Around this time, my car came to pick me up and was waiting outside when the rioters reached our lane and people started shouting that they were shooting with silencer fitted guns. Everyone waiting for the people inside the salon were quickly taken in and people were told that they could stay for as long as they wanted till they considered it safe to venture out. Most chose to risk it.

We waited till the lane was quiet again and the servants and guards of neighboring houses ventured out to take a look around. By this time we were waiting just inside the side door after deciding to head out to our nearest relatives place. Once we were told it was clear for the moment we got into cars and drove through the back lanes to defense phase 6 with our headlights off as a precaution, keeping an eye out for any signs of trouble. Worry and tension was thrice what we would probably have felt otherwise because I was all dressed up in my wedding dress and being wrapped up in a shawl isn’t exactly protection. Luckily we were accompanied by another car so that was some reassurance though on hindsight I don’t know how that would have helped had we gotten into trouble.

Along the way, we saw several cars on the roads with broken windshields and countless dent marks of stoning. Made it safely to the relatives place at around 8 where we started a frantic phone trace for every family member out. After countless tries, we got through to my father who told us that he had just turned back from PAF chapter as they were burning cars and buses up ahead and the police was forcing everyone to turn back which caused a jam. Eventually he made his way back to us.

Once together, tracing of other members of the family who had not been contacted as yet resumed including my mum who had gotten stuck at Tariq Road. The decision to postpone the wedding was taken soon as it became clear that they had somehow reached some relatives place in Gulshan after turning around or backing out from a few rioting hot beds.

We decided to wait till 4:30 - 5:00 before trying to head home since we had to head to Gulistan e Johar and reports out of there were not good. Got a few hours worth of sleep and then headed out at 5:00 taking Khayaban e Ittehad, crossing the Baloch colony bridge, Sharah e Faisal, turning at COD towards Johar mor and Johar chorangi, never slowing down below 80. Karachi looked like a ghost town complete with dysfunctional blinking signals and lights only at strategic junctions while every where else was pitch black. This was especially noticable at Johar mor and Johar chorangi where people were slowly venturing out on foot and waiting for some kind of transportation. There were families with toddlers waiting by the roadside at 5:30!

Along the way we saw broken glass and bricks and stones almost everywhere but the burning cars and buses that my father had seen just hours before had been cleared out. My mother who made it home at around 2:30 said she counted almost 50 burnt/burning cars and still saw hints of trouble along the way but by this time whatever cars were still out were keeping close to each other as far along as they shared similar routes and some even chose to wait a few minutes in hopes of another car coming along before venturing into a particularly dark road.

While all of my family made it safely home, we have heard of countless people that are still stuck in various places, wherever they found refuge and have yet to find their way home.

Karachi roared with deafening silence once the fires had died down in the early hours of morning. May we all stay safe.

Credit: HumPaki

Unless something actually fell on this car, it looks like it flipped. Apart from the caved in roof, the wind screens (front and back), rear view and side view mirrors were all missing.

This is a new blog started by a Pakistani individual to discuss his viewpoint on the situations in Pakistan. If you like Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, you will appreciate this. It is a refreshing, funny, and intelligent piece of commentary and can provide some smiles out of a bleak situation. Some staunch political people might take offense, but still worth a good read nonetheless, please check it out.

Definitely worth a read.

The investment has been made in the Pakistan Deep Water Container Port Project (PDWCP). Karachi New Port Container Terminals, the newly established joint-venture company, will build and manage the new container-handling facility over a concession period of 25 years, extendible for another 25 years. The new terminal is expected to be operational in 2011. Upon completion, Karachi New Port Container Terminals will have four berths with a total quay length of 1,500 metres, a yard area of 85 hectares and depths alongside up to 18 metres.

Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), is a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL), is the world’s leading port investor, developer and operator with interests in a total of 262 berths in 46 ports, spanning 23 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

Source: News release

My area (Gulistan e Johar) has seen road blocks, burning tires, stoning and sporadic rioting. All sorts of markets and shops are closed. The few that did open up early in the day have been closed down. A Rangers pickup has been patrolling and cruising around throughout the day which has kept the situation from escalating to full out violence and has maintained it at extremely tense. The rioters disperse when they see the Ranger’s vehicle coming only to come back to their posts the minute it passes by.

Whats shocking to see is that little kids are also out on the road with stones in their hands ready to throw it at on coming cars. They’re treating it as a game. Its hard to decipher what I felt when I was told about the kids with stones in their hands. Shock at how people can encourage their children towards violence. Sadness that these children will never learn that all this is unnecessary and wrong or just plain disbelief.

Please brief us about the security situation in your area/neighborhood.

Sadly this happens in most airports although the theft rate usually varies and Quaid e Azam International Airport is no different. Lately, there has been a rise in the number of thefts happening, or maybe its just coming to my attention now. In the past couple of months I’ve heard several incidents regarding family, friends and acquaintances where things went missing from their luggage and the theft wasn’t discovered till the concerned traveler was unpacking as the locks and the baggage strappings were in place when the luggage arrived on the conveyor belt.

Luggage items from perfumes to decorative ornaments to … books (now this struck as odd) have gone missing. This got me wondering; how many of us have been victims of luggage theft?

I remember a time when people used to take pride in decorating their homes with jhandian and used to put up flags well before 14th August came. Seeing huge flags flap in the wind on top of various houses was a novelty. Little kids wearing badges and having their very own small flags that they would wave out of cars or take to school.

Its ironic really, how at one time our elders used to complain how people don’t respect the flag. Letting it stay up even after the independence day and not caring what happened to it as it would usually come down only after it had been torn or whipped away by the wind. How they used to grumble when those paper jhandi’s would come under their feet because people had thrown them out after the independence day was gone in order to de-decorate their home. Now we have the opposite to complain about. We don’t see enough flags!

The heart of the problem though remains the same - We don’t care or respect the most important day in the history of our country…and perhaps, if we let it be, the most important day of our existence and of those of our past and future generations.

When was the last time any of us felt patriotic? Or even had a patriotic thought? What is our “patriotic contribution” this year? For all my big words, my contribution is nil. All Ive done is pin a tiny flag badge on my book bag.

Happy Independence Day everyone.