A nurse, wife of a police constable, killed herself and her four children because she could no longer carry on in the house where her husband had placed her. They were victims of the joint family system which saw four brothers, with their wives and families, all living in the same 10-marla house in Lahore. An additional factor had been the fact that the marriage of 26-year-old Munazza and Constable Riazuddin Bhatti had been a love marriage, over which she had been constantly insulted by her sisters-in-law. She also accused them of beating her children when they had to take care of them, which was daily, as both she and her husband were off at work. The gory incident will be related to the suicides last week in Lahore, one of a potato vendor and the other of a rickshaw driver and his family, but this was not merely caused by poverty, but also because there was another social problem thrown into relief. First is the problem of both members of a couple working, and their inability to get proper childcare. The extended family is supposed to be the solution, but it seems to have failed Riazuddin Bhatti and his family very badly. Then there is the very common problem of a woman wanting a separate house for herself and her family, and her husbands corresponding inability to afford one. This, by the way, is not a particularly unreasonable demand. This problem in particular had not been solved even though both husband and wife were working, and the police, of which the husband was a member, had received a substantial pay raise. It is also worth noting that though both husband and wife were government servants, neither had got official accommodation. The problem does not seem to be one of mere poverty, but of the frustration of expectations of a better life. The government must check strenuously whether it is helping in the solution of the housing question, or whether it is in any way part of the problem. In the case of one couple, it has clearly failed, to the extent that a couple has been destroyed and five lives lost.