In an effort to pacify the fired up atmosphere that has engulfed Karachi in the past few days especially in regards to the strong words used against Altaf Hussain by Imran Khan. MQM and Altaf Hussain have issued a press statement instructing its followers to exercise restraint when a political leader makes inflammatory statements to the media and Altaf Hussain has also requested them to clean up the city walls of all slogans that were made throughout the city on Saturday night.

It might be damage control, but a positive effort nonetheless and must be appreciated as things were definitely getting quite tense in the city.

The Pakistani movie scene is slowly gaining momentum! This production is turning out to get quite a few accolades. It kind of reminds me of the Blairwitch Project and i hope these guys make it that big.

Note: The following trailer is not for the weak hearted and contains a lot of blood and gore!. Please watch at your own risk.

The film launched at LUMS on the 14th of May, and now has a whole host of lauches planned at various film festivals across the country. In Karachi it will be shown on the 12,13 and 14th of June.
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Yes. It’s that time of the year again that all school, college and university goers impatiently look forward to. The tempratures may be sky rocketing, but so are the spirits of millions of youth around the city.

So now that exams are over (or soon will be for the A-Level lot), what is there for them to do?

For the youger lot, there are the summer camps where there is a lot to learn- from arts and crafts to computer graphics, from sports to simple plain fun activities. Some lucky kids, on the other hand, get to travel out of town for a much needed change of surroundings.

The older lot have internships and test preperations to think of. As they await their results, they continue studying hard to pass aptitude tests for colleges and universities that they want to join.
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While the mainstream media in Pakistan is constantly under pressure from “authorities concerned” (as well as authorities unconcerned, authorities that have no authority, etc — you get the drift, roght?), citizen journalism has taken off like never before. More blogs and e-zines are coming up to provide a platform for all the voices that would otherwise have suffered a silent death.

The first issue of WeCite was published online in April 2006. The latest issue (May 2007) was uploaded today.
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Meanwhile, the Karachi Stock Exchange reached its highest on Friday. And today it climbed even higher, closing at 12830. I take that’s a good sign.

How long before we see another crash?

Nothing says “Be careful when driving” better than seeing what happens when you dont!

Surprisingly, none of the cars involved were from Karachi (atleast not with the distincitve yellow plates) all the more reason for us karachiites to practise extra safety. Just as a reminder, you dont just have to be careful about the way you drive, you have to be careful about the way others around you are driving as well.

Image Credit: khanana

March 15, 2007 around 50 to 60 thousand people took to the streets of Karachi to protest against dunda-bardaar shariat. Good work indeed. I wished it to be more. The president also wants his-definition-of secular forces to win next elections. Politically he meant PPP, MQM, and ANP etc. But if he really means it, he will have to import some 20 million people from outside Pakistan to cast vote because on the ground there is not a single moderate/liberal (forget secular) party right now. 90%, including all major parties are extremists by design by actions or by faith. In simple words no moderate force is present in current political setup (the awaam being out of the setup completely).

Its interesting that if the religious conservatives are called intolerant than the social extremist are no less different. Is it now just a matter of who is lesser an extremist/less intolerant. MMA & MQM surely disqualify this status in first round. DAWN NEWS showed ruling supporters walking on slogan “Imran Kutta hai“. Those who wrote this on road, do they know what posture they were when writing it? (Nature has his own ways of humiliating people).

Angered at finding no reply to previous comments, a gov. supporter wrote this comment in previous post: “You people want a prophet to free you from your slavery in Karachi?”. No sir, if he could be just 5-10% of Sir Syed’s honesty & Quaid’s leadership we would raise him to sky. Forget the philosophical & great thinker Iqbal. Current leadership is not even worth his dust. Their clones come once in many hundred years.

Though “chacha” by history isn’t a good person morally. He does save his party from mistakes. Is there any Chacha left in ruling party who can advise it sensibly?

MQM is leaving no stone unturned to bury itself deeper and deeper into trouble. The latest in this round of hasty decisions is ban on Imran Khan’s entry in SIndh for a whole month.

Whither, democracy?

VIP movement forced traffic to come on a stand still once again yesterday as President Musharaff graced us with his presence to launch the Dawn News channel. Seen here is the photo in the Metropolitan section of today’s Express, showing a seemingly endless line of cars and buses stuck on Shahrah-e-Faisal. President Mushy, in his speech, reminded the media of their responsibility, accusing them of being obsessed with sensationalism and negative reporting, but too bad for the President, no one warned him that God has His own, ever so subtle, way of highlighting hypocrisy.

Simultaneously as the general was lecturing the media on how their reporting some times brings a “negative impact on the economic and social progress of the country” and accusing them of not keeping the nation’s interest at heart, this traffic jam, amongst numerous other things which would have doubtless come to a stand still as his VIP escort made way through the city, in its own small way showed us what is really bringing a “negative impact on the economic and social progress of the country”. Not the media General, its you.

I have been told that Imran Khan today has used some strong words against the self-exiled leader Altaf Hussain. For those who had the opportunity to watch Imran Khan’s interview on Business Plus with Ayesha Tammy Haq on Friday night must have been in for a shock as Imran Khan did not hold back any punches when he lashed out against MQM and Altaf Hussain. Imran went to the extent of saying that Altaf Hussain was a raving lunatic running a terrorist organization from London, amongst other hard hitting statements.

This interview sparked an outrage by the local Karachi based MQM leadership to an extent that effigies of Imran Khan were burnt immediately after the program and reports are coming in that he has been warned of dire circumstances on his next trip to Karachi. I may have thought that Imran Khan was quite outspoken and speaking true to his heart, but I feel such strong attacking statements only create hindrance to the recovery efforts by MQM to reconcile differences created on May 12th. Without doubt we are in for some heated exchange of words between the two parties but I sincerely hope it remains peaceful as Karachi cannot be shoved into another round of terror.
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