In a similar move, Jang Group’s Geo TV also started a blog recently, but so far has failed to deliver content on it. The Dawn Blog is ripe with nicely written articles and is updated on a continuous pace with stories filed under various categories.

Site: http://blog.dawn.com

He will give a special lecture @ AKU Auditorium on Guerrilla Filmmaking

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 4 PM at Aga Khan University Auditorium
For more information contact: conf.sect@aku.edu
or call Conference Secretariat: 486-4584
Admission is free and is on first come first served basis
www.aku.edu

Courtesy: Arsalaan Haleem

At one, it was an easy task to vote, at the other, not so much, showing us both sides of the election process.

However, one concept which stood out was ‘voting for party’ vs ‘voting for candidates’. Much of the discussion on the posts were revolving around party and the ultimate party leaders. The actual candidates, the people who would be representing you the voter, were all but ignored.

Teeth Maestro has started up a very good campaign called Election Watch here, (you cannot have missed it, but if you did, just look above and below this post and you’ll find it) where each constituency was examined in detail, and the candidates who were contesting highlighted. These are the people who would be responsible for raising your voice to the provincial and national assemblies and making sure your needs are taken care of. But will they actually raise your voice if they have no responsibility to you?

I urge you all to find out who are your local candidates (no longer a problem since doc is making it all public) and find out
who would best represent you. Next, go out and actually cast a vote!

Today, its 2008 and the mummy still lies at the Eidhi Center Morgue in Karachi, amid a bureaucratic snuffle about who will be the proper authority to allow its burial.

Guess we have one more ‘attraction’ for adventure seekers here. Go see it before the government actually does something about it.

The News says

A large number of people from different walks of life have termed it the restoration of democracy in the country. They said media freedom would play its role in ensuring free and fair general elections in the country

Now that the media (no blocked news channels) is ‘free’ again do you agree with the above statement?

From the previous discussion we’ve had on why wont you vote, it appears the ‘candidate’ is the leader on top of each political party. However, i ask you this. Who *is* the actual candidate? The leader on top might go ahead to be Prime Minister and make decisions for the functioning of this country, but s/he is not determined by you. They do not represent you, they do not even know you exist for the large part, and they are not the ones asking for your vote.

You vote for your local candidate. The one who’ll be representing your constituency, the one who’ll be fighting for or against laws which directly affect the people in their area, so that they can get another term. They will have an agenda, which i agree largely follows the party agenda which is nothing currently but ‘continue the policies set forth by the previous government’ in most cases, but still, there’s is a more localized one. Your local candidate is the one who ’should’ care about you, should care about getting your vote and should care about getting your voice heard in the assembly. They will not do it, unless you make them realize that your vote is not free, and they’ll have to work towards it.

To all the readers, i put forth this one question, which constituency do you belong to? And who are your candidates?

This post in part of a series of posts to understand the current apathy the KMB visitors feel towards elections and democracy.

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This post in part of a series of posts to understand the current apathy the KMB visitors feel towards elections and democracy.

I have it on good authority that a certain person was stopped by a man in a suit asking for directions to an imambargah. The person in question, heading the same way, gave a lift to the guy. Half way though the journey, the man’s coat slipped open and inside the person saw his chest was lined with explosives! The guy, realizing his jig was up, took out a gun and told the person that he was lucky and about to be shaheed and shouldn’t do anything stupid or he’ll just shoot him. Needless to say, the person was terrified.

Upon nearing the imambargah, the guy saw a number of security personnel at the entrance, panicked and told the person to take the car round back. There, seeing even more police presence, the guy ditched the car, with the comment “you’re very unlucky, u lost your chance at shahadat”. The person, terrified out of his wits, drove back home.

This brings me to an interesting question, what would you do in such a situation? This person had credible information about a real live potential suicide bomber, yet didn’t alert the authorities instead chose to go back home,leaving hundreds of others in the imambargah at risk. Take the poll and let us know what would you do in such a situation?

P.S. This incident took place today. So far, the bomber hasn’t struck. I pray for all our shia brothers and sisters, who are at their majlises to be safe tonight. On another note, Upto 5 terrorists armed with what were called ‘cyanide cans’ including two suicide bombers were caught. These guys were planning on mixing the cyanide with the drinks offered at various stalls. Cyanide kills within seconds of coming in contact with the human body.

R1 to R4, slated to be complete by 2020 (which is only 12 years away) in addition to the current roads and expressways in the city, just might help moving people around better…

or it just might create hundreds of more opportunities to be stuck in a traffic jam.

what do you think?

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