There was a time not long ago when almost every street in Karachi was hosting its own game of cricket every evening. Young and old alike, would use rocks as makeshift wickets and would draw a line for the crease. Street cricket had its own set of rules.

But as Pakistan’s cricket team surrounded itself in controversy, the youth of Karachi discovered a new passion. Soccer! The rocks now mark the goal. Football fever has taken Karachi by surprise. What started as a cult like following of European clubs, has now actually pervaded all stratas of society. Universitites may or may not have a cricket team anymore but all universities now have a football team, and regular inter mural competitions continue to keep these teams competitive.

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Looks like internet users will once again have a good time in future as news is Augere , a new wimax operator is launching soon. Initial work has been done and deployment is in progress. This is great since we had WI TRIBE also jumping into the competition and obviously the more companies competing the more to pick from. Read more

www.augere.eu

Every now and then we hear horror stories about reckless driving. I got to know of one such case where a person who was driving at speed of 120 without any reason. He first hit two motorcycles subsequently, killing both the commuters and then while he was being chased by the police, he lost control completely, he hit another car and now that guy is hospital in serious condition including fractures and head injury, and if he pulls it through then he will be in hospital for 3 months minimum. I hope he recovers. No good reason for anyone who is in such practice, even for the high which is sometimes stupidly proclaimed by some people.

This reminds me that there was some event of Car Racing organized in Hamara Karachi festival this year about which I wanted to write way back but I somehow forgot. Sab choro I mean how can you allow racing on the roads in the first place, even with whatever safety arrangements you claim. This decision was utter foolishness. Can’t we bring in some stuff except the boating, eating and racing?! C’mmon, wake up! I guess we seriously need some brains working.

I took this photograph around one month before but unable to post here earlier. Today, Faisal posted about parking problem and it reminds me this photograph. I agree, we need more parking spaces but the way we park our vehicles on roads, it’s just tremendous! You can see in this photograph, only one lane is functional out of 4 lanes. Don’t you think that we are creating problems ourselves? If you feel you are lucky one who got parking space there then next day you can be one among those who stuck in this traffic jam.

Karachi has a serious traffic problem. With only one artery which is the Shah Ra E Faisal running through out the city and non existant parking in the down town area of Karachi plus the parking mafia ruling the pavements has made driving anywhere and running even simple errands in the city a nightmare.

Although in the last few years many fly overs and amendments have been made to the road structure of the city one huge problem has been overlooked so far and that is parking.

Currently there is a move going on to make a huge 4 story parking plaza near bohri bazaar and another 3 story one at khadda market but this not going to be enough.

I suggest that the entire downtown area should be turned into a “no car zone” and only pedestrians walking should be allowed thus enabling office workers, businessmen and traders to go about their business in peace, rather then it taking 45 minutes to find parking and that too at the behest of the neighborhood sidewalk don who then has the leeway to throw your car whenever he wants, to be retrieved when you gingerly ask for it back, with fender benders and minor milage issues included.

The ameer of the JI “Munawwar Hasan” refused to speak to members of the press after what happened on his arrival at Karachi’s airport.

Some “misunderstanding” between the press and the supporters of JI took place on the Ameers arrival which lead to the “manhandling” of several journalists who were present to cover Munawwar Hasan’s arrival.

This led to the meet the press event at the press club turning into a full blown protest by journalists against the “Jamaat E Islami” on which the guest refused to speak to these journalists due to their disrespectful attitude.

I wonder what actually took place at the airport or how suddenly the press is disrespectful towards “JI” or is it because the press is now voicing the peoples opinion which is totally contrary to Ji’s stance on what is going on in the countries north.

In either case I feel Ji is making a big mistake here as the concerns of the press should be addressed and the media engaged to explain the Ji’s real position as people are getting confused.

Full Story in The News

I recently visited a hospital and I can see people spitting shamelessly – including paan ki peekhs. They just needed a spot where guards were not seeing them. Isn’t it a shame?! When will our people learn some decency? When will we understand that hospital is a place where there are patients and the environment for them should be as safe as possible? Nevertheless hygiene is important everywhere. Do these people think that staff will clean the floors in their next round so kee farq painda hai? Shame Shame to all who pass by without uttering a word and let this happen!

Well its all over the news, Imran Khan has not been allowed to board the Lahore to Karachi flight as per the instructions of the Sindh Government.

Which ever political party you may belong to – the question that must be asked as to why should citizens of Pakistan NOT be allowed to come to Karachi?

Rightly then it has been asked – Is this city run by a government or a mafia

Go Figure – let the comment circus begin :)

New York Times published a story a few days back about a booming business in the heart of Karachi. A small mom and pop industry run by Adnan Qadeer and Rizwan Qadeer crunching out bondage and fetish goods for the American and European markets. It does go to show, that despite the economic downturn there is tremendous potential for business, though with the latest projection they have received courtesy NY Times I just have concern for their safety in light of the radicalization in Karachi.

New York Times – Deep in the nation’s commercial capital, just next door to a mosque and the offices of a radical Islamic organization, in an unmarked house two Pakistani brothers have discovered a more liberal and lucrative use for the scourge: the $3 billion fetish and bondage industry in the West.

Their mom-and-pop-style garment business, earns more than $1 million a year manufacturing 2,000 fetish and bondage products, including the Mistress Flogger, and exporting them to the United States and Europe.

The Qadeer brothers, Adnan, 34, and Rizwan, 32, have made the business into an improbable success story in a country where bars are illegal and the poor are often bound to a lifetime in poverty.

Part I : The Background

This had to happen, it was meant to. The ground was all set, the preparations ready and the city, like an orphan at the helm of few terrorist wings of some political parties who keep churning out some nonsense political agendas, and a cover up with dodging words like “talibanisation” , “ethnicity”, “india ki sazish”, “democracy”, “awaam ki taqat”, “land grabbers”, “shaheed” . . .  ETC, words you keep hearing them as their answers to almost all questions. Bring on any TV program, any anchor and any question and you will find these words in their answers. For ordinary man these answer are satisfactory and so he keeps believing them every time he goes for vote and every time he is fooled. He is fooled by the ALLADIN lamp known as DEMOCRACY. DEMOCRACY that never came at first place ever, to begin with. Democracy is not a medicine that will react instantly. Its a seed, and so like all seeds it needs water,air,sun etc to become a TREE. To add more confusion we have some self CERTIFIED religious thekedaars telling us how to pray, walk, dress in the name of shariah. A shariah that has 70 odd interpretations and everyone is hell bent upon eliminating all others by their self proclaimed divine authority. This circus of political deception, dishonest leadership, incompetent religious ulema is continuously adding more misery to the ordinary man, who HIMSELF is THE most responsible unit for his and this city’s state, as it stands now.

Even an animal changes its path once  deceived on one route and can understand that this route is not meant for my objective. Why is it then that the ordinary man in this city keeps electing these people, who lack competency, honesty, loyalty and the vision to lead. They are all selfish, some natural jokers and some trained by their parties, some fool using religion some do it using ethnicity and yet an ordinary man doesn’t get it and so he is paying price for his own choice.

Is it not the time he awaken to the fact that like a human body, we need fresh blood. The old blood is cancerous with zaati, siyasi, mzhabi, firqawarana and lisaani mafadaat. They are all of the same circus only with different skill sets. Its quite possible that there would be some good souls between them too but they are POWERLESS and the decision making is mostly done by the evils and not the few saints. We can differentiate those few good men but cant allow their parties to be elected again as too much time is lost and too much blood at our hands.

Time has come for a change . . .