Our brave media recently went mum again and since there was again no official reason/confirmation/notice/press release ETC. every tom dick and harry has his chance to jump in for a comment. I avoided it for few days merely because i had absolutely no idea. But now, as time passes, and as it is always the case, guess who came out behind the curtain . . . . . again . . . . (more…)

Fourth International Book Fair will be held from 26th to 30th December, 2008 at Karachi Expo Center (Hall 1, 2 & 3). This event is arranged by The Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association.

Start Time: Friday, December 26, 2008 at 12:00pm
End Time: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 11:00pm
Location: Karachi Expo Center, Main University Road Near Civic Center.

Yesterday our President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari chaired a high level meeting to decide that Karachi’s local administration should start registering all people coming to Karachi, as well as tenants of the city, at police stations and adopt better and modern methods for making the city more secure. The directive is an effort to enhance the security of Karachi.

While today Governor Sindh Ishrat ul Ibad was actually more direct and mentioned that this effort is to control the influx of immigrants specially coming from the NWFP and FATA areas. Some how this new decision seems to have been to appease the MQM lobby in its recent surge to de-Talibanize Pathanization Karachi

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This happened a few weeks back but it still has the power to shake me up. It was a regular evening for me. I left work at the usual time; little did I know that I would be subject to moral policing par excellence – Taliban style – in the day light and that too in Karachi.

On my way back from work, I was waiting at signal of Hotel Crown Plaza. The driver of the taxi next to me knocked on my window, I thought there must be something wrong with the car or something so I rolled down the window and raised my eye brow in question. It was then all hell broke lose. He went ballistic, first he accused me of promoting promiscuousity by leaving home un chaperoned and then said that we, as a nation, are facing so much trouble because our women have stopped observing hijab and what not. After the initial shock and paralysis which lasted a full ten seconds, I rolled up my window and decided not to listen to his tirade.

The signal turned green and I put the car in motion but that taxi driver decided to teach me a lesson and started following me and banging my car with his hands which was very dangerous in rush hour traffic. It was then I got really scared and decided to stop by next to a traffic police constable who was manning traffic at the signal. I complained to him but he couldn’t help because the taxi driver drove on when I stopped next to the constable. He asked me to wait it out for a few minutes so I parked my car there for ten minutes. After waiting for a while, I too decided to go, but instead of taking the usual route, I took the more crowded route because I was too scared to go anywhere less crowded.

I have lived in Karachi most of my adult life, I love living here but if this is the shape of things to come, then things look very bleak.

Situation in the country or the globe isn’t the greatest but it is sad when you catch something like this. This is the roundabout that sits in on the intersection in between DHA, Gizri and Clifton and a man sitting in the middle of the city’s busy streets is a rare sight. (more…)

Indeed a commentator said it right . . . Zinda hai BB zinda hai . .  and so is her legacy….

Read FULL story

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Lately there have been shady reports coming in from different parts of Karachi that Pakhtun hotels and dhabas are being put out of commission overnight.

There are also reports that Pakhtuns are being systematically sought out and removed from mohajir based areas as the leader of MQM has warned his party of the dangers these people somehow pose. Removal means eviction by landlords, refusal to buy goods from pakhtun businesses and so on

I thought it would be a good idea for us to engage in some citizen journalism and see if this is actually taking place or is more here say to fan the flames of ethnic violence in our city. This can easily be accomplished as most of us live in different areas of Karachi and can report via comments as to what is actually going on while trying to stay away from a political tilt in any direction.

So answer the above poll and tell us why you think this is or is not happening, based on your own locality. Pretty soon we should have a city wide grasp of the ground reality in this matter

Karachi's Clifton Beach Front

Credit Basit Sami’s Flickr Stream

A recent report published in AFP shares some serious concern about Karachi being a potential disaster spot for an earthquake. Though the faultline lies a little to our west but a major the major bustling city of Pakistan is seemingly ill prepared for such a disaster if it were to God Forbid strike

AFP: Seismologists say Karachi is as much at risk from earthquakes as Los Angeles. But unlike the sprawling US west coast city, or other supercities lying on or near faultlines, Pakistan’s business capital is ill-equipped to cope if disaster strikes, according to experts. “We are not realising the danger we are surrounded by.” Noman Ahmed, an architect associated with Karachi’s NED University of Engineering and Technology estimates that virtually all of the city’s 500,000 buildings are structurally unsound.
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