I just came to know (via Daily Jang’s latest update) that Provisional Minister, Pir Mazhar Ul Haq announced School and Colleges will open tomorrow as per schedule regardless of tomorrow’s strike.

I don’t know what kind of decision it is… and what is the reason behind such late night announcement.. weird!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY-PqIIKW6U[/youtube]

To evoke national spirit and patriotism, a large group of citizens have planned to head over to the Quaid-e-Azam mazar at 11am to pay hommage and offer fateha at the monument. This even not only marks an important national event but is a show of unity and strength that there are patriotic pakistanis willing to struggle foe peace in this country of ours.

RSVP at the Facebook event and show up at the Mazar-e-Quaid to show your support

A brief message generally encompasses the true spirit of the organizers

We welcome the youth to make an Assembly behind our team & supporters and pay their rich tribute to the man who changed our fate. From a SLAVE-NATION to a PROUD NATION, we owe to our great leader QUAID-e-AZAM “THE GREATEST LEADER”.

Pakistan Zindabad

Its been a long time coming but independent efforts by a group of volunteers have finally paid off to present a fully routable GPS map for Karachi available FREE to the general public. Ali Ahmed and his team of GPS enthusiasts at PKMaps has been doing a remarkable job updating and mapping the entire city of Karachi (& Pakistan) in full detail. Their latest release Karachi Map 0.85 has yet again built upon their great effort. Boasting n impressive stats of 9,500 POI, 36,000 roads (10,500 km), 2,500 addresses, 40 POI with contact numbers

The zip files available for download on the site are custom made for Garmin GPS units. To install this map on your Garmin device you can either download the Mapsource version or copy the gmapsupp.img directly on your supplemental map file. If you have a non-Garmin device there are a few help files on the forums to help install the same Karachi map on alternate devices.

Generally all Pakistan wide maps are available for free but a more detailed Pro version can be accessed for free if you join the team of contributors helping them to either map or even correct and fix the existing map. The Pro version generally has quite a detailed index of house numbers and an elaborate POI index [Points of Interest]

Attached are a few screen shots of this amazing routable map navigating through the streets of Karachi

ITCN Asia turned out to be the most happening Information technology event, the real crowd puller so far, this year. Yesterday the exhibition was open to the general public so I decided to spent more then a few hours and tweet teh exhibition from morning till evening and cover the events live.

I stationed my self at the Dell Pakistan booth in hall number one, and unfolded my laptop but much to my surprise there was not a single free Wifi network available and I had to borrow a WiMax device from a friend (Muneeb) to connect to the internet. I surveyed this hall, visited a few other stalls, came across the CIO WebStudio‘s booth where they were preparing themselves for video recording public opinions, interviews and product reviews. The idea sounded promising and I was sure I wont be getting bored today. (more…)

Blood required at Aga Khan Hospital, Any one can donate blood. A Lady admit in Aga Khan hospital and she is suffering from blood cancer and she is on Ventilator please help. She has already gotten several bags of blood but she needs even more on daily basis so you can sense the urgency.

Patient name : Mrs. Gulshan Mushtaq Khowaja
MR # : 0023981
Blood Group: AB+
Please Note down the MR # Specially if you are going to donate Blood.

Pakistan’s First multistory vehicle parking plaza, located in Saddar, inaugurated by Governor of Sindh Dr.Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan and City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal. You can find other images of parking plaza at Mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal’s Photos Album on Facebook.

Hello to everyone in the Metblogs world. 

I have just joined the Metblogging team for Karachi, so would like to present a short introduction before I go on with my post. I was born in Karachi,  left it when I was 18 to go abroad, lived little more than half a decade abroad, and am now proudly calling myself a Karachiite again. I am an engineer by profession, however I have an avid interest in the city. Especially in its architecture. You can see a website I made at www.historickarachi.com which showcases the heritage of our city. Since this is my first post on metblogs, I would like to start on a somewhat lighthearted note. Lets talk about the Conocarpus. 

More specifically, the Conocarpus Erectus — a tree that has taken over Karachi like a storm! A tree? well yes. Karachi’s climate is rather hot and dry. It does not rain here much and there is not a lot of vegetation that can survive here easily without much help and still look fresh and green. Not the Conocarpus! This is one tree that has made its presence felt in the city over the last two years. You can see it everywhere now… especially greening the areas around Shahrah-e-Faisal and Karsaz. But also in many different areas. Bin Qasim Park, Beach Park, Khayaban-e-Hafiz in DHA, University Road near Askari Park, etc. etc. Not sure how it got here, but most probably the CDGK had some part to play in introducing this species to Karachi. And some of us can be pretty resistant to such new stuff… I heard a rumor going around recently that this tree causes diseases :-O  Nope. Nothing can be further from the truth. Maybe we should spend a minute and understand it more…

Conocarpus Erectus is not really a tree, but a rather large woody shrub growing up to 40 feet tall. It originates in North America from the edges of swamplands in Florida, which is why it has often times been confused to be a mangrove. It is not a mangrove though, but is a very hardy plant that can survive the hot weather, bad air, bad soils and frequent droughts associated with urban environments very well. Its leaves are very thick and leathery which help it retain its health in the heat, and the plant also grows very well in saline soils. In fact, its salt tolerance is so good that it has been used for the reclaimation of salinity damaged lands. All these qualities make it an ideal plant for Karachi.

Conocarpus has also been used in other regions of the world. This tree-like shrub can be trimmed in a lot of ways and is often used for road-side medians, parking lots, screening hedges, and other landscaping purposes. Kuwait is one country that has made extensive use of the Conocarpus for its landscaping. Another is Hawaii, where it is so prevalent now that it has become naturalized. 

In Karachi you can find the Conocarpus in a lot of areas. Particularly in DHA, the soil is naturally very saline (since most of it is reclaimed land) and Conocarpus thrives in DHA much better than any other trees. It has been used to particularly good effect on Khayaban-e-Hafiz where a lot of people have used it to screen their houses from the road. It has also been put to good use on roadside medians on Shahrah-e-Faisal and in the Karsaz area. On the water-front road now, the CDGK has planted lots of saplings where it should be able to grow very well. In fact, it may be a very good idea to plant it all over our beachside. That would make it look very attractive. 

If you are a greenery fan, I would suggest that you should introduce yourself and your neighbourhood to the Conocarpus. Make sure that you keep individual trees at least 5 feet apart so that they do not smother each other. Some watering may be helpful in order to help the plant take hold, but otherwise, it should do pretty well on its own. Here’s to a greener Karachi!