مقناطیس
ڈاکٹر جمیل حیات
‘‘اگر آپ خودکوشش نہیں کریں گے تو اِس مصیبت سے آپ کو کوئی اور نہیں نکالے گا۔’’
بزرگ کافی دیر سے اُسے سمجھانے کی کوشش کر رہے تھے۔
‘‘آخر آپ سمجھتے کیو ں نہیں؟ مانا کہ بہت مشکل ہے لیکن آپ پڑھے لکھے ہیں۔یہ جانتے ہیں کہ اِس کا علاج تو حکیم لقمان کے پاس بھی نہیں تھا۔ ’’
وہ ہمہ تن گوش تھا۔ ‘‘ بجا فرمایا حضرت آپ نے۔ ’’ بڑی دیر کے بعد بالآخر اُس نے زبان کھولی۔ ‘‘ پھر بھی آپ اللہ والے ہیں۔ دعا بھی تو تقدیر بدلتی ہے۔’’بزرگ مسکرائے، اُن کا دلآویز تبسم مایوس اور نا امید لوگوں کے لیے زندگی کی علامت تھا تاہم وہ اِس وقت بہت بکھرا ہوا ، بے حدتھکا ہوا لگ رہا تھا اُس کی نظر اُن پر تو تھی مگر ذہن کہیں اور تھا۔ ‘‘ میاں تم ٹھیک کہتے ہو ، لیکن یہ بھی جانتے ہو کہ اللہ اُس وقت تک کسی قوم یا فرد کی حالت نہیں بدلتا جب تک وہ خود اپنی حالت نہ بدلے۔ ’’
اُس کی نگاہوں میں دنیا جہاں کا کرب تھا۔ ‘‘ اِس کا مطلب ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ ’’
ً ‘‘ہاں۔ ’’ اُ نہوں نے اُس کی بات کاٹتے ہوئے کہا۔ ‘‘ اب یہ صرف آپ پر منحصر ہے۔ آپ کوشش تو کریں، مالک کرم کرے گا۔’’
شام کا اندھیرا چھا چکاتھا۔جب وہ بزرگ سے اِجازت لے کر نکلا۔سڑک پر چلتے ہوئے وہ اپنے خیالوں میں گم تھا ، جب اچانک ہی کسی گاڑی کے زور سے بریک لگانے کی آواز نے اُسے چونکا دیا:
‘‘او بھائی ! اگر خودکشی کا اِتنا ہی شوق ہے تو کہیں اور جا کر مرو۔’’
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Social media has become a key term in new participatory political discourse. Previous studies argued that youth is least interested in democracies and politics; hence, this study aims to explore the role of social media in increasing political participation among male and female university students. Data was collected from a sample of 340 students, chosen from equal gender proportion of five universities with purposive sampling technique to conduct quantitative survey research. The findings of study revealed a positive relationship between political participation and social media usage of students. It also confirms that majority respondents were using social media for political information but the trend is more popular among the male students as compared to females. Male participants were more involved in discussing politics and posting political content on social media, while females were more active in actionable politics like casting vote. The study concludes that social media is playing a significant role in enhancing political participation among university students and predicts a better future of democracies in social media world as new technology provides the language that young voters understand. It also realized that measures are required to attract female students towards participatory politics in Pakistan. ______
Scoliosis is a disease, which disfigures and distorts human body, often effecting vital organs, resulting in morbidity and even mortality in severe cases. It is defined as rotations and lateral curvatures of an individual’s spinal column. Scoliosis can be classified into 3 types — infantile (0-3 years), juvenile (4-7 years) and idiopathic (8 years and above). The last one is most common. A two-minute-orthopedic examination of children, in the age group seven- to ten-years, may alert the health-care provider to early-warning signals, provided the examination is conducted by properly trained professionals and child is barefoot and completely undressed except short underpants. The major problem is either following up children, who are not at risk (wasting human resources) or missing up checks on those who are most prone to acquiring this condition (not directing human resources at the target population). In order to resolve this issue, a mathematical index, ‘Cumulative-Scoliosis-Risk Weightage (CSRW)’ is proposed and tested on a sample population of seven- to eight-year old children studying in a local school of Karachi. This index is computed on the basis of child’s age, history of spinal deformities in family, tallness/wasting in child, Adam’s forward-bending test, plumb-line not aligned, drooping of one shoulder, scapulae uneven, midline of back C or S shaped, body triangles not equal, one of the spinal dimples at a higher level as compared to the other and moiré picture asymmetric about the sagittal plane. A high CSRW warranted differential-spinalfunction- testing before sending the child for X rays. Effective methods are the need of hour to reduce or even rule out un-required X rays, since they may be harmful to the delicate bone marrow of growing population. Differential-spinal-function testing consists of four tests — visual examinations in the standing and the sitting positions as well as forward bending tests in the standing and the sitting positions. The study was conducted (after approval from the Ethics Committee of University of Karachi) on 81 school children (28 boys; 53 girls), who were followed up for three years. Threshold values of CSRW were determined for deciding about the at-risk cases. A CSRW of 5.5 after the first check up, 6.5 after the second check up and 7.5 after the third check up, respectively, called for including the child in list of those, who should be followed up till the end of their growth periods. Results of this study indicated that girls were twice at risk for acquiring scoliosis as compared to boys.