Mangroves are a wonderful being of ALLAH. They are species of plants which thrive in saline waters. Their roots grow best under fertile land and maybe found at places where deltas are formed due to discharge of river (sweet) water into sea waters (saline). They are important for survival of countless land and sea species and hundreds of thousands of men earn their livelihood through them (fishing, cutting trees, making homes, hunting, etc). Therefore, it is imperative that such wonderful and unique species are preserved for the betterment of people and environment. That’s not happening. From the lead organization:

http://casestudies.lead.org/index.php?cscid=143

“In Pakistan, mangroves are found along the southern borders of the country along the coast of Sindh and Balochistan. The Indus Delta extends to an area of approximately 600,000 hectares of which 160,000 consists of mangrove forests. These are unique in the sense that they are considered to be the largest area of arid climate mangroves in the world”.

Read more

A story worth mentioning…

….and as I was walking down the road, the bus dropped me off on Boat Basin. On my way to the office around 10:30 Tuesday night, a police mobile stopped by. A policeman approached me from the back of the vehicle and asked for my ID card then performed a check on me… I was having a bag containing some books and a shawl to keep myself warm during the late night shift. The gentleman from the police vehicle, upon failure to discover anything suspicious from my belongings, asked me what am I doing at this time of the night. I told him that I was on my way to my office, he replied what sort of office starts at 10:30 in the night. I tried to explain him that it was my night shift and I work in the networking department. By the looks of the gentleman I highly doubt I could have made anything clear to him. He then asked me If I have the company ID card, unfortunately I did not have it with me, although I did have the visiting card. Once I handed over it to him, he got all fuming and shove the card at my face after tearing it into pieces. He then said I want the company ID card with your picture and your boss’s signature on it. I humbly told him that it wasn’t ready yet. He then asked me for how long I was working in the company, he again got annoyed, as my answer was ‘one year’… His colleague form the mobile came and said ’sahab bula rahay hein’. The gentleman than said, okay… “kuch khanay peenay ka karo”, I took out my wallet to gave him all that I have. May be it was a bad day for me, I only had 20 Rupees in my wallet. Once I gave it to him, it was like I slapped him and then spitted on the face, he said “bhikaari hein kiya hum log” and grabbed everything I was carrying and asked me to get into the mobile and the rest would be taken care of in the police station. I thought there is nothing left to do now but to get into the mobile, they took all my belongings and switched off my phone.

In the station for almost 30 minutes no one spoke to me and I also stayed shut and put. I was thinking even one word could go against me and I can stay here forever. After a few minutes the SHO on his desk picked up my phone and starts to browse though, I didn’t know what he was doing, but then he whispered something to his assistant and gave the phone to me saying “call who ever you want to call”, once I got the phone I noticed that the number of PCIA was open. I called a “high profile” contact of mine and handed over the phone to the SHO, he suddenly starts abusing the person on the phone and threw it on the table… He than said to me that he is going to put a case on me that I have been involved in suicide bombing activity and we have discovered two pistols and some ball bearing making material from me. Man I was in shock! I didn’t know what else to do… At this point I was a suspected suicide bomber, I had two pistols and a proven material for making bombs! I’m doomed!, tomorrow’s GEO TV will be having a slide “Suspected Suicide Bomber Arrested”.

A while later my contact arrived the station with his lawyer (who was picked up from his home at that time of the night) and asked for the person who spoke to me on the phone, the SHO said it was me, the contact then said “is banday ko tu baad mein daikh lein ge, tum ne gali kaisay di mujhay. Mein tum pe case karo ga” anyway, after a while of tough exchange of arguments, my contact asked him about the case he has put on me. The SHO told him nature of the case and about what he has discovered from my bag. My contact said “give me the two pistols back” the SHO got confused and said “we were just pressurizing him”. The contact of mine said “does he look like a suicide bomber to you, I will press charges case against you.” The SHO was quite scared and confused, he apologized to me and the contact quite a lot, but we left the station and I was dropped off to my office…

This story is of my colleague’s experience, I happened to stay late the next day, he told me all what he had been through. He also told me the names and very specific details about the people involved, but I preferred not disclose the name on the internet (for safety reasons).

Moral of the Story:
It is not to comment on the ‘corrupt nature of the law’, it not even to highlight the importance of contacts in high profile. The concept is, One never forgets who he is, but most often forgets how he can prove to be who he really is.

As a respectable citizen and a human being, we should always keep our necessary documents with us. Refraining from carrying or applying for licenses, ID cards and / or other identification materials, just to avoid the “hectic procedure” isn’t a valid justification.

I always emphasize on focusing on one’s own personality circle with a centripetal manner not a centrifugal manner.

Never before have there been such frequent power outages in winter in Karachi as there were this last season. While growing demand due to a greater population and increased business activity are major factors leading to the energy crisis in the city, another reason can be attributed to lack of long term planning by the power providers.

But things might change for the better if the words of CEO KESC, S Muhammad Amjad,  and PEPCO MD Baseer Munawwar Ahmed hold any weight. While the former claims Karachi will see no more power outages by 2012, the latter estimates that the power crisis will be over by 2010.

The presentation also brought to light the conflict between KESC and WAPDA. Amjad pointed out that the government is not allowing KESC to use the Gharo-Badin corridor windmills, because the power is to be transferred to WAPDA while Baseer maintained that KESC will have to arrange for its own power generation to meet the growing demand in Karachi. He also pointed out that there was no agreement between WAPDA and KESC for power purchase. He said that KESC cannot pay its outstanding amount, which runs into the billions of rupees.

Mr. Baseer also revealed some telling facts in his presentation at a seminar organized by ABB (Pvt) Limited.  He said that billboards in the city consume 20 MWs per day, which is sufficient to light 100 villages and that electricity theft is high in DHA, where four air conditioners are used in a house but the bill is not paid.

Read more here.

[ Images : Yawar ] . . . People of Pakistan have now thrown the ball in its leadership’s court, for a better future. If they have learned anything from past, now is the movement to prove it !! because these [ 1 2 3 4 5 ] images are still fresh in mind . . .

Read more

If BBC Weather forecast is to be believed, Karachi is going to see a minimum of -3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and 0 degrees Celsius on Thursday.

Of course these are minimum temperatures and that too predicted ones which we might not actually see but it is nice to see the winter seasons prolonged this year.

Thanks to: Ayad Aftab / Humanyun Mustafa

Welcome the NewYear with a bang like never before, be counted among the most rocking people of Karachi and burn the dance floor with lively music and your favorite DJs.

Rotaract / Rotary Club of Karachi present the charity ball of the year: “Winter Wonderland” on Saturday 29th December, 2007

Dinner and drinks will be served.

Passes: Rs. 4,000 per couple.

For further details, venue and tickets contact:
Sajjad: 0345 200 1270;
Shahzad: 0333 214 8855
Sabir: 0300 823 2210

Credits: Arsalaan Haleem

The recent cold spell has brought with it these colorful heaps of used clothing which are making their appearance felt at the make-shift weekly bazaars around the city as in efficient and inexpensive winter clothing alternative for the poor, under privileged and the struggling middle class of our society, assuring to keep them warm throughout the winters without putting much strain on their already warned out pockets.

With the arrival of winter season, the stores have piled up dry fruits of all kind. However, the high prices of all those nuts make them a bit hard to be enjoyed by everyone. My favorite dry fruits are peanuts and roasted almonds. Nothing beats walking on the road on a cold December evening and crunching the almonds filled in the pocket.

The store in the picture is located near Imtiaz Supermarket in Bahadurabad.

I was just about to go to sleep, but I thought I might as well post an update on the weather before I do. My earlier wish of winter gracing the city may be granted soon by the looks of it, because the heavens have just stated to pour here in my part of Karachi. It’s been quite a steady down pour now for the last 10 minutes at least, and it seems to be getting heavier as I type.
Read more

At least two of my contacts’ status messages yesterday on Facebook were relating to the cold weather. These friends were obviously based outside of Pakistan, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous all the same. Karachi’s winters are well known to arrive late and leave early, but after last year’s experience, when temperatures sometimes went down into single figures*, even well into late January and early February, I some how, for whatever naive reason, expected the winter to arrive on time this year.

Yet here we are now, barely days from December, still sitting in office with the split turned on. Admittedly, it has been really arid off late, and does get some what chilly in the evenings and at early dawn, but the days are still distinctly warm with the mercury steadily keeping up in the 30s (the forecasts on my Google home page today read: Monday: Clear; 33 | 17, Tuesday: Clear; 33 | 17, Wednesday: Mostly Sunny; 32 | 19).
Read more