rocketing and problems of common man are becoming worst with every passing day. In this scenario, being hopeful is a great deal and I salute the Pakistani nation for their display of strength. Our new year started with yet another ban imposed by PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) on a famous website dailymotion.com which had worked effectively as an alternative after blockage of YouTube in Pakistan. To be honest, I could never understand logic behind such acts by PTA but may be my mind is too mundane to grasp those intricate reasons. Taking in account the dark times our country has faced due to our lack of responsibility and administrative capabilities, in past years, I think banning sources of communication to outside world is least thing our concerned departments should be doing. Educating and feeding people is more important right now and tolerance is what we need most in these circumstances. Considering all this, I strongly wish this new year would be change of our thoughts along with the change of a calendars because only that is how we can redefine our priorities and start focusing on things that could lead to prosperity of our nation.