On the night of March 15th last month, an 18 year old woman who was visiting our beloved Qaids Mazaar from a rural area with her family was abducted from the grounds of the Mazaar.

She was then subjected to gang rape by unknown assailants and was left in an awful state at the gate of Qaid’s Mazaar in the wee hours of the morning on 17th March.

At first her husband and family ran from pillar to post to get an FIR registered which the police was not willing to grant on this heinous crime. However when the media caught hold of this story and it ran on many news channels the police registered an F.I.R and arrested the assistant head of security of Qaid’s Mazaar on March 20th. His D.N.A proved he was one of the rapists, on his interrogation two more men from the security force were arrested and proven guilty by their D.N.A. There are however still two suspects at large and the senate commitee on housing works has recommended that the entire workforce of the Mazaar should be D.N.A tested to find them.

It chills me to the bone as to how many security officers were actually involved in this crime. 3 being already identified and two left makes 5. What have we succumbed to? when the guardians of our beloved Qaid’s tomb resort to such disgusting behavior to satisfy their inner demons.

I was going through my regular G-reading when this news took my attention. Its about a blogger being Jailed for undermining the prestige of the state and weakening national morale. It is not the first time that I have heard such a news. I then did a minor search for such cases over the internet and what I find is astonishing. Russia, Bahrain, Malaysia you name it! all are in the list.

We say what we want to and write what we want to and we feel like it is our right to be able to speak up our minds. We debate on politics, criticize the government, comment on the hopeless laws and anything and everything. Not just that we speak on every aspect of life where we live whether its good or bad, fun or frustration.

What I’m wondering is from a perspective of a third person. Imagine yourself in a place where I was when I read the news. Did you notice that the Location of the accused is the first word of the heading of the news? First thing I came to know was that it’s something in Syria, then it’s a Jailed blogger and the last was the name of the person that appears in the last paragraph. I’m thinking! and thinking hard that the laws in the country, the watch on people is strict enough and good enough that they actually care about someone badmouthing about them. They are even tackling the situation in a decent lawful manner rather than blocking every blog across the country!

Sentenced to jail, is something we can’t even imagine in Karachi or Pakistan, do you think we (citizens and the politicians both) have enough “Prestige and National Moral”? Forget about national moral, does a single man have a moral or are we just typing out our guts in order to “expose” everything and prove we are free? Don’t say that the country and us are two different things, it is one thing. If you (we) don’t exist, Pakistan don’t exist and if Pakistan don’t exist we are no one from no where! Everything is related to one and other. The reason for saying this is that we are writing about ourselves whatever we write. In our “social” circle we may be recognized as us, but on a global scale we are only “Bloggers from Karachi, Pakistan”

My point is simple, the “outsiders” reading the blogs would be having what sort of a perception about us and our nation? For instance, if something happens in Karachi, I get tired of explaining the situation to the people abroad. They seem to be under an impression that we are all ‘dying’ here, how can I tell them that only 10 to 20 percent of the city is affected and the “rest is fine”! That is because they hear what the media tells them. The media tells them right or wrong is not of a concern, the concern is that the media can never report on every street situation of a the entire city where the riots emerge - it can never report a hundred percent.

The same way, we are ‘creating’ history of ourselves writing what we are writing. No matter its good or it is bad, it is what it is and the world is reading it. Now I am personally at the toughest of time to form a judgment about my observations and thoughts.

Should we again be blaming the “government” for not implementing proper laws, take us towards advancements, create a national moral and prestige? or Should we blame the writers for writing it all down for the world to read and laugh at us that these people have no “national moral” or prestige?

The events of 1971 were a part of the history long before I was born but even years later in the mid 80s as a primary school child I could smell the stench of the vicious broth we had cooked to suppress, degrade, demoralize, dominate and disgrace our very own people, the people of Bangladesh.

I remember being a student of class 4, one day I heard a fellow student use the term “Bhookay Bengali” as a derogatory remark to another fellow student of a slightly dark complexion. That day when I got back home I asked my mother why Bengalis are called hungry? And why the term Bengali is considered a derogatory remark ? It is when she told me how we over powered them used them to our advantage, made them work hard for us and paid them less then half of what they deserved and in terms of respect we gave them none.

It was this day this I first realized how in human we had been to these people. But as time passed and as I grew older historic events, stories and accounts of the events of 1971 kept coming to my knowledge. The picture kept becoming more and more gruesome, the scale went up to a level where it literally became a haunting scene. It painted an undeniable picture narrating the shear brutality we showed towards our Bengali sisters and brothers.

yesterday an evening of literary reading was held at t2f, a local café and the book which was read from was “Fault Lines” an anthology of stories of 1971 by noted authors from both Bangladesh and Pakistan and a few others from this same region, compiled and edited by Niaz Zaman and Asif Farrukhi, both of them eminent writers and noted literary figures from Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively, who were present for the evening along sides with noted writers Intizar Hussain, Asad Mohammad Khan and the editor Books and Reviews (DAWN) Saima Hussain to read out their contributions and share their stories, views and thoughts with the audience.

The event started with the Urdu version of “Fork Lift No. 352″ a story by Asad Mohammad Khan. Which followed by a thoughtfully placed question by Asif Farrukhi: “Do we yet have any competent “driver” for the faulty “fork lifts”, to run them smoothly, and how would we know if the drivers are competent or not ?”. We may blame the faulty fork lift or the driver for his incompetence to trace the fault in time, but form the damage that has already been done have we yet learned something or not ? Was the question which instantly popped up in my mind.

The event continued, Intizar Hussain shared his views of the time and Asif Farrukhi  read an excerpt of his writing from the book while Niaz Zaman followed by sharing her story of those years in history, and her views and expressed her grieve for the unjust sad and later much regretted events which effected the common people of both the sides. 

By looking at the whole picture specially with the prospective I hold, it was not too difficult to see that we had pushed the people of Bangladesh to a point where they were actually cornered and were left with not many options at their hand.

 It was Only three days back when I came across this link, a link which narrated an incident of a horrifying war crime committed against some innocent women. the people we deliberately rendered poor and helpless we victimized, just because we could and yesterday’s event left me with a heavy heart, I had always been ashamed to meet the eyes with any Bengali, although I was not a part of the brutality which was unleashed upon the innocent people to favor just a handful few but still I feel the guilt. For these Crimes and incidents I do not blame the army, I do not blame the foreign elements, I don’t blame anyone else but my self. Me, and the people who took advantage of them, who never stood-up for them, who never raised their voice against the unjust, We never talked to our children about it, we never told the stories we should have been telling. Was this not our responsibility ?

But it is yet not too late to began correcting what we have done wrong in the past and to start with we should first realize and accept our own faults and not to repeat them, We should also bring the stories which were either censored at the time or remained unpublished and unknown and for that matter this book “Fault Line” published in Dhaka and being distributed here locally by the Oxford University Press is an excellent progressive step and hopefully more such books and anthologies will follow. Also as Bloggers, writers and journalists it is time to use the mediums we have in our reach to bring out the true stories images and events of the history with a neutral stance. Not to derogate one another but to make our people realize of their mistakes and the best way to do it is to find our own faults.

In relation to the topic (As someone mentioned yesterday) a group has been formed on facebook to submit our apologies to the people of Bangladesh, I have joined this group and I would suggest that all of us should do so as it will help us sort out our deference’s on a more public level.

1971, was bitter year for both Pakistan and specially for what now is Bangladesh, but now lets take lessons from our own mistakes and try not repeating our selves with the same mistakes again and again in history.

Lets step aside for a moment and take a look at our city Karachi.

I think of sharing my views with you guys, actually I have just been on a trip to Islamabad and Muree, although I went there primarily for some personal business and not on a vacation to enjoy. I did try take that opportunity and visited the well-known tourist points in Islamabad and Muree. Undoubtedly the places in Muree such as Neelam Point, Bhurband - Pearl Continental, Kashmir Point, the chair lifts and cable cars in Patriata are superbly beautiful. The cleanliness and strict laws of Islamabad and a few worth visiting places are simply awesome. Most importantly the road-trip from Islamabad to Muree is the most enjoyable because of the stunning natural beauty and the curvy dangerous narrow two-way roads cut between the green mountains. Multiple routes connecting Islamabad and Muree are simply unexplainable. Some of you might have been there, but for those who haven’t, let me tell you - I enjoyed the places in the off season, you can imagine what it would be like in the “on” seasons. You have got to be there, take a break from our busy and fast lives and give yourself some good time.

You can see the photos here. I tried to write about the trip while I was there and I did make some posts on my blog, but I lost track in all the traveling and stuff. I was seriously thinking of extending my visit and and spending some more time in Muree, but I had to cut short my tour and get back, my leave was expiring and I didn’t have much cash in hand.

The point in making this post is not to just share my trip details with you, but to actually share what I learned / realized from the trip besides everything. It was a four-day trip from Wednesday till Sunday, on Saturday night I was in the hotel room in Islamabad, I was on the flight to Karachi the next morning.

On Saturday night something came up and I thought I should go out and buy what I need. My hotel was near Aabpara Market (its a busy market). Its 10:30 in the night and what I see amazed me. Every shop was closed, there were just a few people on the street, SATURDAY NIGHT and no cars! I found only a bakery, a medical store and few other shops left open. It was like a day of strike in Karachi! Anyway, I kept walking until I reached the medical store, I just had my dinner so I thought of trying out a meetha pan of Islamabad, and guess what! They don’t have khokas! On the whole road, I walked about 20 minutes, there was no sign of a khoka or any shop from where I could find a pan. May be there was such a shop but got closed as it was “too late”. I don’t mean to portray Islamabad as the “city that always sleeps”, but for me (being a karachitte) it was unusual.

As for the food, the well-known food-street (a.k.a food-court) in Islamabad, for crying out loud! I can’t find a single place where I could get Chicken Biryani. I ate every thing from Pulao to stuff like yellow rice with boiled chicken in the name of my dear Chicken Biryani! The spicy chicken ginger! oh so sweet! and the mini buns by the names zinger burger. I couldn’t find KFC, McDonals, Pizza Huts so common as they are in Karachi, in fact, I never saw one in my whole trip! I realized it when I reached Karachi Airport and saw a big yellow ‘M’ just in front of it along the parking area! :)

All night I was just thinking and comparing the three cities. Besides the natural beauty in Muree and it being an official tourist place, I was just left comparing Islamabad with Karachi.

I came to realize that Islamabad is as good as nothing in terms of Implementation of Law and cleanliness in Pakistan, the underpasses seems to be just a regular natural inclining and declining road due to the mountainous area -unlike Karachi’s underpasses when you bounce off 3 feet in the air while entering one and the drainage cover moves and sounds like its broken into 5 pieces and you just made the 5 pieces 8 with your car, they sometimes also fills up with water too :) .

There is no signal violation, no car on or ahead the zebra crossing on the signal, even the police or government cars being fined for breaking the signal or any road law. There are no coaches or mini buses, “khaan-taiyaara” or “sarko ki malka” -type vehicles on the roads, only 14-seater vans for public transportation. Very few bikes, very very wide roads, proper road signs, minimum chaos on the roads. In short everything is so damn perfect as compared to Karachi and its core and most talked-about problems.

I took my expensive phone with me and I was literally roaming around and showing off :) in the streets in ISB and muree taking pictures and messaging never fearing that a 125 bike will be coming from behind and I’ll be greeted with a shining metal of a gun as a reward to my showoff. Its a lot better in terms of street crimes.

But there is nothing like the life in Karachi! I always thought of myself as a boring person, but I realized that I’m much more fun being in Karachi than anywhere around the country (as far as I have been). You can never have a life that you have in Karachi anywhere else.

Keeping aside the crimes, traffic problems, political uncertainty and every small and major issue, I can bet that once you get a break from Karachi you will realize that we curse the city way too much and how much we are dependent on the life of Karachi. Its not like “aankh aujhal Pahar Aujghal” its like once you get on a “pahar” you will have a much better, clear and true realization of what you have been into and what you have been missing all the way.

I hope that every Karachitte feels and realize what the city Karachi really is and how we are connected to it in every aspect of our lives. Being bloggers, writers readers or any one from Karachi who thinks about Karachi, needs to get a different perspective every once in a while to change our thoughts and views, and probably alter our attitude towards our City.

Its us that is Karachi and its Karachi that is us, a codependent association that needs a little tough outside the box.

This was a MOST fun sight I came across whilst driving through the Punjab colony area, from Clifton, onwards to Defence… A line of cows calmly crossing the street. Me, armed with my camera, of course did what was so natural - stop and click the scene!

Here’s something that never ceases to amaze me. The time it takes a cow, for example, to cross the road, would be enough to get cars and cars full of busy people going about their busy lives,  to honk like crazy. Few people would take the opportunity to switch off their cars and just let the ‘dairy on feet’ pass by. All this riff raff, running around seems a bit… inhuman.. unnatural.

I know I’m sound like quite the oldie here, but it helps to take a minute away from the fast paced life and well… watch the cows go home, every once in a while. And if we let them cows cross the road peacefully, then perhaps one day we will quite rightfully be able to look at a sight like this and say, “Hey Buddy! Mooooo Over, will ya?!”

They are all too common, so common that I feel pointless mentioning them here and if you observe any main street in the Karachi for even a few seconds you are bound to spot a few on the road, yeah I am talking about bikes without lights, no head lights, no back lights, no indicators, nothing and loaded with women and even children running on our streets at night even in total darkness, almost invisible and camouflaged. They are people with a death wish and I don’t blame them, limited income, inflation and family problems does drive people towards suicide and what better way to die when the suicide can actually be termed as accident, at least people wont call them cowards but what if their plans to end their lives don’t work out the why they thought, what if they end up crippled or seriously injuring one of their family member, or worst a child ? Wouldn’t that add to they miseries ? Will they be able to forgive themselves ?

A few words of advice for them: Try a better way if suicide is what you have on your mind, and decide for your life alone don’t risk the lives of your children and loved ones and if what you have planed for is not suicide you have got to be plain stupid… Do give it a thought.

Note: Special thanks to Raja Islam for pointing to the issue. 

Yesterday was Earth Day all over the world, one of two official dates celebrated for the earth. (one set by the US, the other set by the UN, why is that always the case?)

Well in Karachi, it was good to see that finally there has been some action towards this. Thanks MB for your post on what each of us can do individually to make a difference. It really starts with reducing our consumption and putting the trash where it belongs (ie. not the road, your your neighbors street curb.)

Well one particular event I attended on this day was hosted by Aga Khan University, who set up three different activities for the day. Starting with a community clean up walk in Sultanabad Colony (a katchi abadis of 40,000 inhabitants). 75 students and volunteers (included local schools) showed their support for the event. It was concluded by an address by the colony’s Nazim.

In the afternoon, they invited NGOs such as IUCN, HANDS, AWARE, Shirkat Gah, WWF, EPA and Waste busters to set up stalls and inform people about their environmental contributions. It was really good to see the Windmill setup and community based arts and crafts amongst others. They also ran an audio/visual presentation featuring epic scenes from our planet.

They ended the day with a panel discussion including Mr. Asif Farooqui of Waste Busters, Mr Shahid Lutfi, former Director of EPA Sindh and hosted by Dr. Gregory Pappas, chair of CHS. It was an enlightening discussion about the serious issues being faced in the waste sector in terms of household, and industrial waste. The event had a very sound closing with comments by the Honorable Secretary of EPA Sindh, Mir Hussain Ali.

The turn out was less than expected at an AKU event, but perhaps that just reflects the lack of interest from many parties who need to take responsibility for this issue. The good news, is that there are private and public projects underway that are making a difference, but there is much more to go.

One such project that will be starting in June is by a Chinese firm under contract for 20 years to build an efficient waste management and implementation plan for Karachi. Let’s see if they can help solve our issues, however a home grown solution would probably be best.

All in all, a good day and good start to raising a voice about the topic in and around the city!

Since the last two years, authors at Karachi Meroblog have sporadically announced a number of coffee shop openings in the city. Most of these coffee shops are concentrated in Zamzama, but some like Roasters and Kahva are expanding into areas like Tariq Road too.

At the pace the gourmet coffee houses are springing up, one is forced to wonder what market the premium priced coffee providers are catering to, and if the market isn’t already saturated. A quick survey around Zamzama, however, brings a unique insight into the coffee house industry in Karachi.

Read more

ApnaKarachi has been around for a long time, and since its very inception has captured the imaginations of its visitors. When it started out, its star attraction was the Phone Directory. It’s come a long way since as it continues to add new features to the site.

The latest in this series of innovations is the ApnaKarachi Maps which the website itself describes as:

First of its kind true Map of Karachi for the citizens of this great city.

Read more

Ever since Suddle took charge it seems Karachi-related news does include his name almost daily now. THE NEWS reports low intensity operation being planned by Sindh Police to control crimes.

“The Sindh Police, under its new chief Dr Shoaib Suddle, are putting its act together to launch a “low intensity operation” against terrorists, kidnappers, extortionists and miscreants.” Read complete story

While past mistakes need not to be repeated, it is hoped that this operation would be without any discrimination else it would just be another of the typical eye-wash acts our gov. do every time they come into power.