I was just introduced with an interesting SMS service offered by a Pakistani company. Some interesting features include:

• SMS for free on any number in Pakistan (it seems like a hoax but it’s not)
• All your sent and received messages are saved on your profile
• Personalized tagging for everyone you are having a conversation with
• Delivery status (you would know if your sent message has been delivered to the receiver or not)
• You can integrate your Twitter account with it as well
• Numbers of invitation increase as more friends accept to register
• Ideal for everyone who live outside Pakistan and want to stay in touch with friends

Site: iSMS.pk
Membership: Free (takes 1-2 days to process)

So after “naloom dehshatgard” and “namaloom shar pasand” we have one more namaloom category added. Quite a proof of how much Freedom KHI lives in . .

An earlier announced Food Festival for a cause, by the Concern for Children Trust which was cancelled due to bad weather has been rescheduled for 15th Of February 2009. So participate have fun and make a difference for the underprivileged people of “Machar Colony”.

Details are as under: 

Date:        Sunday, December 21, 2008

Time:       11:00am – 6:00pm

Location:  Rahat Stadium, DHA

By Concern for Children Trust : http://concernforchildren.org.pk/

Entry Tickets to the event for a donation of Rs.100, are available at: Espresso, Muzika, Hot-Spot, The Elephant Warehouse and also at the venue.

Vision of Prosperity 2009 [From 6 to 8 February 2009, Expo Center]

This exhibition is being organized by All Pakistan Memon Federation with the aim to promote industries and organizations belong to Memon Community. To my surprise, all six halls of Expo Center utilized for this exhibition. A huge number of companies are participating in this exhibition including from builders, telecos, automobiles, or event you can find stall of Tasty Chalia. Number of stalls are offering discount ranging from 10% – 50%.

Apparently all those tales about a white corolla car roaming the streets of our posh Defense and Clifton areas were quite true.  What the fickle among us dismissed as rumors to scare the population has in fact been confessed by a “Ali Mohammad Hajiyano” who along with his friend Umair khan rented a white corolla and then robbed, raped and looted with impunity for a number of weeks in and around the defence and Clifton area.

There are about 32 FIRS registered against “Ali Mohammad Hajiyano” in various area of clifton and it is feared according to his explicit confessions that there are many more out there who have not reported their plight due to the brutality of his crimes.

The criminals were finally caught as they were found by a police mobile robbing a girl outside Nisar Shaheed Park in Defence. Many of the families which suffered at the hands of these monsters have called for exemplary punishment to teach other wanna be’s a lesson.

Full Story

According to the Minister for Human Rights Syed Mumtaz Alam Gilani (Yes, we have a separate ministry for human rights which perhaps only compiles the list of violations as published in the newspapers), Karachi tops the list of human rights violations in Pakistan.

As covered in Dawn, the Minister said that 5,140 cases of human rights violations were recoded in the country with Karachi at the top with 2,102 cases. A total of 1,695 such cases were recoded in Lahore, 715 in Peshawar and 628 in Quetta.

I am surprised how the esteemed minister came to these figures. I think the most troubled areas these days in Pakistan are Swat and Waziristan where the militants are chopping off heads with great impunity every day. Are they not part of Pakistan or the ministry is too afraid of the Mullahs operating in those areas to actually say it out loud.

Why single out Karachi?

Signs placed all over the city in support of pillion riding

The results of the last poll that we had on KMB in Januaray when the Double Sawari ban was extended – 61% of our readers said “The ban on double sawari has nothing to do with Law & Order” while 38% said “It was a good step” So in light of the economic crunch and wide number of job cuts across the city do you still support the ban on double sawari?

[poll=16]

January has been a month full of stress and fear for parents of school going children in Karachi. There have been a number of kidnapping cases of children going to or coming back from school in this month and the cities police has been ordered to keep an eye outside major schools.

The exact number of kidnapping cases of school going children last month were 3, all of a short term basis with the kidnappers typically targeting children 10-13 years of age and asking for ransoms from 70,000 to 500,000 rupees upon payment of which the child was returned to their parents.

Parents are thus been advised by school authorities to take different routes to and from school with their children as well as making sure a supervising adult “from the family” is there when the children are picked up. Most schools have already adopted an ID card system without the presence of which children are not released to whoever arrives to pick them up.

Hopefully the city government will take an active interest in ensuring that our young citizens are not robbed of their rights of freedom even before they realize what they mean.

Yesterday, driving from Hasan square towards the nation stadium my heart skipped a beat when suddenly in the centre of the road I spotted a cat lying still, it’s blood splattered on the cold tar of the road, lifeless. Apparently a driver didn’t had the audacity to pause for a few split seconds to spare the life of a poor cat. The cats lifeless body lying in the centre of the city and it’s tail pointing towards us citizens, a sign that we have become so insensitive that we have stopped respecting life, of fellow human beings, of animals and of all God’s creations.

A student, a child, an old man, of a father, mother sister, wife, daughter, who once back in the timeline who too were lying lifeless just like this cat, on a Similar road, and like the cats tail their gaze pointing towards to city asking only one question. “Was the rush really worth taking away a life ?” The city is silent, maybe of guilt or too insensitive to understand the question.