Being the corrupt as our judicial system is, it will be too tough for the Shehla Raza and Ghulam Qadir to get any justice but is it the beginning of ordinary citizen awakening to their rights. After a week of peace (read no rains) here comes this news in daily dawn. Filing suits for such incidents is rare in our society. People are too hopeless of judiciary to give it a try. But if Shehla Raza and Ghulam Qadir can win it, I am sure it will open the gate of serious concern for govt. officials, given the fact that Chief justice of Pakistan seems to be the only hurdle for the corrupts & its unfortunate, for them that he is sitting at the top. What chances do we have of any justice? Will the case be thrown into files and then dust and later into history garbage or will it be taken seriously by Chief Justice. More over they have impleaded the taxi owner Merajuddin and driver Rasheed Ahmed as well. What you have to say on it.

If you have spare $549 in hand, you can go to Dubai in a ferry. It will take a couple of days and you will enjoy everything that a luxurious ship has to offer. I have been on a similar ferry once and it was a mind blowing experience, so unless you are suffering from sea-sickness, I would highly recommend trying it out at least once. If you think the fare is too high, just stick around. It will come down as more operators jump in the field. And if Dubai is not your favorite destination, you can opt for Mumbai.

Suggested by: Schawlaf, Muhammad ALi Yaqoob

The Producers – a musical play with loads of comedy and dances by the makers of “Phantom of the Opera” (October 2004) and “Ayub” (Aug 2005). Its based on the movie THE PRODUCERS starring Uma Thurman.
Dates: the 27th August to 5th September.
Timings: 9:00 pm onwards (its a 2:15 mins play)
Venue: Arts council covered audtiorium
Proceeds go to FLAME (Friends of Literacy And Mass Education).
Tickets available at: Agha’s. Ami’s, Park Towers and the Forum.

We all know the hue and cry the opposition is raising over the Women’s Rights Bill. According to Dawn;

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) announced on Thursday that it would launch a countrywide protest campaign against the government from Friday (today) for changing the Hudood laws tabled in the National Assembly in the name of women’s protection bill and vowed to put a strong resistance to all efforts to change the Islamic laws on foreign pressure.

(more…)

Its no wonder there’s so much rampant encroachment going on in our city. The govt. turns a blind eye to them, till they’re established, and once they are.. it takes its losses, hands over the land, and continues to make the people suffer.

Happens everywhere in our ‘fine’ city! The latest example being the encroachment on the nullahs in different parts of clifton where “influential encroachers” refused to hand back the land to the govt. The govt. is now stumped and trying to find another solution.

In a city, where service to self rules above common sense or respect for the law, what else would one expect? This attitude among our peoples is really what is destroying the city.. not the govt, not the terrorists, and not the rain.

Undoubtedly another nightmare in the making:

‘Traffic to remain close at MA Jinnah Road from 1:00 pm till the end of the protest meeting. The vehicular traffic from Liaqautabad and Jail roundabout would be diverted to Shahrah-i-Faisal via Shahrah-e-Quaideen whereas traffic from Nazimabad will travel to Tower through Nishtar Road.

Traffic from Tower to Quaid’s tomb would be directed from Fresco roundabout to M R Kiyani Road and than from Shahrah-e-Quaideen to Shahrah-e-Faisal.

The streets adjacent to MA Jinnah Road have been sealed with deployment of heavy contingents of police. Additional police contingents were provided to Saddar, Clifton and Jamshed Town for security arrangements. Police force will also be deployed for rally and the public meeting place.’ (The News)

If it wasn’t going to cause so much chaos on the roads tomorrow, I’d relish the irony of the beards being harassed on ostensibly religious grounds.

UPDATE: This post should have appeared yesterday i.e. Thursday morning. I was dabbling in scheduled posts and appear to have screwed up. Apologies. The traffic jams duly materialised during and long after the protest.

things have come to the stage that news of a suicide bomber doesn’t cause you to raise even an eyebrow. its so totally normal. these characters are normally expected to use a car of some sort to ram into a wall or something.

however, when you hear of someone taking over a locomotive and preparing to ram it into a passenger train, well, thats interesting. it also speaks volumes that our security is so lax that an allegedly mentally retarded geriatric could actually have done this if he hadn’t been diverted in the nick of time.

amazing. only in karachi, eh?

I remember I was told by the elders in my family that “when you are praying, try to remove all pictures from the same room and dont wear t-shirts with pictures on them”. Well.. I wonder if anyone notices this, but the mosque that I goto has billboards all around it and they have pictures on them and many times it happens that they come right infront of me and distract me. I think that the advertising companies should be ethical enough to remove all billboards with pictures on them from the possible-view of the namazis.

Risking their lives, breaking the law, on the main road near Teen Talwar, riding three on a motor bike and the traffic police does not even bother to stop them.

On August 22, 2006, the police conducted a raid at Radio City, Park Towers on information of violation of Intellectual Property Rights laws and the owner, Mr. Arif Ghani was taken into custody on charges of possession and sale of the movie “Fast and the Furious – Tokyo Drift”. An FIR in this regard has also been lodged.

The raid took place because the movie was being officially released in Pakistan, and hence had legal representation, which allowed such action to be taken. It seems that this might be the way things will go for a while until piracy itself gets curtailed.

Question is, does this open the door to international media labels coming into Pakistan?