There is only so much one can do with a shop, but some people go an extra mile to get the most out of a single shop. This shop near Iqra University Gulshan campus, houses a real estate consultant, a builder, opticians and even a beauty parlor, which reminds me of a mobile phone manufacturer’s popular tag line “Subh kuch too hai is mian“.

The world cup has been in progress a good few weeks, and sadly Pakistan and India are ‘peacefully’ back home. The impact of the exit of these top teams is rumored to have put a dent of up to 40% on the anticipated viewership which was initially expected by the advertisers egging to use this event to promote their products.

What is definitely interesting to note is that World Call in Karachi has been actively been blocking Fox Sports and Super Sports to ll of their viewers in Karachi, both these channels are also licensed to air these World Cup matches. I can understand that Geo might want to maximize its viewership but forcibly censoring other channels. If the plea is for having an exclusive Pakistan licenses, then a look at the WC07 media partners shows SONY (SET MAX) having rights to Pay Television in Pakistan while PTV is also seen to be airing these matches but is not listed in either the primary Franchise column and neither in any sub-franchise rights issued by the World Cup media organisers.

Since Pakistan is out of the World Cup the excitement has definitely died down but the issue to muscle in a censorship of channels by Geo definitely irks at least me, if not to others.

_{Story Submitted by: Farooq Nadeem}

“A tribute To Chughtai” , An art exhibition by four contemporary artists, Anees Ahmed, M.F.Shahid Zaki, M.A.Munawar and Shamim Khan opened today at the JI’s Gallery of Fine Arts. The exhibition will continue till 14th April 2007.
JI’s Gallery of Fine Arts:
C 6/2 B, Bath Island, Clifton Karachi. Phone: (92-21) 586 8650.

An exhibition titled ” Water Color Series” of paintings by Ragini Upadhyaya Grela opened today at Majmua Art Gallery. The exhibition will remain open for public till 15th of April 2007.
Majmua Art Gallery:
22-E Mezzanine Floor, Lane No.5, Zamzama Street, Clifton Karachi. Phone : (92-21) 537 2018

According to Daily Times, Pakistan would have 8 more nuclear power plants by the year 2030, with a total capacity of 1,000 MW each, total 8GW.

According to The World Nuclear Association, Pakisan currently has a total installed nuclear power capacity has 425MW, which accounts for only 2.4% of the total power production in the country, which is just over 19.5GW. Karachi has an installed capacity of 125MW, out of which less than 30MW are functionally produced. Some reports in the 90’s cited Kannupp lowest in its production vs. installed capacity ratings, which hit 20% at one time.

Clearly an increase of just 50% of existing capacity does not make much sense over a 23 year plan, unless we plan to increase our dependence on other sources as well. Karachi is already massively short of energy and with its one nuclear power plant, that too operating at highly reduced capacity, it is time to put Kannupp 2 into action. Something we have been hearing about. According to unconfirmed sources, Karachi is currently short of about 600MW, which in itself means 8GW, nationwide, over 23 years will never be enough!

This year, the power situation during summer in Karachi is expected to be worse than last year. Fasten your seatbelts!

(1000MW = 1GW)

Tabraiz sent us this link to a webpage that has a listing (with pictures) of some of the development projects planned for Karachi. This also includes the notorious 1947 feet skyscrapper that was discussed extensively not so long ago. Other notable projects include Crescent Bay, Dolmen Towers, and Creek Marina. There are many other projects I can think of that are not listed there.

All of that looks so surreal… can Karachi actually be like that? Never thought so? It’s amazing to witness all this development going on right in front of us. The next generation will grow up in a developed Karachi and will take everything for granted.

A major concern is still security. All this development is futile if common man is not secure on the streets. I am very optimistic that the concerned authorities will give a serious thought to security issue as well.

I heard it a couple of hours ago on GeoTV. Mild shockwaves rocked defence phase 5 today around 8:30 PM! Wth the memories of the Oct 8th quake still fresh in peoples mind, many exited their homes and took to the safety of the streets. I hope no body was hurt in this latest earthmoving.. and wish everyone in karachi a pleasent night!

Its about time we put all those speculations about whether if, the new Al-Baik restaurant in North Nazimabad is the original world famous Saudi chain or not, to rest. Sadly it is not as the original Saudi Arabian owners have recently published a legal notice in a local newspaper clarifying the mess.

I had the fortune / misfortune to have visited the outlet a few weeks back, could not say that it was anything to write home about. They were charging somewhere close to KFC prices with not much of a difference in quality. Personally I won’t quite as much miss this restaurant even if the fake owners are forced to close up shop or switch name after having been served with a legal notice.

Correct me if I am wrong, but was it not a few years back that Al-Baik had opened up shop somewhere near Nihari Inn at Boat Basin which soon had to close up shop probably being unable to wad through the competition on boat basin strip, it could be the same group that chose to resurface at a new location in hope of sneaking past any formal franchise agreements with the original chain and trying to cash in on the popular name. Any idea who is behind all this?

Story & Image Credit: Adnan Siddiqui

Update:
* You can send us a low resolution image if your bandwidth doesn’t allow you to email large attachments. However, you should be able to produce a high resolution image of your design if and when asked.
* You can use other taglines if you are feeling more creative.
* Please include the url: http://karachi.metblogs.com in the design.
* For any queries feel free to leave a comment.

I shall bump up this post from time to time for maximum exposure

Finally, the wait is over.

It is my great pleasure to announce Karachi Metroblog Art Competition.

We are inviting all the artists out there to come up with designs for Sticker and T-Shirts to be used for promotion of KMB. And yes, an exciting reward awaits the designer who succeeds in creating the most mind boggling design.

Here are a few things to keep in mind before you loose yourself in the jungle of creativity.

* The design should have “Karachi Metroblog” prominently visible
* The design should also have the tagline “All about Karachi”
* The design must be submitted to us in JPG format, with dimensions not exceeding 11 inches by 7 inches.
* The design should be in high resolution, at least 300 pixels per inch.
* Needless to say, the design should somehow illustrate Karachi, the city, the life, the good, the bad, the whole nine yards (or parts of it). How you do this is what this contest is all about.

I guess that’s about it. Please email your entries by April 1, 2007. Don’t forget to include “KMB Contest” in the subject otherwise we might miss your submission due to huge amount of emails that we get.

Winners will be announced in April and prizes will be awarded at a grand KMB meetup.

Good luck and all the best.

There is hardly any local website making it to the papers within 14 days & has crossed 1000 petition signs already.

proud-pakistani.com is one such website making it to Daily DAWN which probably, following the footsteps of Daily Times & Voice of America recently featured a full article on it, titled “Cyber activism redefined“.

The website is probably first good & collective attempt by desi-cyber-activists with rather hidden faces, who in reality are few Karachiites (mostly professionals + Bloggers) coming together for a purpose. While freedom of speech in public is a rare commodity here, they decided to use the tool they best knew about. It’s ingredient contains blog, news/updates, analysis & a mailing list on Google.

An interesting part is the online petition which can sign & comment. In its starting two weeks around 1000+ viewers signed the petition & many have used the chance to say their heart out using comment box.

The concept of cyber activism is getting popular all over the internet. It would be great if anyone share any local site related to cyber activism . And also any stats on desi cyber activism.
(more…)

Loose ends Pakistan is a group of people who are trying to make this country a better place to dwell in.

It is carrying two projects currently to raise awareness in people, not to litter our streets and follow traffic rules. Papoo yaar gand na ker is a safai mohim in association with DHA and CBC .
Saw this banner at the back of HOT & SPICY and then researched on the papoo’s mohim.
I’m glad that people really want to work making this country a better place.