When novelist Mohammed Hanif told friends he was returning to Pakistan after 12 years in Britain, they were aghast. Why would he and his young family swap London for a city with daily power cuts and rampant gun crime? The answer proved surprisingly simple … (Guardian.)

The government has decided to take strict measures for maintaining law and order in Karachi and averting the incidents like the ones that occurred on May 12 last year and earlier this month, The News learnt here on Monday.

“The government has decided to allow the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi to resume its political activities,” highly reliable sources in the ruling coalition said on condition of anonymity. “The Haqiqi group had been pushed to the wall under the Musharraf regime,” they said.

The sources said the government has decided to release Afaq Ahmed and Amir Khan of the Haqiqi group. They said the Sindh government has decided to review the cases instituted against the two top Haqiqi leaders and they would be exenorated in the cases where their involvement could not be proved.

(The News.)

Jagdesh Kumar was murdered on suspicion that he had uttered blasphemous words, in the process enraging his fellow workers who beat him to death.

When contacted, the Korangi Police denied this allegation but did not give any details. After the death of Jagdesh, a Hindu by faith, the police registered FIR 268/08 under section 302 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code against “unknown persons.” The case is registered at the Korangi Police Station. However, till the filing of this report, no arrest has been made despite the fact that the murder took place in a crowded factory area in full view of several workers.

(The News.)

Posts about the MQM predictably generate a lot of heat here on KMB. Whatever the truth behind those points of difference, I think Sattar is definitely one of the more agreeable personalities in the MQM and I know many of the party’s political opponents feel the same way. He is a workaholic, approachable and relishes talking about policy if you want to engage him. It’s a pity that his election is mired in controversy.

DHANDLI NAMA, 19 February 2008

KARACHI

MQM broke all records of rigging, ballot paper stamping and high handedness in Karachi to make sure that the mandate of the democracy loving people of Karachi was reversed. While results from even the far flung areas were being shown on television channels Karachi results were held up and it was almost this morning when the reversed and highly manipulated results in favor of MQM were given to the channels.

NA 249

1. Official polling time ended at 5 PM but when PPP candidate took a round of polling stations he found that polling was in progress on 11 polling stations, where even 12 year olds were casting votes.

2. He protested. Subsequently, locks were placed outside the 11 polling stations and the polling staff was inside with MQM militants and workers. PPP polling agents in 7 of these polling stations were thrown out of the polling stations, while on the other 4 both gents and ladies polling agents were locked in rooms by the armed militants.

3. PPP candidate Habib Memon came to the Returning officer and gave him a hand written complaint in this regard.

4. At 6.45 PM MQM candidate Farooq Sattar came there with about 80 militants. About 60 of them were from the newly created City Police of the MQM. They put a cordon around the court of the Returning Officer Mr.Azim.

5. Farooq Stattar demanded that counting of the PPP candidate Habib Memon should be done first, while Habib Memon demanded that first of all the record from the 11 polling stations should be brought in after which counting should start for all the candidates.

6. The Returning Officer agreed with this legal demand and instructed the CPO, the Rangers and the TPO to bring the material from the 11 polling stations. No one however, brought the needed materials.

7. According to the totals of the results of the polling stations wherefrom material had already arrived (all except the disputed 11 stations) PPP candidate Habib Memon was leading by 39, 830 votes.

8. Earlier GEO television had made an announcement based on the results from some of these polling stations, in which Mr. Habib Memon was shown leading by 16,000 votes at that time. GEO did not make any further announcement about progressive results of this constituency.

9. MQM candidate Farooq Sattar continued to call Nazim Saddar Town Dilawar. Every time after he was connected he would move out of the room to talk to the Town Nazim.

10 At around 11.45 it was learnt that all the material of the polling stations had been shifted to the office of the Town Nazim Sadar, instead of the office of the Returning Officer.

11. The RO received calls from the Governor House. The Governor talked to the RO. In his reply the RO was heard repeating the word 73 and 61 several times. He was also seen writing the number 73 on a piece of paper.

12. Presiding Officers from 6 other polling stations from Lyari were also brought to office of Town Nazim Saddar by Rangers.

13. Around 3 A.M the bags containing polling material from polling stations started coming to the office of the RO. The last bag was brought by Town Nazim Saddar personally at 5 AM in the morning.

14. Immediately after that MQM candidate Farooq Sattar addressed a Press Conference announcing that he had won and had received 73,000 votes.

15. A large number of ballot papers stamped in favor of MQM candidate were picked up by PPP workers from outside the Town Nazim’s office and from many other places.

MQM had received only 28,000 votes in this constituency in 2002. Their support to dictatorship has ‘earned’ them additional 45,000 votes in these elections.

The News has all the details of private planes, bullet proof limos and entertainment bills.

Job applications are open, in case the money seems too good to pass up.

The industrial waste is streaming into old Ghaghar River, going through to the sea. The villagers belonging to Sodho Goth, Peer Bux Goth, Nizam Goth and others are very concerned about the loss of their livestock, which, they say, is increasing due to the discharge of factory waste into the river.

When they did this in 2004, the river’s ppm went to between 500 and 600 ppm and over 40 people died in Hyderabad alone. This decision poses a threat to the populations of Karachi, Hyderabad and five other districts in southern Sindh, Daily Times learnt Monday.

These two traditional minibuses were exported on the special request of Chairman of Orascam Hotels Samih Swairis. The company also deals in telecom, brewery and real estate development projects in Egypt and the Middle East and is also holding major stakes in Mobilink Pakistan.

Swairis had come to Pakistan with tourism minister of Oman Dr Rajiha Abdul Ameer Ali on an official visit in February 2007 to explore the opportunities for tourism promotion in Gwadar and coastal belt of Pakistan.

During his stay in Karachi, Sawiris was enthralled by the beautiful colours of the minibuses plying on the city roads and requested to arrange few for his resort in Elgouna. (The News.)

Sources disclosed that the CS took action on Saturday after receiving reports that the Board of Revenue (BoR) and scrutiny committee have cleared 150 cases of illegal allotment of worthy city land in just one month on the directives of Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim. (The News.)

The chief minister is part of the government set-up that the general has hailed as a success. It’s a good thing that this government wasn’t any more successful.