The people of Karachi suffer yet another shock as the HBL cantonement branch of shahra e faisal was totally looted by two men who entered it at around 8pm on sunday night wearing uniforms of HBL security staff, tied the guards up and used gas cutters to break into 66 lockers.  These robbers got away with sacks full of millions in cash and jewelry.

What is really weird is that these incidents are happening with more frequency in this city and yet the government or the bank authorities seem to be totally helpless in this situation. Obviously robberies have happened before and will continue to happen but imagine what a customer goes through when their entire lives saving, jewelry and cash not to mention the dollars they hoarded recently dissapear one fine day. Banks do not offer compensation more than 10 lac Rs per locker and this can result in a major loss!

We can all only indulge in caution and pray that such an incident does not befall us. Remember keeping all your eggs in one basket is always maximum risk.

Full story Dawn

I am horrified by the voting being done presently at the following website:

http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/voting_result.php?id=51

It belongs to Pakistan Christian Post and the polling asks this from its voters:

Christian population is 18% of Punjab but deprived of resources of province and state. Do you support demand of Separate Christian Province on division of Punjab?

To which 71% have said yes while 29% have said no. What kind of govt. is this which cannot even handle such affairs. And what is ISI doing? For me, this looks very dangerous.

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This is not a picture warped by a bad cell phone camera or a flash, i just took this picture at 9 pm at the Regent Plaza signal on Shahrae Faisal with my 8 mega pixel camera. The glare you are witnessing is from the insanely giant LCD screen installed right across from a major 4 way traffic signal at Regent plaza in Karachi.

Suffice to say the screen has the effect of a major distraction in the day time on this busy junctio,n and at night it acts as a mini sun. Imagine what the drivers vision is exposed to it this is what a camera gets as input? then we complain about traffic accidents in Karachi, here is a hint stop blinding drivers!!!

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?

One fine day you are passing by Karachi traffic as usual. However, something catches your eyes and you gape in astonishment to find out more.
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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.

The fact that ‘Shoaib Akhtar’s ban has been postponed for a month” seems to have made the top headlines on every television channel, and will, no doubt, lead many newspapers tomorrow. The fact that the price of milk has gone up by 6 rupees, of course, is a mention as the 4th news item. It’s obviously not REALLY important. Read more

I apologize for the picture quality, but caught this donkey cart with a flat tire / breakdown on top of the Baluch Colony bridge. Sad but I think lugging these steel bars on donkey carts across the city can be considered as cruelty to animals. Notice the other set of bars lying on the sidewalk which too must have been on this cart prior the to the ill-fated malfunctioning tire

What I’d like to know if the going rate for using donkey cart is really that cheap, versus using any other motorized vehicle to lug these steel bars? Is the cost factor really that different that we have to subject these animals to such a torture. Granted a donkey can be used for lugging stuff but there must be a tolerance level for this animal as well. I can only imagine the struggle it took to have reached the top of this bridge.

Elections 2008 Pakistan,Karachi. An ordinary citizen shares his experience of elections 2008. I present you the story as it was emailed to me. This in no ways means others parties are angels. I would love to hear other honest accounts of incidents. Please feel free to put your story in KMB suggest story section.

Guest post by Ameer Hamza
Click HERE & HERE for other similar stories

[ General Elections 2008 are now closed for polling. Soon, we will have the results and the usual violence which follows such announcements. And everyone is sure that the elections would be massively rigged in favor of the King’s parties.

To see for myself the rigging process I went out today with my friend, another KMB reader. First, we went to Gulshan-e-Iqbal NA-251 and PA-161 and later to PECHS. At both these places I could see lot of MQM men voting again and again. I wondered, wow how easily did they do it so openly?

I wanted the same adventure . . . & i got one
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