First, he won’t get any license. PPP wants all Sindhis, mostly un-educated and belonging to interior, to do everything. From sweepers to customs officers at port, to PIA’s various GMs, and the President of the god-damn country.

If in case he gets the license, he will do lot of things.

For one, he will not allow CNG rickshaw to remain green for ever. He will turn it into red blood with various slogans and his huge portraits, made white using extra box of talcum powder.

Non-Mohajirs won’t be allowed to sit in his CNG rickshaw. He will only allow Mohajirs to sit behind him (he likes everyone behind him!) He will also not use the traditional peep peep horn. In fact, he will use mulla-style speakers and blare MQM-zindabad slogans as he weaves his way across the city. His CNG Rickshaw will also not look like a CNG Rockshaw but more like a donkey fitted rickshaw. (Most of his party looks like a bunch of donkeys). And his CNG rickshaw will not climb the many idiosyncratic flyovers his assistant, Mr. Mustafa Kamal, has built around the city. So he being Altaf Hussain will flatten most of them much to the determinant of the city and its exploding population.

Altaf Hussain being Altaf Hussain will also not allow Pushtun-run buses to ply the city without harassing them. He will make sure that his red-blood CNG Rickshaw is always parked in front of their mini-buses. He will also try and poke Pushtuns and will try and provoke them. This will cause massive blood-shed in the city and Altaf Hussain being Altaf Hussain would ask all Mohajirs to carry arms so that they may protect themselves from the ‘terrorists’ Pushtuns. Thereafter, all CNG Rickshaws would be snatched at gun-point and other points from other drivers, painted red, with MQM flags installed and Altaf bhai portraits flashing with dark face and elephant white teeth. Then all these red-painted rickshaws will move behind Altaf Bhai’s rickshaw and will stop whenever he gives his comic speech to the millions of bhais and sisters of the city. (Meri behnoon tumhara kia, mein janoon mera Rickshaw janay).

Altaf Hussain is requested to remain in London and die there and not become the CNG Rickshaw driver in the city of Quaid-e-Azam. We can do without Altaf bhai riding the red-blood rickshaw. God Willing.

6 Korean women go missing in Karachi

Staff Report

KARACHI: Six Korean nationals have gone missing in Karachi ever since they arrived from Islamabad, Daily Times learnt Tuesday.

A reliable source in the police department told Daily Times on the condition of anonymity that the six women have been missing since the first week of August. They were identified as Kim Hyung Yam, Park Yun Jeong, Park Hee Jeong, Lee Soon Im, Hwang Eui Hyang, and Lee Yeonhee.

Dr Kyoung Yong Kim, chief of the Korean Mission, wrote the Inspector General of the Sindh Police Sultan Sallahuddin Babar Khattak on August 7, requesting help and better security for Korean nationals. Capital City Police Officer Karachi Wasim Ahmed confirmed the news.

This news items is not good for investors at all and is a serious headache for security agencies responsible for foreigners. An added risk here is of rape and mutilation as all captives are women. Karachi, already reeling from one of the worst economic crises, must not be falling on these issues. It is such news which gets splashed across world headlines and foreign investors gladly turn to India or Dubai.

Now, some history lessons.

I wish to have here listed pre-partition Parsi buildings in Karachi. We know lot of Parsis lived in this city and they did some wonderful construction work. Now, sadly around 2000 odd-Parsis are left and we morn their departure. But we can recall our city’s glorious past and its wonderful builders below. My takes:

1) Mama Parsi school, Saddar.
2) Nusserwanjee Mehta Parsi Maternity Home. Foundation stone was laid on 20th December 1917.

This beautiful yet little known colonial building is situated at Zaib-un-Nisa street, Karachi. It now stands locked up by its owners who live just behind it. In the complex there is the grave of its founder, Khan Bhadur Nusserwanji R. Mehta. He was born on 8th June, 1853 and died on 8th December, 1931.

More buildings to be noted below as comments.

My grandparents (father side) lived in Bahunagar and then Bombay. My grandfather used to have a tea stall which he used to run along with his elder brother, Ahmed. British army was their regular customer and when they came they came in droves and all the war chat would take place there, albeit in English, a language my grandfather never really understood except for the morsels. He also tells me, whenever in good mood, that Hindu banyas were also his prized customers and they would be very rich and very tidy in their manners and style.

Then they came to Karachi, Pakistan.

Unlike many migrants pouring from India by train or walk or by mules, which was always a dangerous thing to do in those bad times, he and his wife arrived by ship. In those old days, ships b/w Karachi and Bombay were very common and lot of people used to rely on them for trade. Thankfully, it wasn’t disconnected after partition. If I can recall it rightly, it took around 7 days for the ship to reach Karachi and vice versa, and the journey was, as they remember, quite emotional but un-eventful. They off loaded in a city which was far cleaner, more managed, having wonderful, big roads and with lot of joggis around for people pouring in. Karachi was then a port city and it was just that. Further, he tells me with a shine in his eyes that the major thoroughfares would be daily washed clean on the orders of Mr. Jinnah, founder of Pakistan and the resident of this city.

I am also told that Karachi had no fear. People were loving and good-natured; Hindus and Parsis were the major businessmen. They had lots of properties and some really wonderful buildings to their credit. Khojas and Memons were also there but in lower number. As migration forced it way, that number eventually rose (that of Gujerati speaking groups) and lots of Hindus fled Karachi fearing for their lives, just as Muslims were doing from across the border.

I am also told that wide roads, (almost) zero pollution and a sense of new found destiny improved public imagination, which in turn helped people in re-building their lives from the scratch.

As more stories come to mind or are related they shall be uploaded here as comments here. Readers are requested to add their own treasures here.

Mangroves are a wonderful being of ALLAH. They are species of plants which thrive in saline waters. Their roots grow best under fertile land and maybe found at places where deltas are formed due to discharge of river (sweet) water into sea waters (saline). They are important for survival of countless land and sea species and hundreds of thousands of men earn their livelihood through them (fishing, cutting trees, making homes, hunting, etc). Therefore, it is imperative that such wonderful and unique species are preserved for the betterment of people and environment. That’s not happening. From the lead organization:

http://casestudies.lead.org/index.php?cscid=143

“In Pakistan, mangroves are found along the southern borders of the country along the coast of Sindh and Balochistan. The Indus Delta extends to an area of approximately 600,000 hectares of which 160,000 consists of mangrove forests. These are unique in the sense that they are considered to be the largest area of arid climate mangroves in the world”.

And, further:

“In the Karachi area, 135,000 people depend on the mangroves for their livelihood. For villages surrounding the forests, the mangroves provide food, fodder and fuel-wood. There are approximately 100,000 people who take a total of 18,000 tonnes of fuel-wood each year from the mangroves (Davis, 1993). In addition, 3,200 buffaloes and 6,000 camels also consume some 67 million kilograms of leaves and 19.5 million kilograms of grass (Qureshi, 1992). Much of Pakistan’s fishing industry relies on the fish found in the mangroves, notably shrimp, which are the principal fisheries export of Pakistan. Of the US$ 100 million that Pakistan earns in fisheries foreign exchange, shrimp accounts for 68 percent (Davis, 1993). Mangroves are also important for recreation purposes with high potential for eco-tourism. The Indus Delta is an important migratory route for millions of waterfowl that need to feed and breed during the winter months. Some 80 species of birds, such as pelicans, flamingoes and herons may be found in the Indus Delta mangroves (IUCN, 1999). Mangrove forests also provide protection to the coastal areas from strong winds and ocean currents. Their vegetation also helps in reducing coastline erosion because the roots collect sediments that flow into the sea from the river.

“Over the past 13 years, the degradation of Pakistan’s mangroves has occurred at the rate of 6 percent per annum. As a result, only 16 percent of Pakistan’s mangroves are thought to be healthy (Qureshi, 1992). The most harmful environmental stress that the mangroves face today derives largely from human activity. The steady growth of a major industrial city within the vicinity, the untreated sewage and industrial discharge, the increase in the demand for fuel wood, overgrazing and over-exploitation of resources are just a few of the strains on the mangrove’s ecosystem. Steel mills, refineries and power stations are some of the large polluting industries found in the area. Tanneries are perhaps the worst. Their untreated effluents, massively loaded with heavy metals, are being disposed daily into the sea, thereby contaminating the food chain. High concentrations of heavy metal such as lead, zinc, copper, nickel, cadmium, mercury and cobalt have recently been recorded in marine biota and sediments (Davis, 1993). They are hazardous and poisonous for all forms of life.”

That’s bad news for Pakistan.

For one, lot of Punjabis have been shot dead in Khuzdar city center. Some were recently killed in and around Quetta, including a Punjabi professor. Lot of Punjabi students studying at Baluchistan university have already left, according to my friend’s first cousin.

So the news of Punjabi drivers being off loaded from their vehicles at Hub chowky can’t be that wrong. But I am surprised that local media has failed to pick these pickings up.

For one, I find a great similarity b/w these events and the events which pre-dated East Pakistan’s autonomy in December, 1971. Then too such events were being reported but not at large scale, just as now. Then too, Bengalis were shouting in unison about west Pakistanis and were asking them to leave for their own good. As most of the hatred was directed at Pak Army and civil servants (in both cases Punjabis ruled the cake) indirectly East Pakistanis were clearly asking them to leave or face the music. Some left while others faced the music.

The reports appear to me very casual but horrifying. I am not sure how to inform newspapers about such happenings at our city’s western border, but I know for sure that these incidents are a writing on the wall; they are remarkably precise in telling us about our country’s future. They are images of a time which to me appears rather very dangerous and disturbing.

Would like to know from various people who’ve travelled from Karachi by road to Baluchistan (via Hub) if they’ve ever come across such non-sense.

p.s. It must be noted that in mainland Baluchistan baring Quetta, except for Baluch, Bruhi, Sindhi and Pathan, all ethnic groups are regarded as Punjabis. That is until you prove yourself not.

I have a radical idea for Karachi and its citizens. For one, I think KESC is all crap now after Musharraf and company (specially his darling PM, Shaukat) sold this fine organization to a private company for peanuts. No external or internal audit reports have ever been shared with citizens who pay their blood to keep this outfit afloat. Yet it dismisses us all like we are beggars. So, ladies and gentlemen of Karachi, should be burn down KESC? I am sure we should. It is of no use; it fleeces honest men and provides electricity free of cost to VVIPs, VIPs, brothers and sisters of PM; it also does not help when it fails to dis-connect illegal connections; and since last two nights I and my family and millions of others have not slept well. Karachi is in crises and we need someone else to bring us electricity.

By the way, which should be the first KESC office to go down?