With this series, I will provide a platform for you to help change things in Karachi for the better. In the rapidly upcoming tradition of citizen journalism, I will keep this series open to everyone. Since it is our responsibility to make our city a better place, you can go do your own reporting and send me your photos/videos. I will publish a good selection every week for the benefit of the readers (Submission guidelines are at the end of the post).

TODAY’s SELECTION:

Ibex being transported

I saw this stuffed Ibex being transported to somebody’s house near Khyaban-e-Ittehad a few days ago. I am not sure if these animals have a protected or endangered status within Pakistan. If it is, than this guy was clearly doing illegal stuff.

Next item:

Police high-handedness?

These policemen drove up on their bike all of a sudden, snatched the weighing scales of these two poor fruit peddlars, and rode off. The fruit peddlers tried to argue, but seemed more shocked at what had happened. Would this be a case of high handedness by the police towards the poorer members of society? I believe the fruit peddlers had a right to be warned first if they were doing something illegal, rather than just being snatched off of their hard-earned possessions.

GUIDELINES FOR YOUR OWN SUBMISSIONS:

1) It has to be YOUR OWN STORY!  No news from other sources allowed. Only original items will be published.

2) Take pictures, they tell it better. Videos are okay too. Try to reduce the file size as much as you can.

3) Send it to swerveut@yahoo.com

4) If you want to keep yourself anonymous, just ask me.

Lets make our city a better place. Cheers!

In April 2008, we had a post on Eight Bazaars of Faisalabad, and we presented it as one of the best examples of town planning in Pakistan. We would like to develop this topic into a whole new series about the best planned localities of Pakistan. Among many examples of fine town planning in Pakistan are North Nazimabad Karachi, Model Town Lahore, Faisalabad’s 8 bazaars, Federal-B-Area Karachi, Islamabad Master Plan, Wah Cantonment, and many more in other cities. In today’s post we will cover North Nazimabad, Karachi.

The satellite image below shows North Nazimabad’s 20 residential blocks bound in red polygon. East of NN is Federal-B-Area where as North of NN is North Karachi and Buffer Zone.

Whenever the aesthetics of Civil Engineering and Town Planning Projects is considered; it is an accpetable fact that curves and gradiants are considered more natural than squares or rectangles. Cities planned in rectangular grids, though easy to navigate, don’t have same aesthtics as brought out by circular roads and curves. If you look at North Nazimabad’s map above you can clearly see how aesthetically the curved roads and plots have been designed within mostly rectanguar grids. Atleast to me this is the town planning of highest aesthetic order.

To further make my point on the elegance of diagonals and curved roads as compared to boring rectangular blocks, I want to present the maps of Blocks C, D and E of North Nazimabad, shown in the photo to the left. Somewhere in the course of basic town planning and Architecture, it is said that

‘Nature never uses straight line in its designs, therefore curves always appear more natural’

Note the little green oval to the bottom left of the map. This is Asghar Ali Shah Cricket Ground in Block C

Brief History of North Nazimabad

The photo to the right shows North Nazimabad’s location in a larger settled area view of Karachi city.

Uptil late 1950s, Karachi’s northern most settlement used to be Nazimabad. Being the Capital of Pakistan, and as the population of the city grew, need arose to house federal employees in better planned neighborhoods. Localities of Federal-B-Area and North Nazimabad were thus planned to house Federal employees. As far as aesthetics, ameneties, and grandeur was concerned, no other locality in Pakistan could match the town planning of North Nazimabad. In 1962, the Capital was shifted from Karachi to Islamabad and the planned neighborhood of North Nazimabad became available to general public instead of originally planned employees of Federal Government onlyThe Matrix:

North Nazimabad consists of 20 residential blocks identified with alphabets from A to T. The plot sizes across all North Nazimabad are divided into 6 categories viz. A, B, C, D, E and F. Plots of A category have an area of 240 square yards, B = 400 Square Yards, C=600 square yards, D=1000 square yards and F=2000 square yards . Therefore a sample house address in North Nazimabad of A36/T means House number 36 with an area of 240 square yards located in Block T.

The photo to the left is satellite image of Block A of North Nazimabad.

North Nazimabad is also famous for its main mass transit arterial called the ‘Sher Shah Suri Road’ being a 440 ft wide thoroughfare. There are several 220 ft wide boulevards with rain drains dividing the two lanes.

The Eucalyptus Town:

In the period 1983-87, during the mayorship of (late)Abdus Sattar Afghani, whole North Nazimabad locality was planted with hundreds and thousands of Eucalyptus saplings. As fast as Eucalyptus grows, within few years whole Nazimabad town turned into a green paradise of tall Eucalyptus trees.

However, lately these eucalyptus trees have been mostly cut down for reason better known to the subsquent city governments. One reason that I have heard is that Eucalyptus is a water thirsty tree and so many of the eucalptuses in North Nazimabad were causing the ground water level to go down.

Also Called Taimuria

During the same era, in order to localize the neighborhood names, North Nazimabad was renamed as ‘Taimuria’ and Federal-B-Area was renamed as ‘Mansura’. With the demse of Government of that time, the new names also met their natural death and never caught a mass acceptation. Today the only remnants of the name Taimuria in North Nazimabad are the ‘Taimuria Police Station’ and a ‘Taimuria library’.

Today:

The photo to the right is Block B of North Nazimabad .

North Nazimabad of today has lost much of its past glory. Just like many localities of big cities, businesses from city center slowly creep into residential areas and people of these area start moving further outward to suburbs. Same has happened to North Nazimabad. The once peaceful residential locality of Karachi is now fast turning into a commercial market.

On my last visit to Karachi, I was surprized to see almost 80% ‘F’ size plots of block F were converted into some private school or private University. The once small eating shops in block H and block A had collectively turned into full fledge food streets. barkaat-e-Hyderi market is now one of the largest shopping centers of the city. All multinational fast food chains have opened their branches in

The photo below shows Block F of North Nazimabad. Many of the plots in Block F were of area 2000 sq feet. They have mostly been converted to something commercial e.g. Private Schools and Universities.

Infrastructure:

North Nazimabad of today boasts of atleast four First-Class Cricket Grounds, several hospitals, A Medical and Dental University, Several HSC Colleges, Taimuria library, several parks and sustained commercial activity which makes it a complete city inside the city.

In 2001, North Nazimabad was declared as one of the 18 towns of Karachi. were added to North Nazimabbad proper.

Mass Transit Plans for North Nazimabad

North Nazimabad is included in the Karachi Mass Transit Plan (KMTP) of 1970s. The Orangi-Cantt Station mass transit corridor touches Block A and B of North Nazimabad.

North Nazimabad also has a Railway Station on Karachi Circular Railway Route. So whenever the KCR is fully revived on its loop, North Nazimabad will benefit.

Population:

According to 1998 Census the population of 20 blocks of North Nazimabad town was approximately 250000 where as population of North Nazimabad town which also included the localities of Buffer Zone I and II, Shadman, and Paposh Nagar was 496000

Trivia About North Nazimabad:

1. The Four First-Class Cricket grounds of North Nazimabad: Bakhtiari Youth Center A Ground (Block S), KDA Stadium (Block S), Syed Asghar Ali Shah Stadium (Block C), which also held a 3-day International between Pakistan and Zimbabwe and KCCA Stadium (Block N).

2. In 1960, North Nazimabad was connected by Karachi Circular Railway Service with its Railway Station in Block B called ‘North Nazimabad’. The station remained operation until 1999. KCR service got suspended in 1999.

3. Postal Code of North Nazimabad is 74700.
References:

1. North Nazimabad in Transition by Sabeen Jamil
2. North Nazimabad Town Government
3. City District Government of Karachi (CDGK)
4. Google Earth for all the Satellite Maps

Ready For Your Geography Quiz?

So in the satellite image below, can you try to find out where is North Nazimabad located? Answer is given above in the first map of this post.

North Nazimabad also boasts of being the most religiously diversified area of Karachi.  Block C has a Bohra Jamat Khana, and an Ismaili Jamat Khana. The two communities live peacefully with the Sunnis and any communal tension has been unheard of. The town also has the highest literacy rate and the lowest crime rate in the city.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain Friday announced to step down from the party leadership.According to media reports, Farooq Sattar read a letter from Altaf Hussain to the General Workers body meeting.

According to reports, the party chief said the party leaders failed to contain the violence on April 9 in Karachi city… read more.

Life in Karachi has not come to a standstill. While there is tension and apprehension in the air, life still goes on.

For us life goes on, this is not the first time we have gone through this experience. It is now a part of our national psyche. We have seen these so called national events of monumental significance all the way from 1953 to 1999. At least once every decade, sometimes even more.

Read more at Jawwads’ post – Emergency – a guide for our non-local friends, and our local friends who are no longer local…

My office is in the beginning of Korangi, which is Karachi’s (and hence Pakistan’s) premiere industrial area. Email and the internet are a essential part of any business, and thus to ensure reliable internet connectivity we’ve got eight different internet links.

Eight, you might ask incredulously, but that is the sad truth. What prompted this post is that even after have eight internet links, in the recent rains all of them went down – most of them don’t work anyways, and of the one which did, the isp’s wireless tower collapsed!

The extended entry has a full review of all the 8 different facilities the author tried, including comparisons of them in terms of their charges and services, and it doesn’t paint a very bright picture let me tell you. But its an eye opening review nevertheless, in that it highlights just how far away Pakistan still is in this sphere despite the recent IT-Telecommunications industry boom. If the prime industrial area of the financial hub of the country can’t guarantee internet connectivity, then you’ve seriously got problems.

I don’t claim to be a tech geek (tech savvy, sure, but no where close to a geek), so those of you who do claim to be one, feel free to wear your thinking caps and suggest why this situation is as bad as it is, and more importantly, when, if at all in the immediate future, are things going to change.

The food is good, but can be deceiving and deadly sometimes! I ate
something contaminated last week or the week before. And for many days
I’ve just been crapping water. Any food goes in then out like an
express train. So finally yesterday went to the hospital for treatment.
Joined the IV-Drip Club [we had another intern who got the same
treatment for dehydration] Spent over 2500 Rs. [ouch!] Doc diagnosed it
as gastro-intestinal infection

It got me thinking into how do you avoid these kind of problems when coming here from abroad? Bringing your own water (a guest lecturer we had from US did that) and being super careful about what you have to eat/drink is one solution, but not a viable one for most people. Having a ‘vaccination’ consisting of Immodium as soon as you land is another option, an option my cousin and his wife opted for and which worked on them.

How many other ways can you defeat the stomach flue?

Every year, on the eve of January 1st, we setup our new year resolutions to better ourselves for the coming year.

This year, i propose we setup resolutions to better our selves as Pakistanis (no matter where we are) and to both make stronger our communities and our country!

All we need, is one resolution each.. the spillover effect theory would take care of the rest!

For readers who remember it, and had setup some themselves, let us know how successful were you in them. For everyone else, please let us know what you intend to make this year.

Read on for how i did on my own resolutions

My resolution last year was to be a better driver, and as much as i could, i’ve stuck to it. My horn usage is down to short bursts, and thankfully, i haven’t been ticketed much in the last year. However, a couple of times, i did have to ’settle’ it the wrong way because it was just too much of a hassle to get it back.

This year, my resolution is to be more green! I promise myself to
1. Conserve as much petrol as i can, and use CNG.
2. Where ever possible, walk.
3. Be more proactive in saving water.
and lastly,
4. Change the light bulbs at my house to energy savers, and turn off unnecessary electrical appliances.

Whats your independence day resolution?

Long Live Pakistan

Other than the countless protests by the lawyers, PPP, PPPP, MQM, MMA…. (and the list goes on and on), the city has also been lashed with the tail-end of a tropical cyclone. The overflowing gutters, uprooted electricity poles and strewn billboards suggest that the city is just not suited for rain. Add to that the fact that an extremely popular shopping mall in the vicinity of the teen talwaar (Continental Trade Centre-CTC) suffered from a horrible fire and is all but finished, and you feel the city is going through a rough patch.

But to eradicate all such thoughts I have decided to unveil to you Karachi’s latest attraction! It’s a bit of secret and is not openly discussed, which further encouraged me to enlighten you. An unusually large number of boisterous, eager males have been noticed to gather every Saturday night at the McDonalds outlet at Seaview at approximately 1 a.m. A rather odd time to say the least! The seaview McDonalds is a popular hangout for the general public. There have been a number of disturbing sightings in their rather large and secluded garden but that is not the cause of the latest excitement.

According to my source they all await the appearance of a “drunk” girl who comes every Saturday night to the afore mentioned outlet and makes a complete fool of herself in her druken stupor! My source in his enthusiam also went on to give me disgustingly minute details regarding the appearance and scanty clothing of this “burger, drunk” girl. The only use this piece of information was the look in his eyes which suggested the real reason why the crowd gathers every saturday night.

I have also been told that the organisers of Fez and those of Club Night are being given a run for their money by this phenomenon at the Seaview McDonalds. The ravenous males that usually attend the mentioned parties now throng to the Seaview McDonalds to take in this sight. Unfortunately not too many have been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the drunk damsel…Perhaps because she does’nt exist! Or does she?

When I decided to ask a McDonalds employee of this latest craze in the city he claimed that this girl did indeed exist and that she walked into McDonalds a month ago. But that was the only time she ever came in according to him. His co-worker though claimed that he had served her on atleast three different occasions…But both did agree that McDonalds business has never been so good on Saturday nights!

So the next time you’re in town, and are perplexed regarding what you will be doing on Saturday night, pop in to the Seaview McDonalds and indulge yourself in the latest piece of entertainment on offer in Karachi…Catch it while you can!

Published by Salahuddin on MicroPakistan

Karachi is a proof for the existence of God. Without a merciful, compassionate, caring, and forgiving Lord, Karachi and Karachians would have long disappeared.
[No, not in the rigorous, logical sense of "proof." Karachi and its people are beyond logic.]

Its always interesting to note what how visitors perceive are city as. The above observation is that of Shyakh Faraz Rabbani, a researcher in Islamic law who answers religious questions and teaches at the popular website Sunni Path. He is in Karachi these days learning under Maulna Taqi Usmani’s guidance and maintains the regularly updated blog Seeker’s Digest. What he suggests isn’t exactly a compliment, but you can hardly deny its accuracy, can you?

I have seen sleeveless wearing girls and women change and take up the full hijab. I have seen filthy rich fashion conscious ladies change and become simple and veiled and beautiful practicing Muslimahs…I have seen the rich donate money and their entire houses for the spread of deen.