Many more Malalas in need of care

This refers to the letter of Khwaja Umar Farooq, "Many Malalas in Pakistan," (Oct. 17). He is absolutely right; I found his views quite reasonable.
Indeed, everyone has the right to express his views, but no one should try to impose his views on others in a rigid way. Also criticism should be in a reasonable way with some constructive ideas. It has been noticed that some writers in this column try to dictate and act as mouthpiece for some factions, it is not right. As the governments of UK and Pakistan have shown extraordinary interest and acted quickly in Malala's case while thousands of other girls are deprived of basic needs such as free education and proper medical treatment, the justification for this discrimination is not known to anyone except a few in power. Of course people of Pakistan are looking up now to the government to play a similar role in providing better facilities to thousands of other children like Malala. According to human rights organizations due to the weak labor laws child labor is growing at an alarming rate in the country.
Because of bad economic conditions of their families, thousands of children are being forced into hazardous jobs. Recently in an unfortunate incident several infants lost their lives in the Children's Hospital in Larkana due to long hours of power outage and non-availability of oxygen cylinders in the hospital's emergency ward. According to government's own statistics, 90 percent of the one million workers in the carpet industry are kids. Two million children die each year from water-borne diseases and due to lack of toilet facilities in rural areas is certainly alarming as mentioned by Khwaja Umar Farooq in his letter. — A Reader, By e-mail