First of all the owners of house that is being constructed decided to illegally extend not just a sunshade (like even that is legally allowed) but the whole upper story of the house beyond the land area allotted to them.

Secondly during the construction this road remained closed for the whole two days, causing difficulties for the area residents and passers by. This closure of the road could have easily been avoided if the owner would have had the slights sense of responsibility and consideration for others.

It was only a few day back when celebratory firing during a wedding ceremony took the life of a teenager who was returning home after work in Baldia town. Yesterday after Pakistan won the ICC T20 World Cup people celebrating the victory resorted to heavy aerial firing in the city. I heard several bullets falling on the roof of our house, a bullet even directly hit one of our parapet wall leaving it’s violent marks by chipping a chunk of plaster off the wall.

My celebrations had already gone sour when I heard the heavy firing, I knew people must have got injured but the morning newspaper announced the worst. Two people had actually lost their lives while over two dozen others were reported to have been injured.

I wish we would have gone through all these celebration without any violence, or only if us loosing that match could have saved those two precious lives we lost list light, I wish we would have lost the match instead.

Part II : The Problem

As the reality comes closer (15 deaths as of last report) and it occurs to this city that ONE MORE time, for history’s sake we gave this leadership ONE MORE opportunity to rule us and like it was expected they failed again. This takes the discussion back to what’s actually wrong with the people who rule us. This time they came through a SO-CALLED democratic process known as elections. So how elections could results in a setup that is more incompetent than ever. This also raises the question as to does election help cleansing or help corrupt reach power. I, along with many were few who strongly opposed the feb 18 elections and at least I was confident (and it proved once again) that these elections will simply result in reputation of the faces we badly require to get rid of. I waited very patiently to tell my friends who think that democracy is all about voting and FULLSTOP. What they lack is their understanding of democracy as a MACHINE that can deliver depending upon who is running that machine. The machine itself is nothing. If you put an SHO under a dakku how can you expect peace in a locality and then argue that democracy did not help. I believe with conviction that democracy, as a SYSTEM never ever came at first place here. For us to say democracy has arrived there has to be a minimum shape of it that can be seen functioning. Let’s start with basics here:
Starting from a VOTE how many of our voters (since much of the hoop hoola in jungle by these parties is about the number of votes also infamously known as awaami himayat) fulfill the following simple criteria required for a vote: (more…)

The misery of the IDP’s caused by the Taleban in Swat is all in our hearts and we want to help. But how do we make sure that proper aid actually reaches them? A lot of donation booths seem to have popped up all of a sudden across the city – under bridges and flyovers, on traffic intersections and sidewalks, etc. People have set up tents where they are noisily blaring songs and slogans (however unpleasant) and collecting goods to send to the people in Swat. Political parties have started mobilizing their workers. Lots of individuals have also come forward with their own action plans for help. All of this is very commendable.

However, there are also others who are profiting from this opportunity to gain free funds. As was highlighted in the news a few days ago, reports are rife that people collected donations for the cause of the IDP’s and kept a major portion for themselves. Then there is the odd person who pops up by your car on a signal, with a box for donations. I am forever doubtful if that donation is actually going for the IDP’s or for the Taleban under-cover, or in the pocket of some corrupt profiteer. Oh yes! you should keep this in mind! Since there was no initial screening of the people coming down from the Swat area, many of the Taleban also slipped out with them. And they are known to take on such disguises to escape from the military so they can survive to cause trouble later. And Karachi is one place where they know they can come to collect money! 

So keeping all this in mind, how should you screen your donation to make sure it actually reaches the ones in need?

(more…)

Witnessing myself the city being turned into a junkyard by KBCA+ leadership especially during and after 90s the city perfectly presents an orphaned child right now. Cowasjee article today (with a broken link in between, remove the space) and this one in JANG by Khalid Ansari is again an evident of the state of affairs. As if this city already had less issues to deal with now this latest menace.

Many people take KBCA related issues lightly and they don’t realize that it’s actually KBCA which seeds the first plant of destruction when it allows illegal constructions. With this come the issue of space, then the water electricity and gas and phone connections for that building/plaza, then the issue of digging roads and not filling em back. Then comes the issue of congestion in that area, and with it come illegal encroachments by pushcarts and then comes the issue of traffic in that area, suffocation and air-less space. This all makes that area a good ground for breeding of different diseases. Now imagine what this city has been turned into in last 25 years with such a huge scale of illegal (and sub standardized) constructions and occupations. Is there any hope of a reversal of all this to bring the old face back?

If there is one thing that makes your blood boil is something like this – driving down Khayaban-e-Ittehad in the middle of a sweltering afternoon, and seeing the street lights switched on!

The red circles are there just to show you the streetlights on that entire length of the main road, were on. The time I snapped this photograph was about 5pm, which means a good 2 hours before sundown. I had passed by the area about 3 hours earlier and found the same situation. (more…)

Part II : The Problem

Whenever we go to a doctor we believe him he is competent to understand the illness, honest in opinion and has no PERSONAL interest clashing to that of the patient. Its exactly why we allow him to operate on us and we trust our lives at his views. We know he has a solution to the problem. A leader is an intellectual doctor who can see what we can not and therefore can suggest the best medicine for our society. Like a doctor we go to him willingly, since we believe he has a SOLUTION to our problems. We vote i.e we hand over our trust and believe our futures are in secure hands since we, collectively, as society want to proceed towards betterment, a natural instinct in a society. By book, a leader has to have some 10 qualities that we don’t go into and we never expect a REAL leader to have all of them, practically. But there has to be a thin line , before and after which a person should be told if he deserves to lead or not. If a person deserves to lead he should be allowed as such else removed. A leader, in politics is an ADJECTIVE not a noun . .

A LEADER is not the first person in first line in a HERD . . . . and A Leader is not the person who follows Popular DEMAND . . .

and here is where we MAKE mistake when we choose our leadership and therefore the CRISIS of leadership we are facing now. Whether our 170 million people are a MOB or a NATION will only be decided upon the type of  LEADER(ship) in first row and first position.

continue . . .

Thalassaemia major is a fatal disease of the blood. Many people go on through their lives while having thalassaemia minor and never knowing about it. When two such individuals produce a child , the child has a very large chance of having Thalassaemia major.

For a Thalassaemia patient to have any chance of survival they need a blood transfusion every 15 days of their life. Currently the demand for blood for these patients is 15000 bottles of blood a month. The blood banks of this city cannnot and do not provide enough blood for these patients and this is why many of them die premature deaths, many times before reaching adulthood.

Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Centre (KITCC) is all set to launch a blood bank which will cater exclusively to the needs of these patients. A year ago MB from Karachi metroblogs did a post about this organization here.

All of us can give blood once every 3 months, I urge all of you reading this to please if possible provide blood to this organization. Your precious blood will save a persons life through them. I also urge all the bloggers of this forum to take up on Mb’s initiative and spread the message of awareness for this center and disease. It is very important for 2 thalasaemia minor patients not to marry and have children to add to the toll of this disease, for this people are advised to get blood tests done before marriage.

Please note (KITCC) provides blood “FREE OF COST”. i personally will not only be donating blood for this cause but will try to round up as many people as I can to do this. Please help, your help is needed now!!!!

Their contact info is

Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Center (KITCC) , Becham Road, Laiqabad, Landhi, Karachi – 75120
(+92-21)-8232414 , (+92-21)-4515600 , (+92-21)-5021188 (Fax)
kitcc@gem.net.pk

Karachi has a serious traffic problem. With only one artery which is the Shah Ra E Faisal running through out the city and non existant parking in the down town area of Karachi plus the parking mafia ruling the pavements has made driving anywhere and running even simple errands in the city a nightmare.

Although in the last few years many fly overs and amendments have been made to the road structure of the city one huge problem has been overlooked so far and that is parking.

Currently there is a move going on to make a huge 4 story parking plaza near bohri bazaar and another 3 story one at khadda market but this not going to be enough.

I suggest that the entire downtown area should be turned into a “no car zone” and only pedestrians walking should be allowed thus enabling office workers, businessmen and traders to go about their business in peace, rather then it taking 45 minutes to find parking and that too at the behest of the neighborhood sidewalk don who then has the leeway to throw your car whenever he wants, to be retrieved when you gingerly ask for it back, with fender benders and minor milage issues included.

Part I : The Background

This had to happen, it was meant to. The ground was all set, the preparations ready and the city, like an orphan at the helm of few terrorist wings of some political parties who keep churning out some nonsense political agendas, and a cover up with dodging words like “talibanisation” , “ethnicity”, “india ki sazish”, “democracy”, “awaam ki taqat”, “land grabbers”, “shaheed” . . .  ETC, words you keep hearing them as their answers to almost all questions. Bring on any TV program, any anchor and any question and you will find these words in their answers. For ordinary man these answer are satisfactory and so he keeps believing them every time he goes for vote and every time he is fooled. He is fooled by the ALLADIN lamp known as DEMOCRACY. DEMOCRACY that never came at first place ever, to begin with. Democracy is not a medicine that will react instantly. Its a seed, and so like all seeds it needs water,air,sun etc to become a TREE. To add more confusion we have some self CERTIFIED religious thekedaars telling us how to pray, walk, dress in the name of shariah. A shariah that has 70 odd interpretations and everyone is hell bent upon eliminating all others by their self proclaimed divine authority. This circus of political deception, dishonest leadership, incompetent religious ulema is continuously adding more misery to the ordinary man, who HIMSELF is THE most responsible unit for his and this city’s state, as it stands now.

Even an animal changes its path once  deceived on one route and can understand that this route is not meant for my objective. Why is it then that the ordinary man in this city keeps electing these people, who lack competency, honesty, loyalty and the vision to lead. They are all selfish, some natural jokers and some trained by their parties, some fool using religion some do it using ethnicity and yet an ordinary man doesn’t get it and so he is paying price for his own choice.

Is it not the time he awaken to the fact that like a human body, we need fresh blood. The old blood is cancerous with zaati, siyasi, mzhabi, firqawarana and lisaani mafadaat. They are all of the same circus only with different skill sets. Its quite possible that there would be some good souls between them too but they are POWERLESS and the decision making is mostly done by the evils and not the few saints. We can differentiate those few good men but cant allow their parties to be elected again as too much time is lost and too much blood at our hands.

Time has come for a change . . .