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Baluchistan Earthquake Update
It’s cold and miserable out here in the open. The Kakar Pashtuns, who have called the inhospitable terrain of Ziarat their home for centuries, have had to deal with their share of hardships. But nothing had prepared these hardened souls to cope with the tragedy that struck in the small hours of Wednesday.
For more than 40 hours since the earthquake brought down their dwellings, the residents of Qilla Charri village looked with desperate eyes towards a number of helicopters flying over the valleys and mountains close by.
But for the sixty-odd families living in the village, relief had yet to make its way.
The helicopters were dropping relief goods at designated relief camps. For those unable to make their way to the camp, life was different.
Allah Noor, the councillor of the village, said the women, children and the elderly who survived the devastation spent the night under open skies in sub-zero temperatures.
“The children are now suffering from fever,” said Allah Noor, pointing to two infants lying in cots.
Nearby, an old man was weeping profusely for the death of his two sons. “Lost to God’s will,” as he would say, along with two hundred others.
In another group of some thirty houses, eight-year-old Muhammad Hussain was sitting all alone, having lost his father.
Having spent the first night under open skies, without blankets in freezing temperatures, these survivors of the quake had nothing to eat or drink. As relief supplies had yet to reach these scattered villages, the locals were helping each other remove debris and bodies.
If fate had a role to play in the misery of these people, man certainly did not help in swiftly responding to the calamity and mitigating their pain.
A day after the calamity struck, relief organisations were still assessing the true extent of the damage.
Muhammad Salman, Programme Officer of LAFAM, a local NGO, told Dawn that initial relief efforts were focused on houses and villages located close to the main road. “We are still trying to assess the actual extent of the damage,” he said some 36 hours after the tragedy.
Some thirty kilometres away in Ziarat, people were watching on TV the claims by NDMA chief that relief goods had reached most of the affected areas.
But people in Ziarat were aware of a different reality on the ground.
The first C-130 carrying relief goods had landed at Samungali airbase, Quetta, at 6.35 on Wednesday evening, more than 12 hours after the calamity.
The relief goods on the first aircraft included just 150 tents, barely sufficient to meet the demands of one village. Locals say some 300 villages were damaged.
Officials at PAF base, Chaklala, and at Samungali told Dawn that PAF aircraft were ready since 7am to take relief goods from Karachi and Islamabad.
But it took the cabinet division and the Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority hours to transfer relief goods to the airbases for onward transportation to Quetta.
Till the filing of this report, at least six C-130s had landed at Samungali. However, onward transportation of relief goods from Quetta to badly affected areas of Ziarat, Kawas, Kach and Pishin entails numerous obstacles.
For more than 40 hours since the earthquake brought down their dwellings, the residents of Qilla Charri village looked with desperate eyes towards a number of helicopters flying over the valleys and mountains close by.
But for the sixty-odd families living in the village, relief had yet to make its way.
The helicopters were dropping relief goods at designated relief camps. For those unable to make their way to the camp, life was different.
Allah Noor, the councillor of the village, said the women, children and the elderly who survived the devastation spent the night under open skies in sub-zero temperatures.
“The children are now suffering from fever,” said Allah Noor, pointing to two infants lying in cots.
Nearby, an old man was weeping profusely for the death of his two sons. “Lost to God’s will,” as he would say, along with two hundred others.
In another group of some thirty houses, eight-year-old Muhammad Hussain was sitting all alone, having lost his father.
Having spent the first night under open skies, without blankets in freezing temperatures, these survivors of the quake had nothing to eat or drink. As relief supplies had yet to reach these scattered villages, the locals were helping each other remove debris and bodies.
If fate had a role to play in the misery of these people, man certainly did not help in swiftly responding to the calamity and mitigating their pain.
A day after the calamity struck, relief organisations were still assessing the true extent of the damage.
Muhammad Salman, Programme Officer of LAFAM, a local NGO, told Dawn that initial relief efforts were focused on houses and villages located close to the main road. “We are still trying to assess the actual extent of the damage,” he said some 36 hours after the tragedy.
Some thirty kilometres away in Ziarat, people were watching on TV the claims by NDMA chief that relief goods had reached most of the affected areas.
But people in Ziarat were aware of a different reality on the ground.
The first C-130 carrying relief goods had landed at Samungali airbase, Quetta, at 6.35 on Wednesday evening, more than 12 hours after the calamity.
The relief goods on the first aircraft included just 150 tents, barely sufficient to meet the demands of one village. Locals say some 300 villages were damaged.
Officials at PAF base, Chaklala, and at Samungali told Dawn that PAF aircraft were ready since 7am to take relief goods from Karachi and Islamabad.
But it took the cabinet division and the Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority hours to transfer relief goods to the airbases for onward transportation to Quetta.
Till the filing of this report, at least six C-130s had landed at Samungali. However, onward transportation of relief goods from Quetta to badly affected areas of Ziarat, Kawas, Kach and Pishin entails numerous obstacles.
Travelling at night on bumpy dirt tracks which pass as roads, and above all, locating people in need of relief at night are challenging assignments. Aftershocks are still continuing. And so is the relief effort. But as people absorb the initial shock, they are increasingly asking difficult, yet simple questions.
A few kilometres down from Qilla Charri was the smaller encampment of Qilla Sui, where a young man in his late 20s was mourning the death of his wife. “Why did God have to do this to us?”
No one in the area, and perhaps in the country, seems to have the answer.(Arshad Sharif)
A few kilometres down from Qilla Charri was the smaller encampment of Qilla Sui, where a young man in his late 20s was mourning the death of his wife. “Why did God have to do this to us?”
No one in the area, and perhaps in the country, seems to have the answer.(Arshad Sharif)
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Earthquake in Balochistan
A strong earthquake jolted Balochistan early Wednesday killing over 150 people, injuring hundreds of others and destroying houses and government buildings, officials said.
The 6.5 magnitude tremor struck villages and small towns 45 miles north of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, around, 4:33 a.m., according to the state television.
The epicenter of the earthquake was about 400 miles southwest of Islamabad, with towns and villages in the Ziarat district appeared to be the worst hit area. The cities and towns struck by the tremor included Pishin, Qila Abdullah, Chaman, Loralai, Sibbi and Mastung, rural areas all lying close to Balochistan's border with Afghanistan.
The death toll could rise as rescue workers move into more remote villages. Hundreds of others had been injured in the tremor and perhaps 15,000 left homeless and in need of help.
Officials said that more than 150 dead bodies had been recovered so far and the government was providing food, shelter and medical care to those who survived the devastation.
Pakistan's army rushed its medical teams on helicopters into Khawas and other towns and villages, 25 doctors are busy providing first aid to the injured.
Balochistan's capital, Quetta, was spared the brunt of the force, but there were injuries.
"We were fast asleep at the time of quake and when awakened by the shocks we took no time to come out of our houses," said Wahidullah, a resident of Quetta.
Wednesday's earthquake was the deadliest since a magnitude 7.6 temblor struck Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and other northern regions on October 8, 2005, killing over 80 thousand people and injuring thousands of others.
Related: Earthquake Economy, Earthquake Numbers - A Year Later
The 6.5 magnitude tremor struck villages and small towns 45 miles north of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, around, 4:33 a.m., according to the state television.
The epicenter of the earthquake was about 400 miles southwest of Islamabad, with towns and villages in the Ziarat district appeared to be the worst hit area. The cities and towns struck by the tremor included Pishin, Qila Abdullah, Chaman, Loralai, Sibbi and Mastung, rural areas all lying close to Balochistan's border with Afghanistan.
The death toll could rise as rescue workers move into more remote villages. Hundreds of others had been injured in the tremor and perhaps 15,000 left homeless and in need of help.
Officials said that more than 150 dead bodies had been recovered so far and the government was providing food, shelter and medical care to those who survived the devastation.
Pakistan's army rushed its medical teams on helicopters into Khawas and other towns and villages, 25 doctors are busy providing first aid to the injured.
Balochistan's capital, Quetta, was spared the brunt of the force, but there were injuries.
"We were fast asleep at the time of quake and when awakened by the shocks we took no time to come out of our houses," said Wahidullah, a resident of Quetta.
Wednesday's earthquake was the deadliest since a magnitude 7.6 temblor struck Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and other northern regions on October 8, 2005, killing over 80 thousand people and injuring thousands of others.
Related: Earthquake Economy, Earthquake Numbers - A Year Later
Men at Their Best Get Together in Rawalpindi
And finally there was a get together of the Rawalpindi Chapter on 25th October 2008 at the Rendezvous Restaurant, Saddar, Rawalpindi. I walked in at around 8:15 as against 8.00 PM and found a number of course mates already in the open lawn of the restaurant, gossiping and welcoming anyone who dropped in. And soon it was all packed with some 47 of us.
The get together was basically aimed at welcoming the three two-stars who have recently been posted to Pindi and in all we have five two stars, namely Bajwa, Solehria, Shahid Maqbool, Zaheer and Rashid. Of the recently retired one stars, we had Qayyum, Kahlon, AN Janjua (AA Janjua was absent), beside myself. Of the serving one stars we had the roaring Tariq Sher and Sheikh Tahir.
The gossiping and photographing by me to add pictorials in the otherwise stale website of the course continued till a call for the dinner was made by the course secretary, Col Asif. The dinner was very lavish, tasty and everyone who wasn't watching his weight had plates full. After the dinner, Col Aisf got us all together and apprised all of course fund details, donations by some of the course mates (including announcement of Rs. 10,000.00 by Sir Basharat right there on the spot). He also apprised us of the settlement of late Javed Sutan's family on Peshawar Road and education of his children.
He appreciated the efforts of some of the course mates, specially Munawar A Solehria in his efforts to look after the settlement phase of late Javed's family. Asif also spoke of my concern about the stalemate in the website and everyone readily agreed to participate in providing me some news to rejuvenate the site. It was also decided by a unanimous vote that the we will once again give the opportunity to Ghazanfar to host the 2009 Annual Course Get Together at Abbottabad. Although Ghazanfar proposed a two night stay at Abbottabad, but it was finally decided to have a one night show as was done in 2008. The get together finally ended with a Three Cheers by Munir for Asif for being a very effective course secretary and for his efforts to keep everyone onboard and well informed about everyone. {Jala Pages}
Risk of Dengue Fever Spread Highest in October, November
Preventive measures to combat Edis Egepti need to be ensured throughout the city as October and November are the most suitable months for breeding of the said insect that causes dengue fever among people, sources told Daily Times on Sunday.
Since August, almost 125 cases of dengue fever have been reported throughout the city, apart from the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), the Model Town Society (MTS) and Gulberg. The areas from where the said cases had been reported include: Temple Road, Beadon Road, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Sandha, Chah Miran, Shadbagh, Railway Station, Shahdra and Begum Kot. The department concerned had already been fumigating throughout the city besides working on almost 6,000 applications from citizens.
However, the authorities concerned told Daily Times that fumigation and sprays had not been effective against the said insect. They said that they had not received reports of dengue fever from the posh localities of the city, as the residents of these localities were well aware of preventive measures.
Anti-Malaria Department: Anti Malaria Department Chief Inspector Syed Munir Hussain Rizvi said: “The months of October and November are most suitable for the breeding of Edis Egepti because of the moderate climate.” He said that during these months, one could easily be infected with dengue fever if preventive measures were not taken. He said that to avoid the disease, one should keep body parts like face, arms and ankles fully covered, particularly at the time of sunrise and sunset. He said that anti-mosquito lotions and full sleeve shirts should be used while walking in parks and gardens. He said that garbage should not be kept in the open, adding that water containers should be covered to avoid the breeding of insects. He said that in case of vomiting, red spots or rashes on the body, fever or flu, one should immediately consult a doctor. {Via}
Related Posts:
Dengue Fever on the Rise
Cure for Dengue - Papaya Juice
Since August, almost 125 cases of dengue fever have been reported throughout the city, apart from the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), the Model Town Society (MTS) and Gulberg. The areas from where the said cases had been reported include: Temple Road, Beadon Road, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Sandha, Chah Miran, Shadbagh, Railway Station, Shahdra and Begum Kot. The department concerned had already been fumigating throughout the city besides working on almost 6,000 applications from citizens.
However, the authorities concerned told Daily Times that fumigation and sprays had not been effective against the said insect. They said that they had not received reports of dengue fever from the posh localities of the city, as the residents of these localities were well aware of preventive measures.
Anti-Malaria Department: Anti Malaria Department Chief Inspector Syed Munir Hussain Rizvi said: “The months of October and November are most suitable for the breeding of Edis Egepti because of the moderate climate.” He said that during these months, one could easily be infected with dengue fever if preventive measures were not taken. He said that to avoid the disease, one should keep body parts like face, arms and ankles fully covered, particularly at the time of sunrise and sunset. He said that anti-mosquito lotions and full sleeve shirts should be used while walking in parks and gardens. He said that garbage should not be kept in the open, adding that water containers should be covered to avoid the breeding of insects. He said that in case of vomiting, red spots or rashes on the body, fever or flu, one should immediately consult a doctor. {Via}
Related Posts:
Dengue Fever on the Rise
Cure for Dengue - Papaya Juice
Living Lahore
Raza Rumi
There was a Lahore that I grew up in, and then there is the Lahore that I live in now. Recovering from an exile status for two decades, I find myself today turning into something of a clichéd grump, hanging desperately on to the past. Yet I resist that. Writing about Lahore is a sensation that lies beyond the folklore – Jine Lahore nai wakhaya o janmia nai (The one who has not seen Lahore has never lived). It has to do with an inexplicable bonding and oneness with the past, and yet a contradictory and not-so-glorious interface with the present.
Lahore is now the second largest city in Pakistan, with a population that has crossed the 10 million mark. It is turning into a monstropolis. Had it not been for Lahore’s intimacy with Pakistan’s power base – the Punjab-dominated national establishment – this would be just another massive, unmanageable city, regurgitating all the urban clichés of the Global South. But Lahore retains a definite soul; it is comfortable with modernity and globalisation, and continues to provide inspiration for visitors and residents alike.
Over the last millennium, Lahore has been the traditional capital of Punjab in its various permutations. A cultural centre of North India extending from Peshawar to New Delhi, it has historically been open to visitors, invaders and Sufi saints alike. Several accounts tell how Lahore emerged as a town between the 6th and 16th centuries BC. According to commonly accepted myth, Lahore’s ancient provenance, Lohawarana, was founded by the two sons of Lord Ram some 4000 years ago. One of these sons, Loh (or Luv), gave his name to this timeless city. A deserted temple in Lahore Fort is ostensibly a tribute to Loh, located near the Alamgiri gate, next to the fort’s old jails. Under the regime of Zia ul-Haq, Loh’s divine space was closed and used as a dungeon in which to punish political activists.
Later records, such as Ptolemy’s “Geographia”, written around 150 AD, refer to Lahore as ‘Labokla’, and locate it with reference to the Indus, the Ravi, the Jhelum and the Chenab rivers. Another readable account from the past is that of Hieun Tsang, the famous Chinese pilgrim who visited Lahore during the early seventh century AD. He described it as a large Brahminical city – mullahs beware! There is many a contradiction within these accounts, of course, but the important point is that Lahore was not built yesterday. Its ancient moorings explain its indomitable will, ability to survive the upheavals of time, and an innate life beyond the limits of recorded histories, fancy notions of urbanity and cultural evolution. Lahore is also about its centuries of residents. The mystique of the city thus is a personalised experience, as if a city were in permanent dialogue with its residents even while speaking to a newcomer.
Little Ghazni
I spent my early years in a Model Town colonial bungalow, which was originally the creation of a Hindu doctor who had to leave the city at Partition. This was an age when birds were an integral feature of Lahori skies, and the seasons played out their glory. As the name suggests, Model Town was an ‘ideal’ suburb, created during the Raj by the advanced citizenry on the idea of ‘cooperative urban life’. Established in 1922, Model Town was the fruition of advocate Diwan Khem Chand’s unshakeable belief in the values of self help, self responsibility and democracy, loosely the principles of cooperative societies. This was the reason why Model Town was established as, and still is, a ‘cooperative society’. What fewer people know is that these values of cooperation were first popularised by George Jacob Holyoake, a 19th-century English social reformer responsible for the cooperative movement. Incidentally, Holyoake was also infamous for the distinction of having invented the phrase ’secularism’, for which he was the last citizen to be convicted for blasphemy in England.
Khem Chand and the renowned engineer and philanthropist Sir Ganga Ram (founder of the two famous Ganga Ram Hospitals, in Lahore in 1921 and Delhi in 1954) together created Model Town. As a child, I would hear these stories from my father, also a lawyer, connecting his surroundings with his profession and middle-class dynamism. The importance of Model Town is such that it became the 20th-century standard for urban living in Pakistan. In every city in the country, you can find a Model Town or its close relative. As Ranjana Sengupta writes, “Many of the elements of Model Town, Lahore, were followed in the colonies that came up in post-1947 Delhi, including one also named Model Town.” Lahore and its trends can be infectious.
But this suburban delight was not the Lahore with which my grandmother was acquainted. She called it a jungle, and returned to the walled city on any given pretext. The journey involved a bus ride, hopping tongas and walking along the ancient streets of surreal Old Lahore. I would accompany her on each of these visits. We would move through the gates of Old Lahore, which sported no signage or self-conscious tourism-promotion gimmickry. Rather, passing through these gates was entering into a domain of lived history. And this is what Lahore remains – a lived and a living city.
Under the early Sultans of Delhi, especially during the 11th and 12fth centuries, Lahore assumed considerable importance as the easternmost bastion of Muslim power, and an outpost for further advance toward the riches of the East. Apart from being the second capital, and later the only capital, of the Ghaznavid kingdom, Lahore had great military and strategic significance: whoever controlled it could look forward to sweeping the whole of East Punjab to Panipat and Delhi. Long known as ‘Little Ghazni’, Lahore attracted mystics and scholars from Central Asia. Ali Hajweri (who died in 1077), also known as Data Saheb, was one such luminary of that age, whose primal book Kashf-al-Mahjub (the Unveiling of the Hidden) remains an authentic treatise on an Islamic variant of mysticism, and whose shrine is today busier than ever.
My Old Lahore visits were never complete without a salaam to the great saint, and this habitual halt continues even three decades later. The value of Kashf-al-Mahjub lies not only in the experiential accounts of contemporary mystic orders, but also in the fact that it is a seminal, systematic exposition of personalised mysticism. Over time, Kashf has become a standard textbook for Sufis. In popular lore, Ali Hajweri is also the protector of Lahore. During the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, many a Lahori attributed the city’s survival to the saint, and to his fantastic ability to catch Indian bombs in his green fakiresque robes.
Mughal dream
It is not that Lahore did not face devastation during what is commonly known as the ‘medieval’ ages. The fearless Mongols were there to inject fear into the Lahore-walla, and in 1241, during the chaos following the death of Sultan Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, the Mongols attacked and levelled the city. Thousands were killed. Lahore was a desolate place until Sultan Balban, who, after 1270, restored the fortifications of Lahore and proceeded to rebuild the city. True, the sultans were more focused on Delhi as the Islamicate capital, with Lahore being only a strategic outpost to be protected. However, the walled city lived on and expanded.
During the early 16th century, the victory of Babur and the defeat of the last sultan, Ibrahim Lodhi, ushered in a new era in Indian history. Babur captured Lahore in 1524, before he was proclaimed emperor of India. This was the beginning of Lahore’s expansion and beautification, much of which can be seen today – notwithstanding the population explosion and atmospheric pollution that seem to put the Mongol threats of yore to shame. The prime of Mughal rule – from 1524 to 1752 – and the special attention by Mughal emperors, particularly Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan, transformed Lahore into the ultimate representation of Mughal aesthetics. For the two centuries following the ascension of Akbar in 1556, Lahore was a Mughal dream translated into architecture. Little wonder the adulation with which the English poet John Milton wrote in 1670:
His eyes might there command whatever stood
City of old or modern fame, the seat
Of mightiest empire, from the destined walls
Of Cambalu, seat of Cathian Can,
And Samarcand by Oxus, Temir’s throne,
To Paquin of Sinaen Kings, and thence
To Agra and Lahore of Great Mogul…
The Delhi-obsession of the Muslim rulers of India was interrupted when Akbar made Lahore his capital from 1584 to 1598. The majestic Lahore Fort was rebuilt, next to the Ravi River, and the urban habitation was enclosed within a red brick wall boasting a dozen gates. Jahangir and Shah Jahan further extended the fort, building palaces and tombs, and laying out gardens, among which only the Shalimar Gardens survive today in their unkempt glory. Jahangir loved Lahore, and he and his wife, Noor Jahan, chose to be buried at Shahdara, on the outskirts of Lahore. The tomb of Jehangir and Noor Jahan is today a majestic and melancholic monument.
Shah Jahan, the most extravagant of the Mughals, was born in Lahore, and his eldest son, Dara Shikoh, also found the city enticing. Dara was a popular figure in Lahore, and it was there that he found his spiritual mentor, Mian Mir (also buried in Lahore). Dara’s nemesis and Shah Jahan’s successor, Aurangzeb (1658-1707), bestowed on Lahore its most famous monument, the Badshahi mosque and the Alamgiri gateway to the Fort. Even during the anarchy that followed Mughal rule, Lahore remained a city with a formidable reputation; under Sikh rule, from 1780 to 1846, it was popularly referred to as the ‘Mughal capital’.
It took almost a century for the British to move towards the Punjab, from their foothold in Bengal. The annexation of the Punjab in 1849, and the successful control of the 1857 uprising in many parts of North India, resulted in the consolidation of the British Empire. Due to its strategic location, the Punjab was subsequently central to the architecture of the colonial power. Lahore was to become a major outpost of the empire in the ‘Great Game’ that continues to be played out in Afghanistan, as the sahibs ventured to create social and cultural spaces for themselves in otherwise unfriendly and unfamiliar surroundings.
The earliest signs of colonial Lahore are found within the Lawrence Gardens (baptised the Bagh-i-Jinnah following Independence), representing the quintessential Raj ethos. Built primarily for the sahibs and memsahibs, the park has managed to maintain its dreamlike beauty for a century and a half, with halls and pavilions that play on the nostalgia for ‘home’. A garden in the heart of British Lahore was essential. True to the colonial policy, the new garden was a continuation of the Mughal tradition of creating baghs as the aesthetic expression of self-indulgence. This project also reflected the expanse of the British Empire. Thousands of saplings of various exotic species were imported from colonies around the world, and by 1860, the gardens were set up as a Lahore version of the famous Kew Garden in London. During chilly winters and unbearable summers, for years I have walked in the Lawrence Gardens. Indeed, my fondest memories of Lahore are in one way or another linked to this splendid park. Whenever I have wanted to hear the sound of trees, I have not been disappointed.
The contemporary core of Lahore’s architecture and spaces are rooted in the British period, with a marked emphasis on the brick-based Anglo-Mughal architecture style, a combination of the Mughal, Gothic and Victorian. The famous Young Men’s Christian Association and General Post Office buildings of Lahore were built to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria, an event marked by the construction of clock towers and monuments all over the Subcontinent. This was also a time when institutions were intrinsically linked to their buildings – such as the High Court, Government College, Forman Christian College, Lahore Museum, Governor House, National College of Arts, Tollinton Market, Punjab Assembly and the old campus of Punjab University. The latter was once considered the largest centre of education in Asia.
The ‘Paris of the East’ had already emerged as a cosmopolitan and cultural capital of British Punjab, where poets such as Iqbal and artists such as Amrita Shergil, as well as future writers like Khushwant Singh, Amrita Pritam, Saadat Hasan Manto and Faiz Ahmed Faiz were all to emerge. But the multicultural spirit of Lahore was to be ruptured by Partition. In the new state of Pakistan, Lahore therefore became ‘provincialised’, while the large-scale exodus of non-Muslims inevitably worked to limit the city’s secular credentials.
Layers and layers
I studied at Aitchison College, known as Lahore’s top college and one that had the dubious distinction of aiming to educate the relatives of the ruling chiefs of the Punjab. Aitchison’s foundation stone was laid in 1886 by the then-viceroy, the Earl of Dufferin and Ava, and it was named after the then-lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, Charles Umpherston Aitchison. During my years at Aitchison, the quality of the academics remained at best tentative, but its sprawling 186-acre campus was a veritable treasure trove of the finest Anglo-Mughal buildings. Its tree-lined boulevards and playgrounds still return to me at times in my dreams.
The most memorable of experiences was living in one of the bungalows in the Government Officers’ Residences, known as GOR-1. Located in the centre of Lahore, GOR-1 is to Lahore what the so-called Lutyens bungalows are to Delhi. The verandas, little gardens next to each bedroom, and the fragrance of Lahore’s monsoons and springs, all of these were best experienced in this part of the city. Others will of course have loved where they grew up as well, for each Lahori has his or her own store of memories and attachments. Beyond the annals of history, there are as many Lahores as the number of its residents. This is why those who migrated from Lahore to India after 1947 could not take Lahore out of their system. Khushwant Singh has to reconcile with his memory time and again; his writings replete with Lahore tales. Prem Kirpal, a Lahori migrant to Delhi, wrote these lines to sum it all up:
My beloved City of Lahore
Still standing not far from Delhi
Within quicker reach by air or train,
Suddenly became a forbidden land
Guarded by a sovereign state
Of new ideologies, loves and hates
Kirpal’s poem is befittingly titled “Spirit’s Musings”. A spirit will break free of limits. These individuals were not locating their selves in the politics of Partition per se; this was the personal that gets submerged in the cruel and indifferent political.
It was in Lahore that I met the Indian writer and former diplomat Pran Neville. He was there to launch his own book on Lahore, titled A Sentimental Journey. It was a monsoon evening, heavy and similar to the weather on the day when his family packed their bags for Delhi. Unusually fit and active for a man who had lived over seven decades, he appeared timeless. Sitting in Lahore, he walked various paths and cities in his conversation. Having travelled the world as a foreign-service officer, Neville had concluded that foremost, he was a Lahore native. In a conversation, he declared, “In a way I never left Lahore, because it was always with me. I am an un-reconstructed Lahori, you could say, who never thought he would live anywhere else.”
When riots shook Lahore in July 1947, Neville’s siblings moved to Delhi, but his parents were reluctant to migrate. Finally, persuaded by their Muslim friends, his parents also left, though with a fantastic certitude that they would return after the dust settled. That has been one of the foremost tragedies of Partition: many who left in the flurry of events were convinced they would return some day to their homes, villages and cities. This was never to happen. The lines instead got thicker on the canvas of history.
Today, in Delhi, Neville leads a group composed of Lahore’s former residents, who meet regularly and share memories of a city that lives on within them. Memory needs a playground, seeks indulgence and reconciliation. Pran Neville, Ajeet Caur and Khushwant Singh, in Delhi, try to inject some order into the chaos of their ruptured memories. Yet in many ways, Lahore remains one of the most invisible and underappreciated cities in the region. The journalist Simon Jenkins once wrote: “For centuries the Grand Trunk Road from Delhi through Punjab carried the history of the subcontinent streaming beneath the walls of Lahore. But while India is at least fighting to rescue what remains of its past, Lahore is left to languish.”
Despite the appearance of neglect for its monuments, however, Lahore’s upkeep has not been all that bad, by Southasian standards. Under the former chief minister of Punjab and later prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, Lahore found a new builder. Sharif’s interest in and fondness for Lahore has been given continuity by his efficient younger brother, Shahbaz, now twice the Punjab chief minister. The upgrading of infrastructure and serious (though admittedly ad hoc) attempts at urban planning has ensured that Lahore’s untrammelled growth does not become a nightmare. But no amount of goodwill can hide the fact that this wondrous city is one of the most polluted in the region.
It is a separate matter that one of the most robust citizen-led urban mobilisations in Pakistan during recent years has been the lahore bacaho tehreek, the Movement to Save Lahore. Saving the trees along Lahore’s canal, which cuts across the urban jungle, has been the focus of this movement, though it also laid the foundation for the 2007 lawyers’ struggle for rule of law in the country.
Other groups, such as a spectrum of conservation associations, likewise testify to the electric zest of Lahoris. Indeed, since the inception of Pakistan, Lahore has been a nerve centre of political mobilisation and public opinion. I am reminded of writer S Asad Raza’s evocative lines:
The world in general has few cities that interweave so seamlessly a great vitality today (the city is about the twenty-fifth largest on the globe) with an unbroken and luxurious history (spanning the last two millennia). Only in Lahore do you find the sepulchre of the legendary Anarkali, the star-crossed dancing girl buried alive for her love of the young prince Salim (the film Mughal-e-Azam is a version), inside the dusty Archives of the Punjab Secretariat, which was a mosque that the British whitewashed, and is now decorated with portraits of British colonial governors. Layers and layers: it’s that kind of place.
When a city delineates the cultural and political contours of a country, and handles the conflicting layers of past and present, it has to be out of the ordinary. And this is why Lahoris love to say: Lahore, Lahore aye.
This was first published in Himal Magazine’s October issue
Raza Rumi is a writer. He blogs at www.razarumi.com and edits a cyber magazine, Pak Tea House, and the Lahore Nama blog-zine.
Later records, such as Ptolemy’s “Geographia”, written around 150 AD, refer to Lahore as ‘Labokla’, and locate it with reference to the Indus, the Ravi, the Jhelum and the Chenab rivers. Another readable account from the past is that of Hieun Tsang, the famous Chinese pilgrim who visited Lahore during the early seventh century AD. He described it as a large Brahminical city – mullahs beware! There is many a contradiction within these accounts, of course, but the important point is that Lahore was not built yesterday. Its ancient moorings explain its indomitable will, ability to survive the upheavals of time, and an innate life beyond the limits of recorded histories, fancy notions of urbanity and cultural evolution. Lahore is also about its centuries of residents. The mystique of the city thus is a personalised experience, as if a city were in permanent dialogue with its residents even while speaking to a newcomer.
Little Ghazni
I spent my early years in a Model Town colonial bungalow, which was originally the creation of a Hindu doctor who had to leave the city at Partition. This was an age when birds were an integral feature of Lahori skies, and the seasons played out their glory. As the name suggests, Model Town was an ‘ideal’ suburb, created during the Raj by the advanced citizenry on the idea of ‘cooperative urban life’. Established in 1922, Model Town was the fruition of advocate Diwan Khem Chand’s unshakeable belief in the values of self help, self responsibility and democracy, loosely the principles of cooperative societies. This was the reason why Model Town was established as, and still is, a ‘cooperative society’. What fewer people know is that these values of cooperation were first popularised by George Jacob Holyoake, a 19th-century English social reformer responsible for the cooperative movement. Incidentally, Holyoake was also infamous for the distinction of having invented the phrase ’secularism’, for which he was the last citizen to be convicted for blasphemy in England.
Khem Chand and the renowned engineer and philanthropist Sir Ganga Ram (founder of the two famous Ganga Ram Hospitals, in Lahore in 1921 and Delhi in 1954) together created Model Town. As a child, I would hear these stories from my father, also a lawyer, connecting his surroundings with his profession and middle-class dynamism. The importance of Model Town is such that it became the 20th-century standard for urban living in Pakistan. In every city in the country, you can find a Model Town or its close relative. As Ranjana Sengupta writes, “Many of the elements of Model Town, Lahore, were followed in the colonies that came up in post-1947 Delhi, including one also named Model Town.” Lahore and its trends can be infectious.
But this suburban delight was not the Lahore with which my grandmother was acquainted. She called it a jungle, and returned to the walled city on any given pretext. The journey involved a bus ride, hopping tongas and walking along the ancient streets of surreal Old Lahore. I would accompany her on each of these visits. We would move through the gates of Old Lahore, which sported no signage or self-conscious tourism-promotion gimmickry. Rather, passing through these gates was entering into a domain of lived history. And this is what Lahore remains – a lived and a living city.
Under the early Sultans of Delhi, especially during the 11th and 12fth centuries, Lahore assumed considerable importance as the easternmost bastion of Muslim power, and an outpost for further advance toward the riches of the East. Apart from being the second capital, and later the only capital, of the Ghaznavid kingdom, Lahore had great military and strategic significance: whoever controlled it could look forward to sweeping the whole of East Punjab to Panipat and Delhi. Long known as ‘Little Ghazni’, Lahore attracted mystics and scholars from Central Asia. Ali Hajweri (who died in 1077), also known as Data Saheb, was one such luminary of that age, whose primal book Kashf-al-Mahjub (the Unveiling of the Hidden) remains an authentic treatise on an Islamic variant of mysticism, and whose shrine is today busier than ever.
My Old Lahore visits were never complete without a salaam to the great saint, and this habitual halt continues even three decades later. The value of Kashf-al-Mahjub lies not only in the experiential accounts of contemporary mystic orders, but also in the fact that it is a seminal, systematic exposition of personalised mysticism. Over time, Kashf has become a standard textbook for Sufis. In popular lore, Ali Hajweri is also the protector of Lahore. During the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, many a Lahori attributed the city’s survival to the saint, and to his fantastic ability to catch Indian bombs in his green fakiresque robes.
Mughal dream
It is not that Lahore did not face devastation during what is commonly known as the ‘medieval’ ages. The fearless Mongols were there to inject fear into the Lahore-walla, and in 1241, during the chaos following the death of Sultan Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, the Mongols attacked and levelled the city. Thousands were killed. Lahore was a desolate place until Sultan Balban, who, after 1270, restored the fortifications of Lahore and proceeded to rebuild the city. True, the sultans were more focused on Delhi as the Islamicate capital, with Lahore being only a strategic outpost to be protected. However, the walled city lived on and expanded.
During the early 16th century, the victory of Babur and the defeat of the last sultan, Ibrahim Lodhi, ushered in a new era in Indian history. Babur captured Lahore in 1524, before he was proclaimed emperor of India. This was the beginning of Lahore’s expansion and beautification, much of which can be seen today – notwithstanding the population explosion and atmospheric pollution that seem to put the Mongol threats of yore to shame. The prime of Mughal rule – from 1524 to 1752 – and the special attention by Mughal emperors, particularly Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan, transformed Lahore into the ultimate representation of Mughal aesthetics. For the two centuries following the ascension of Akbar in 1556, Lahore was a Mughal dream translated into architecture. Little wonder the adulation with which the English poet John Milton wrote in 1670:
His eyes might there command whatever stood
City of old or modern fame, the seat
Of mightiest empire, from the destined walls
Of Cambalu, seat of Cathian Can,
And Samarcand by Oxus, Temir’s throne,
To Paquin of Sinaen Kings, and thence
To Agra and Lahore of Great Mogul…
The Delhi-obsession of the Muslim rulers of India was interrupted when Akbar made Lahore his capital from 1584 to 1598. The majestic Lahore Fort was rebuilt, next to the Ravi River, and the urban habitation was enclosed within a red brick wall boasting a dozen gates. Jahangir and Shah Jahan further extended the fort, building palaces and tombs, and laying out gardens, among which only the Shalimar Gardens survive today in their unkempt glory. Jahangir loved Lahore, and he and his wife, Noor Jahan, chose to be buried at Shahdara, on the outskirts of Lahore. The tomb of Jehangir and Noor Jahan is today a majestic and melancholic monument.
Shah Jahan, the most extravagant of the Mughals, was born in Lahore, and his eldest son, Dara Shikoh, also found the city enticing. Dara was a popular figure in Lahore, and it was there that he found his spiritual mentor, Mian Mir (also buried in Lahore). Dara’s nemesis and Shah Jahan’s successor, Aurangzeb (1658-1707), bestowed on Lahore its most famous monument, the Badshahi mosque and the Alamgiri gateway to the Fort. Even during the anarchy that followed Mughal rule, Lahore remained a city with a formidable reputation; under Sikh rule, from 1780 to 1846, it was popularly referred to as the ‘Mughal capital’.
It took almost a century for the British to move towards the Punjab, from their foothold in Bengal. The annexation of the Punjab in 1849, and the successful control of the 1857 uprising in many parts of North India, resulted in the consolidation of the British Empire. Due to its strategic location, the Punjab was subsequently central to the architecture of the colonial power. Lahore was to become a major outpost of the empire in the ‘Great Game’ that continues to be played out in Afghanistan, as the sahibs ventured to create social and cultural spaces for themselves in otherwise unfriendly and unfamiliar surroundings.
The earliest signs of colonial Lahore are found within the Lawrence Gardens (baptised the Bagh-i-Jinnah following Independence), representing the quintessential Raj ethos. Built primarily for the sahibs and memsahibs, the park has managed to maintain its dreamlike beauty for a century and a half, with halls and pavilions that play on the nostalgia for ‘home’. A garden in the heart of British Lahore was essential. True to the colonial policy, the new garden was a continuation of the Mughal tradition of creating baghs as the aesthetic expression of self-indulgence. This project also reflected the expanse of the British Empire. Thousands of saplings of various exotic species were imported from colonies around the world, and by 1860, the gardens were set up as a Lahore version of the famous Kew Garden in London. During chilly winters and unbearable summers, for years I have walked in the Lawrence Gardens. Indeed, my fondest memories of Lahore are in one way or another linked to this splendid park. Whenever I have wanted to hear the sound of trees, I have not been disappointed.
The contemporary core of Lahore’s architecture and spaces are rooted in the British period, with a marked emphasis on the brick-based Anglo-Mughal architecture style, a combination of the Mughal, Gothic and Victorian. The famous Young Men’s Christian Association and General Post Office buildings of Lahore were built to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria, an event marked by the construction of clock towers and monuments all over the Subcontinent. This was also a time when institutions were intrinsically linked to their buildings – such as the High Court, Government College, Forman Christian College, Lahore Museum, Governor House, National College of Arts, Tollinton Market, Punjab Assembly and the old campus of Punjab University. The latter was once considered the largest centre of education in Asia.
The ‘Paris of the East’ had already emerged as a cosmopolitan and cultural capital of British Punjab, where poets such as Iqbal and artists such as Amrita Shergil, as well as future writers like Khushwant Singh, Amrita Pritam, Saadat Hasan Manto and Faiz Ahmed Faiz were all to emerge. But the multicultural spirit of Lahore was to be ruptured by Partition. In the new state of Pakistan, Lahore therefore became ‘provincialised’, while the large-scale exodus of non-Muslims inevitably worked to limit the city’s secular credentials.
Layers and layers
I studied at Aitchison College, known as Lahore’s top college and one that had the dubious distinction of aiming to educate the relatives of the ruling chiefs of the Punjab. Aitchison’s foundation stone was laid in 1886 by the then-viceroy, the Earl of Dufferin and Ava, and it was named after the then-lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, Charles Umpherston Aitchison. During my years at Aitchison, the quality of the academics remained at best tentative, but its sprawling 186-acre campus was a veritable treasure trove of the finest Anglo-Mughal buildings. Its tree-lined boulevards and playgrounds still return to me at times in my dreams.
The most memorable of experiences was living in one of the bungalows in the Government Officers’ Residences, known as GOR-1. Located in the centre of Lahore, GOR-1 is to Lahore what the so-called Lutyens bungalows are to Delhi. The verandas, little gardens next to each bedroom, and the fragrance of Lahore’s monsoons and springs, all of these were best experienced in this part of the city. Others will of course have loved where they grew up as well, for each Lahori has his or her own store of memories and attachments. Beyond the annals of history, there are as many Lahores as the number of its residents. This is why those who migrated from Lahore to India after 1947 could not take Lahore out of their system. Khushwant Singh has to reconcile with his memory time and again; his writings replete with Lahore tales. Prem Kirpal, a Lahori migrant to Delhi, wrote these lines to sum it all up:
My beloved City of Lahore
Still standing not far from Delhi
Within quicker reach by air or train,
Suddenly became a forbidden land
Guarded by a sovereign state
Of new ideologies, loves and hates
Kirpal’s poem is befittingly titled “Spirit’s Musings”. A spirit will break free of limits. These individuals were not locating their selves in the politics of Partition per se; this was the personal that gets submerged in the cruel and indifferent political.
It was in Lahore that I met the Indian writer and former diplomat Pran Neville. He was there to launch his own book on Lahore, titled A Sentimental Journey. It was a monsoon evening, heavy and similar to the weather on the day when his family packed their bags for Delhi. Unusually fit and active for a man who had lived over seven decades, he appeared timeless. Sitting in Lahore, he walked various paths and cities in his conversation. Having travelled the world as a foreign-service officer, Neville had concluded that foremost, he was a Lahore native. In a conversation, he declared, “In a way I never left Lahore, because it was always with me. I am an un-reconstructed Lahori, you could say, who never thought he would live anywhere else.”
When riots shook Lahore in July 1947, Neville’s siblings moved to Delhi, but his parents were reluctant to migrate. Finally, persuaded by their Muslim friends, his parents also left, though with a fantastic certitude that they would return after the dust settled. That has been one of the foremost tragedies of Partition: many who left in the flurry of events were convinced they would return some day to their homes, villages and cities. This was never to happen. The lines instead got thicker on the canvas of history.
Today, in Delhi, Neville leads a group composed of Lahore’s former residents, who meet regularly and share memories of a city that lives on within them. Memory needs a playground, seeks indulgence and reconciliation. Pran Neville, Ajeet Caur and Khushwant Singh, in Delhi, try to inject some order into the chaos of their ruptured memories. Yet in many ways, Lahore remains one of the most invisible and underappreciated cities in the region. The journalist Simon Jenkins once wrote: “For centuries the Grand Trunk Road from Delhi through Punjab carried the history of the subcontinent streaming beneath the walls of Lahore. But while India is at least fighting to rescue what remains of its past, Lahore is left to languish.”
Despite the appearance of neglect for its monuments, however, Lahore’s upkeep has not been all that bad, by Southasian standards. Under the former chief minister of Punjab and later prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, Lahore found a new builder. Sharif’s interest in and fondness for Lahore has been given continuity by his efficient younger brother, Shahbaz, now twice the Punjab chief minister. The upgrading of infrastructure and serious (though admittedly ad hoc) attempts at urban planning has ensured that Lahore’s untrammelled growth does not become a nightmare. But no amount of goodwill can hide the fact that this wondrous city is one of the most polluted in the region.
It is a separate matter that one of the most robust citizen-led urban mobilisations in Pakistan during recent years has been the lahore bacaho tehreek, the Movement to Save Lahore. Saving the trees along Lahore’s canal, which cuts across the urban jungle, has been the focus of this movement, though it also laid the foundation for the 2007 lawyers’ struggle for rule of law in the country.
Other groups, such as a spectrum of conservation associations, likewise testify to the electric zest of Lahoris. Indeed, since the inception of Pakistan, Lahore has been a nerve centre of political mobilisation and public opinion. I am reminded of writer S Asad Raza’s evocative lines:
The world in general has few cities that interweave so seamlessly a great vitality today (the city is about the twenty-fifth largest on the globe) with an unbroken and luxurious history (spanning the last two millennia). Only in Lahore do you find the sepulchre of the legendary Anarkali, the star-crossed dancing girl buried alive for her love of the young prince Salim (the film Mughal-e-Azam is a version), inside the dusty Archives of the Punjab Secretariat, which was a mosque that the British whitewashed, and is now decorated with portraits of British colonial governors. Layers and layers: it’s that kind of place.
When a city delineates the cultural and political contours of a country, and handles the conflicting layers of past and present, it has to be out of the ordinary. And this is why Lahoris love to say: Lahore, Lahore aye.
This was first published in Himal Magazine’s October issue
Raza Rumi is a writer. He blogs at www.razarumi.com and edits a cyber magazine, Pak Tea House, and the Lahore Nama blog-zine.
Advocacy of Change
Anwar Syed
Optimistic about human ingenuity and creativity, the liberal disposition is not reluctant to change its surroundings because it believes that the existing order of things can be replaced by more satisfactory arrangements.
The conservative, on the other hand, believes that the status quo has resulted from the exertions of uncounted generations, each having built on the accomplishments of its predecessors. It cannot be replaced by a given set of individuals. If something has broken down, he will tinker with it, fix it, not throw it out.
It is common knowledge that many Americans are sick and tired of their present situation: rising prices, fewer jobs and shrinking wages, want of access to adequate healthcare and quality education, mounting unpaid bills, the danger of losing one’s home because of inability to make mortgage payments. Many millions of people in this country, presumably the richest in the world, do not have enough to eat. This situation has resulted from President Bush’s wrong policies and actions, the war in Iraq which costs $10bn every month, tax cuts for the wealthy and neglect of the majority’s pressing needs. America wants change.
Many political observers believe that, if elected, John McCain, the Republican candidate for president and a firm conservative, may make some peripheral changes but will for the most part retain Bush’s socio-economic outlook and policies. Mr McCain and his supporters want to dispel this image and insist that he is not another Bush. His running mate, Sarah Palin, has been calling him a change-maker, indeed a “maverick”. But this claim does not have many takers.
McCain, convinced that the free market economy is superior to other systems, will let it take its course without letting the government come in its way. He will reduce taxes on the wealthy on the reasoning that this will enable them to expand existing enterprises and establish new ones, all of which will create many new jobs. He will leave it to each individual to provide for his retirement, healthcare and education with minimal contribution from his employer or the government. He thinks this is upholding freedom of choice.
If elected, Barack Obama, a liberal and the Democratic candidate, is likely to make significant departures from President Bush’s dispensation. He will work to raise taxes on the wealthy and lower them for small businesses and middle-class individuals, extend health insurance to all Americans, improve public schools and make college education affordable for all those who want it, develop new sources of energy, build infrastructure, encourage local manufacturing of hybrid automobiles, withdraw troops from Iraq within a specified period of time, fight and defeat Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan and, if necessary, in Pakistan’s tribal regions, and open talks with heads of foreign governments currently opposed to America (such as Iran’s).
He favours government regulation of the economy to keep the barons of commerce and industry from exploiting their workers and robbing consumers, and to check reckless operations of the kind that have brought on the current financial crisis. He will extend regulation to all those domains where the public interest requires it.
Predictions of election results can go wrong. I remember that on the presidential election day in America in November 1948, pollsters, newspapers and radio stations expected Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, the Republican nominee, to be the winner. But after the vote count had been completed later that night, it transpired that President Harry Truman was going to remain in office for another four years.
Polls show that Obama is ahead of McCain. It is conceivable that a majority of voters will act contrary to the general expectation, but the likelihood is that Obama will be declared the winner on the evening of Nov 4. Some advances in bringing about the changes he has been promising may then be made. This will require enabling legislation which is the province of Congress. If the coming elections return a Democratic majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Congress will probably provide the needed legislative support. America will then be a nicer place to belong to and live in.
Change denoting something new should be distinguished from reform that comes from making the existing arrangements work more effectively. In a place like Pakistan both systemic change and reform are needed. The police and numerous other enforcement agencies are already in place and so is the relevant legislation. But domestic security and tranquillity are nowhere to be found because the law enforcers are not doing their job. They are incompetent, lazy, poorly paid or otherwise unmotivated to make the necessary exertions.
The same holds for all other departments of public affairs. Let us, for further illustration, take the case of our ‘sovereign’ parliament whose members have been insisting that they should be the ones to settle all major issues of policy. The two houses were recently called to a joint session to consider the grave threat to national security posed by extremists and militants and tell the government how to deal with it. They met for a number of days, heard a briefing from a general and another from Ms Sherry Rehman, the minister for information.
The opposition members complained that the briefings did not tell them anything they did not already know from reading the newspapers. But they did not say what it was that they wanted to know. On most of the days after the briefings the great majority of parliamentarians stayed away from the house. Over and over again the speaker had to adjourn the proceedings because less than 60 or so of the 442 members of the joint session were present. This state of affairs may have given outsiders the impression that parliament had no interest in being sovereign.
Beyond the more effective working of existing arrangements, there is the matter of making systemic changes. The parliamentary system of government is generally accepted. Remaining within its bounds, one may argue that the Senate should have the same authority and power as does the National Assembly. Then there is the persistent demand for provincial autonomy. All political parties endorse it but none of them has ever done anything to implement it when in power. The culture of Pakistani politicians does not require them to actually do what they have been pronouncing desirable. Those in the ruling elite do not want to be change-makers because the status quo suits their personal and class interests.
The writer is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts.
Optimistic about human ingenuity and creativity, the liberal disposition is not reluctant to change its surroundings because it believes that the existing order of things can be replaced by more satisfactory arrangements.
The conservative, on the other hand, believes that the status quo has resulted from the exertions of uncounted generations, each having built on the accomplishments of its predecessors. It cannot be replaced by a given set of individuals. If something has broken down, he will tinker with it, fix it, not throw it out.
It is common knowledge that many Americans are sick and tired of their present situation: rising prices, fewer jobs and shrinking wages, want of access to adequate healthcare and quality education, mounting unpaid bills, the danger of losing one’s home because of inability to make mortgage payments. Many millions of people in this country, presumably the richest in the world, do not have enough to eat. This situation has resulted from President Bush’s wrong policies and actions, the war in Iraq which costs $10bn every month, tax cuts for the wealthy and neglect of the majority’s pressing needs. America wants change.
Many political observers believe that, if elected, John McCain, the Republican candidate for president and a firm conservative, may make some peripheral changes but will for the most part retain Bush’s socio-economic outlook and policies. Mr McCain and his supporters want to dispel this image and insist that he is not another Bush. His running mate, Sarah Palin, has been calling him a change-maker, indeed a “maverick”. But this claim does not have many takers.
McCain, convinced that the free market economy is superior to other systems, will let it take its course without letting the government come in its way. He will reduce taxes on the wealthy on the reasoning that this will enable them to expand existing enterprises and establish new ones, all of which will create many new jobs. He will leave it to each individual to provide for his retirement, healthcare and education with minimal contribution from his employer or the government. He thinks this is upholding freedom of choice.
If elected, Barack Obama, a liberal and the Democratic candidate, is likely to make significant departures from President Bush’s dispensation. He will work to raise taxes on the wealthy and lower them for small businesses and middle-class individuals, extend health insurance to all Americans, improve public schools and make college education affordable for all those who want it, develop new sources of energy, build infrastructure, encourage local manufacturing of hybrid automobiles, withdraw troops from Iraq within a specified period of time, fight and defeat Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan and, if necessary, in Pakistan’s tribal regions, and open talks with heads of foreign governments currently opposed to America (such as Iran’s).
He favours government regulation of the economy to keep the barons of commerce and industry from exploiting their workers and robbing consumers, and to check reckless operations of the kind that have brought on the current financial crisis. He will extend regulation to all those domains where the public interest requires it.
Predictions of election results can go wrong. I remember that on the presidential election day in America in November 1948, pollsters, newspapers and radio stations expected Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, the Republican nominee, to be the winner. But after the vote count had been completed later that night, it transpired that President Harry Truman was going to remain in office for another four years.
Polls show that Obama is ahead of McCain. It is conceivable that a majority of voters will act contrary to the general expectation, but the likelihood is that Obama will be declared the winner on the evening of Nov 4. Some advances in bringing about the changes he has been promising may then be made. This will require enabling legislation which is the province of Congress. If the coming elections return a Democratic majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Congress will probably provide the needed legislative support. America will then be a nicer place to belong to and live in.
Change denoting something new should be distinguished from reform that comes from making the existing arrangements work more effectively. In a place like Pakistan both systemic change and reform are needed. The police and numerous other enforcement agencies are already in place and so is the relevant legislation. But domestic security and tranquillity are nowhere to be found because the law enforcers are not doing their job. They are incompetent, lazy, poorly paid or otherwise unmotivated to make the necessary exertions.
The same holds for all other departments of public affairs. Let us, for further illustration, take the case of our ‘sovereign’ parliament whose members have been insisting that they should be the ones to settle all major issues of policy. The two houses were recently called to a joint session to consider the grave threat to national security posed by extremists and militants and tell the government how to deal with it. They met for a number of days, heard a briefing from a general and another from Ms Sherry Rehman, the minister for information.
The opposition members complained that the briefings did not tell them anything they did not already know from reading the newspapers. But they did not say what it was that they wanted to know. On most of the days after the briefings the great majority of parliamentarians stayed away from the house. Over and over again the speaker had to adjourn the proceedings because less than 60 or so of the 442 members of the joint session were present. This state of affairs may have given outsiders the impression that parliament had no interest in being sovereign.
Beyond the more effective working of existing arrangements, there is the matter of making systemic changes. The parliamentary system of government is generally accepted. Remaining within its bounds, one may argue that the Senate should have the same authority and power as does the National Assembly. Then there is the persistent demand for provincial autonomy. All political parties endorse it but none of them has ever done anything to implement it when in power. The culture of Pakistani politicians does not require them to actually do what they have been pronouncing desirable. Those in the ruling elite do not want to be change-makers because the status quo suits their personal and class interests.
The writer is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts.
woH chootA sA allaaR sA larkA kahaN?
There are lessons in the first landscapes of every one's life. Mine was a vista of green paddy fields, smoking with Salt Range mist, against a setting of ribbon of River Jhelum which from distance looked like a shore of another land altogether. The rough, rugged hill range appeared uninviting against a sky withering with the morning, interrupted by the dawn's red and blue brush strokes. My first learning in life was also in the village.
In villages, people still live without assessable roads or other civic amenities of this modern age. No telephone or the Internet, even the electricity is the recent phenomenon; some are still without it. You see one village and you have seen all. This was the setting where I spent first twenty year of my life savouring the freedom of adulthood. It is where I decided what (and how) I wanted to do with life. It is where my mother, brothers and friends live. It is where I return whenever my active life allows me to. It is where I want to settle and spend my future.
My village is awe inspiring -- pollution free and quiet. Different shades and colours of waving crops and trees - solitary, in groves or avenues - beautify the landscape. The scene changes after the harvest. The air is always fresh and fragrant with the smell of earth. The only sound is singing of birds, ringing of cowbells and sighing of wind or some youth loudly singing Heer Waris Shah, Sassi Punun or Mirza Saheban at night. One sees butterflies fluttering, ladybirds creeping and squirrels jumping around. To me the place feels like a paradise.
My roots are in the village where no body seems to be in a hurry. Every time I go there, from the different cities where I happen to be living, I take small things like candies and toys for the kids of neighbours and my family in the village and they are so happy that the words cannot explain their delight. From the village I bring everything, and more than every thing I bring lot of love.
Every one comes to see me whenever I go to the village. They ask about the welfare of my wife. They ask about the education of my children: "what classes they are in? How are they growing? When are they coming to the village? Do they remember us? Must bring them next time." These are the commonest questions I have to answer to every chacha (uncle) and massi (aunt) -- that is how I address the village folks.
"I help my neighbours and my neighbours help me", is the philosophy of life in our village. Faith, sharing, contentment, grit, hard work and humour are few others. There are no marriage halls or other renting places. Daras (community centres where cultural diffusion takes place) are very useful 'institutions' for functions or for elders to sit and teach irreplaceable heritage of ideas to the younger generation. The learning that passed on to me in Dara turned out to be very precious: it was the legacy of the fable. Tandoor (Oven for backing bread) is still a meeting and talking place for women.
Guests of one family are shared by ever one at the time of marriage (or death). Hospitality is like one of the cultural benchmark, as villagers strongly believe that a guest comes with the blessings of Allah Almighty. Pull a hay cart into the shad, to rest, to dream. You shall be served with hookka (Hubbell-bubble), water and food. Cooing crows are still considered as a symbol for the arrival of guests in my village.
From our village, a group of seven students used to go to nearby town for attending school (and then college). Ghulam Muhammad was my buddy in the group. After completing the education, my dreams become out of control and took me on the darker roads of the life whereas Ghulam Muhammad, equipped with degree from Faisalabd Agricultural University, started progressive farming in the same village. He was a hardworking, gentleman, economically very sound and ambitious. Ghulam Mohammed's father soon started getting proposals for the marriage of his son from many wealthy landlord families of the area. But, my friend married his cousin: uneducated daughter of one of his poorest uncles and is living happily ever since. Village society is still simple, cohesive and based on similarities.
This time when I was coming back from the village, lot of people - family members, peers and neighbours - came to see me off as always. My mother had packed my vehicle with vegetables (fresh from the farm), palsies, atta (floor), and husked rice and even live chickens. Every body was advising me to consume every thing back in the city, as "they are fresh, pure, nutritious and desi". On my way back, a question kept coming in my mind: how much time this simple society will take to become complex and when will 'development' change the outlook of the villagers to life?
A cluster of memories - some overlapping, some isolated - of 'the village boy' I once was stay with me. I am a result of my childhood experiences. After having knocked on all the doors of opportunity that came in my way in life, I still cherish the memories of my village. Which is why I want to settle and spend my future in the village?
In villages, people still live without assessable roads or other civic amenities of this modern age. No telephone or the Internet, even the electricity is the recent phenomenon; some are still without it. You see one village and you have seen all. This was the setting where I spent first twenty year of my life savouring the freedom of adulthood. It is where I decided what (and how) I wanted to do with life. It is where my mother, brothers and friends live. It is where I return whenever my active life allows me to. It is where I want to settle and spend my future.
My village is awe inspiring -- pollution free and quiet. Different shades and colours of waving crops and trees - solitary, in groves or avenues - beautify the landscape. The scene changes after the harvest. The air is always fresh and fragrant with the smell of earth. The only sound is singing of birds, ringing of cowbells and sighing of wind or some youth loudly singing Heer Waris Shah, Sassi Punun or Mirza Saheban at night. One sees butterflies fluttering, ladybirds creeping and squirrels jumping around. To me the place feels like a paradise.
My roots are in the village where no body seems to be in a hurry. Every time I go there, from the different cities where I happen to be living, I take small things like candies and toys for the kids of neighbours and my family in the village and they are so happy that the words cannot explain their delight. From the village I bring everything, and more than every thing I bring lot of love.
Every one comes to see me whenever I go to the village. They ask about the welfare of my wife. They ask about the education of my children: "what classes they are in? How are they growing? When are they coming to the village? Do they remember us? Must bring them next time." These are the commonest questions I have to answer to every chacha (uncle) and massi (aunt) -- that is how I address the village folks.
"I help my neighbours and my neighbours help me", is the philosophy of life in our village. Faith, sharing, contentment, grit, hard work and humour are few others. There are no marriage halls or other renting places. Daras (community centres where cultural diffusion takes place) are very useful 'institutions' for functions or for elders to sit and teach irreplaceable heritage of ideas to the younger generation. The learning that passed on to me in Dara turned out to be very precious: it was the legacy of the fable. Tandoor (Oven for backing bread) is still a meeting and talking place for women.
Guests of one family are shared by ever one at the time of marriage (or death). Hospitality is like one of the cultural benchmark, as villagers strongly believe that a guest comes with the blessings of Allah Almighty. Pull a hay cart into the shad, to rest, to dream. You shall be served with hookka (Hubbell-bubble), water and food. Cooing crows are still considered as a symbol for the arrival of guests in my village.
From our village, a group of seven students used to go to nearby town for attending school (and then college). Ghulam Muhammad was my buddy in the group. After completing the education, my dreams become out of control and took me on the darker roads of the life whereas Ghulam Muhammad, equipped with degree from Faisalabd Agricultural University, started progressive farming in the same village. He was a hardworking, gentleman, economically very sound and ambitious. Ghulam Mohammed's father soon started getting proposals for the marriage of his son from many wealthy landlord families of the area. But, my friend married his cousin: uneducated daughter of one of his poorest uncles and is living happily ever since. Village society is still simple, cohesive and based on similarities.
This time when I was coming back from the village, lot of people - family members, peers and neighbours - came to see me off as always. My mother had packed my vehicle with vegetables (fresh from the farm), palsies, atta (floor), and husked rice and even live chickens. Every body was advising me to consume every thing back in the city, as "they are fresh, pure, nutritious and desi". On my way back, a question kept coming in my mind: how much time this simple society will take to become complex and when will 'development' change the outlook of the villagers to life?
A cluster of memories - some overlapping, some isolated - of 'the village boy' I once was stay with me. I am a result of my childhood experiences. After having knocked on all the doors of opportunity that came in my way in life, I still cherish the memories of my village. Which is why I want to settle and spend my future in the village?
Tags: Village life, Reminiscences
Online Chat Room
Do you want to find likeminded people and chat with them? Visit Online Chat Room at OnlineChatCity.com where you will find people from across the world together in chat room. What is more, create a free account today and start seeing and talking to all of the users on this website today.
What else, look for me when you are there.
What else, look for me when you are there.
Live Better; Longer
Aging is a natural process but thanks to advancements in medical sciences that the process can be slowed and people can improve the quality of live.
Have a look at Welcome to the BodyLogicMD –specialists in bioidentical hormone therapy. BodyLogicMD is a network of highly trained physician-owned practices specializing in natural bioidentical hormone therapy integrated with fitness and nutrition to men and women suffering from hormonal imbalance, menopause and andropause. BodyLogicMD has come a long way since it was founded in 2003.
BodyLogicMD Bioidentical Hormone Therapy Services include a comprehensive review of symptoms, medical, family and personal history, testing – saliva, urine and/or blood laboratory analysis, natural hormone balancing, ongoing evaluations and quality compounded pharmacy. Explore the site and see what they are offering and how they can help you live longer and better. Better still, complete an online, thorough personal, medical and family history questionnaire in the convenience of your home. You will have an initial consultation where you and your BodyLogicMD anti-aging physician will review the questionnaire answers and determine the next steps together. To properly administer bio-identical hormones, your hormone doctor will take select saliva, urine and/or blood lab tests. They will meet with you personally to discuss your symptoms, review your results and discuss the appropriate treatment to meet your individualized needs. Your individualized treatment plan may include a combination of creams, gels, pills, patches, self-injections or pellet therapy. Each treatment plan is customized to your individual needs.
I suggest, you try them and live better; longer.
Have a look at Welcome to the BodyLogicMD –specialists in bioidentical hormone therapy. BodyLogicMD is a network of highly trained physician-owned practices specializing in natural bioidentical hormone therapy integrated with fitness and nutrition to men and women suffering from hormonal imbalance, menopause and andropause. BodyLogicMD has come a long way since it was founded in 2003.
BodyLogicMD Bioidentical Hormone Therapy Services include a comprehensive review of symptoms, medical, family and personal history, testing – saliva, urine and/or blood laboratory analysis, natural hormone balancing, ongoing evaluations and quality compounded pharmacy. Explore the site and see what they are offering and how they can help you live longer and better. Better still, complete an online, thorough personal, medical and family history questionnaire in the convenience of your home. You will have an initial consultation where you and your BodyLogicMD anti-aging physician will review the questionnaire answers and determine the next steps together. To properly administer bio-identical hormones, your hormone doctor will take select saliva, urine and/or blood lab tests. They will meet with you personally to discuss your symptoms, review your results and discuss the appropriate treatment to meet your individualized needs. Your individualized treatment plan may include a combination of creams, gels, pills, patches, self-injections or pellet therapy. Each treatment plan is customized to your individual needs.
I suggest, you try them and live better; longer.
Heritage Web Solutions
Powerful online presence is one of the most important factors for any online concerns. One of the best places to start when you are looking for website design that a full, complete, custom, original, authentic, "One-of-a-Kind" Design that Fits your Business is Heritage Web Solutions.
The producers of The Economic Report are pleased to announce that Heritage Web Solutions will be featured in an upcoming episode as part of the show’s Business and Technology series on The Power of the Internet Supporting the 21st Century Business Environment.
The internet has revolutionized the ways businesses market themselves. It is essential for businesses, both large and small, to have an effective web presence. A company’s website essentially serves as their electronic store front, communicating the company’s identity to website visitors.
Today, there are approximately 970 million internet users thus making internet marketing the most effective way to appeal to customers from around the world. Websites overcome the limitations between countries and continents thus making a company international. Having a website also means that a business is open and reachable at any time and allows for quick customer response time.
But, it isn’t as simple as just setting up a website. The only way for a company to be set apart from other online competition is unique website design. Businesses turn to internet technology companies for the development of a professional and search engine friendly, website.
Utah-based Heritage Web Solutions specializes in designing and hosting affordable websites for small and medium size businesses. In business since 2001, Heritage designs all websites to custom fit each company, giving each client a unique, original and authentic design. Customers of Heritage also have access to custom flash graphics, Ecommerce development and assistance, database creation and management, traffic driving resources and more.
“As a global community, we are evolving into a technology-based world,“ said Brad Stone, Managing Partner, Heritage Web Solutions. “Rarely we pay cash or write a check anymore. More of our purchases are made online, or at least we research online before making a purchasing decision. Our checking, savings and credit card accounts are maintained and paid for online. Our socializing has moved to FaceBook, YouTube and MySpace. Our communications are emailed, texted or Skyped. Breaking news can now be fed instantly via RSS feeds to our computers or cell phones instead of waiting for the six o’clock news. The Internet is very much a main part of human society today.”
For more information, please visit www.heritagewebdesign.com
The producers of The Economic Report are pleased to announce that Heritage Web Solutions will be featured in an upcoming episode as part of the show’s Business and Technology series on The Power of the Internet Supporting the 21st Century Business Environment.
The internet has revolutionized the ways businesses market themselves. It is essential for businesses, both large and small, to have an effective web presence. A company’s website essentially serves as their electronic store front, communicating the company’s identity to website visitors.
Today, there are approximately 970 million internet users thus making internet marketing the most effective way to appeal to customers from around the world. Websites overcome the limitations between countries and continents thus making a company international. Having a website also means that a business is open and reachable at any time and allows for quick customer response time.
But, it isn’t as simple as just setting up a website. The only way for a company to be set apart from other online competition is unique website design. Businesses turn to internet technology companies for the development of a professional and search engine friendly, website.
Utah-based Heritage Web Solutions specializes in designing and hosting affordable websites for small and medium size businesses. In business since 2001, Heritage designs all websites to custom fit each company, giving each client a unique, original and authentic design. Customers of Heritage also have access to custom flash graphics, Ecommerce development and assistance, database creation and management, traffic driving resources and more.
“As a global community, we are evolving into a technology-based world,“ said Brad Stone, Managing Partner, Heritage Web Solutions. “Rarely we pay cash or write a check anymore. More of our purchases are made online, or at least we research online before making a purchasing decision. Our checking, savings and credit card accounts are maintained and paid for online. Our socializing has moved to FaceBook, YouTube and MySpace. Our communications are emailed, texted or Skyped. Breaking news can now be fed instantly via RSS feeds to our computers or cell phones instead of waiting for the six o’clock news. The Internet is very much a main part of human society today.”
For more information, please visit www.heritagewebdesign.com
Shagufta Bano - Mano Na Mano
While doing interpretership (in Russian Language) from National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, we were taken to different publishing houses. Having tea after the presentation at one of the publishing houses, we got a chance to talk informally to the wonderful people there.
While talking with Dr. Farahat Naqi – the owner and brain behind the success of the concern – Dr. Shagufta Bano – one of my favorite teachers -- came under discussion. I believed and praised my teacher. Dr. Naqvi listened to my discourse for some time and finally raised his hands and said, “Please stop! Stop! I know her more than you do because she is my wife for last 30 years.”
While talking with Dr. Farahat Naqi – the owner and brain behind the success of the concern – Dr. Shagufta Bano – one of my favorite teachers -- came under discussion. I believed and praised my teacher. Dr. Naqvi listened to my discourse for some time and finally raised his hands and said, “Please stop! Stop! I know her more than you do because she is my wife for last 30 years.”
Structured Settlements Brokerage
Things are changing fast un the troubled economies of today. People are forced to think of different options to manage their personal finance and make wiser decisions. But you do not have to be an economist to manage your structured settlement. If you have any type of structured settlement annuities (lottery winnings, government, commercial contracts or some other secured future payment obligations) at hands, Settlement Capital Corporation - - is one of the best places to start. You may borrow against the settlement or if going gets tough, even sell it.
Settlement Capital Corporation can buy structured settlement annuity from you, or buy future payments, so that you can invest in whatever you like. Explore the neatly laid out and information rich site of the structured settlement company and find out how you can invest your payments with a much better return. Don’t just allow the company holding the annuity to do it for you.
Settlement Capital Corporation can also buy structured settlement from you, making more financial sense in the long run. Approach them online for a free quote. You may get a wonderful deal in response.
Settlement Capital Corporation site (and blog) is easy to use. Browse the site and see what they are offering and how they can help you arrive at a solution that suits you.
Settlement Capital Corporation can buy structured settlement annuity from you, or buy future payments, so that you can invest in whatever you like. Explore the neatly laid out and information rich site of the structured settlement company and find out how you can invest your payments with a much better return. Don’t just allow the company holding the annuity to do it for you.
Settlement Capital Corporation can also buy structured settlement from you, making more financial sense in the long run. Approach them online for a free quote. You may get a wonderful deal in response.
Settlement Capital Corporation site (and blog) is easy to use. Browse the site and see what they are offering and how they can help you arrive at a solution that suits you.
Biggest Business Groups
Aamer Waqas Ghaus Chaudhary
1. The Nishat Group
Mian Muhammad Mansha Yaha is the captain of this splendid ship having around 30 companies on board. Mansha, who owns the Muslim Commercial Bank as well, is now setting up a billion rupee ($ 17 m) paper sack project too. He is one of the richest Pakistanis around. Nishat Group was country's 15th richest family in 1970, 6th in 1990 and Number 1 in 1997. Mansha is on the board of nearly 50 companies. Chinioti by clan, Mansha is married to Yousaf Saigol's daughter. He is deemed to have made investments in many bourses, currency and metal exchanges both within and outside Pakistan. He has had his share of luck on many occasions in life and has recently been awarded Pakistan's highest civil award by President Musharraf. He could have bought the United Bank too, but then who doesn't have adversaries. Nishat Group comprises of textiles, cement, leasing, insurance and management companies. If Mansha was bitten by Bhutto's nationalization stint of 1970, his friends think he was compensated by Nawaz Sharif's denationalization programme to a very good effect. There is no stopping Mansha and he is still on the move!
2. The Jang Group
This huge media empire was founded by late Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman some six decades ago. Today, around 10 top newspapers and the multi-billion rupee GEO TV project are being run by Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, Mir Khalil's brainy son, who has a lot of projects pertaining to real estate under his belt too. Though he can be very modest, Shakeel is known to have taken country's Prime Ministers head-on. His tussle with Nawaz Sharif in 1999 spoke volumes of his unmatched influence in all domestic and international quarters which matter Shakeel is one of Asia's most well known media barons, whose newspapers have served to be the breeding nurseries for country's top journalists. He invests massively in stocks business regularly. His elder brother Mir Javed ur Rehman and tender son Mir Ibrahim also assist him in business. Such magnificent has been his influence that at times, a few governments have opted to take a few of his employees as ministers. The Group, as most politicians agree, has been instrumental in both toppling and building governments in Pakistan for decades now. Limelight is the product that he sells but doesn't like tasting the fruits of his own garden.
3. The Hashoo Group
Led by the vintage Saddaruddin Haswani, the Hashoo Group is more known for its dominance in Pakistan's hotel industry, though the people who know a bit more about the Hashwanis are of their strength in real estate business too. Hashwanis are involved in trading of cotton grain and steel and till the nationalization of cotton export in 1974, they were widely being dubbed as the Cotton Kings of Pakistan. Today, this group has excelled in export of rice, wheat, cotton and barley. It owns textile units, besides having invested billions in mines, minerals. hotels, insurance, batteries, tobacco, residential properties, construction, engineering and information technology. In 1984, Hashwani defeated the Lakhanis in the bid for Premier Tobacco but was arrested along with his brother Akbar in 1986 for allegedly evading customs duty on cigarettes. Sadarduddin's brother Akbar and the children of another late brother Hassan Ali Hashwani together manage around 45 companies. Akbar runs the second Hashwani Group. He is one of the most well-known magnates in Pakistan who is a regular invitee at the Diplomatic Enclave. The list of local and international bigwigs known personally to Hashwani is unending.
4. The Packages Group
The seed of this huge empire was sown by Syed Maratib All, a renowned supplier for British Army and the Indian Railways before partition. The group launched a joint venture with Lever Brothers soon after 1947, but massive production of Pakistan Tobacco Company later reportedly made Syed Maratib All and sons install a packaging Unit by the names of Packages. Two of Maratib's sons-Syed Amjad Ali and Syed Babar Ali have remained Pakistan's finance Ministers and two of his well-known grand-children-Syeda Abida Hussain and Syed Fakhar Imam-are political stalwarts who need no recognition. Late Syed Amjad Ali was Pakistan's first Ambassador to the United Nations, while Syed Babar Ali is the force behind the establishment of the LUMS. The group owns Nestle Pakistan too which is being run by Syed Yawar Ali. Syed Babar Ali has also served as Chairman National Fertilizer Corporation during the Bhutto regime too and has been the Chairman of Hoeist Pakistan, Lever Brothers and Siemen. The group also acquired a good number of Coca Cola plants in Pakistan. Its famous brands include Nestle Milk Pak, Treet, Mitchells and Tri Pack Films. It has stakes in the textile, dairy, agriculture and rice Sectors too. The groups Contributions towards the cause of an independent Pakistan are unprecedented.
5. The House of Habib
Legend has it that the Goddess of Wealth has been in love with the seasoned Habibs more than anybody else in Pakistan. Most pundits believe that Habibs own at least 100 companies throughout the world, but these content mega-tycoons never boast off, something which has made it uphill for most to predict about their financial standing. This industrial group was founded by Seth Habib Mitha, born in 1878 to Esmail Ali-a factory owner in Bombay. The financial strength of the Habibs can be gauged from the fact that Muhammad Ali Habib gave a cheque of Rs 80 million to Quaid-e-Azam in 1948 at a time when Pakistan government was penniless owing to delay in transfer of Pakistan's share of Rs. 750 million by the Reserve Bank of India. They had offices in Europe in 1912. They incorporated the Habib Bank in 1941. They own the Habib Bank A.G Zurich, Bank Al-Habib, Indus Motors assembling Corolla cars and many dozens of units in sectors such as jute, paper sack, minerals, steel, tiles, synthetics sugar, glass, construction, concrete, farm autos, banking, oil, computers, music, paper, packages, leasing and capital management. Habibs today are headed by Rafiq Habib and Rashid Habib in two distinct groups. What makes them extremely influential players of all times is the fact that for dozens of top businessmen today, Habib were a myth once.
6. The Saigols
Saigols originally hail from Jehlum. The pioneer of the Saigol dynasty in 1890 was Amin Saigol who established a shoe shop that eventually transformed into Kohinoor Rubber Works. And then times saw them shining literally like the Kohinoor until their progress was by Nationalization in which they lost two-thirds of their wealth. Saigols got trifurcated in 1976 and 15 descendents of Amin Saigols tour sons got a share. The name of the Saigols has been used in this part of the world as similes describing quantum of wealth. Yousaf Saigol, along with his brothers Sayeed Saigol, Bashir Saigol and Gul Saigol then nourished an excellent crop. In 1948, Saigols established the Kohinoor Textile Mills with a cost of Rs 8 million and this group happens to be the first to open an LC with the State Bank of Pakistan. They bought the United Bank in 1959 and then witnessed five of their units getting nationalized. They lived in Saudi Arabia during the Bhutto regime. Today, cousins Tariq and Nasim are holding the family's fort together and have risen to unprecedented heights in individual capacities. NAB did haunt Nasim but Tariq spent more lime either accepting or refusing prized slots everywhere. Tariq is the one of the finest business brains around.
7. Nawa-E-Waqt Group
The Nizamis may not be Rockefellers or the Sheikh Muhammad, but arc the custodians of a highly influential media empire. Since media is now beginning to be classified as very serious business, clout of this group's head Majid Nizami and that of his nephew Arif Nizami in nearly every sphere or the Pakistani society is being widely acknowledged. The impact this group has managed create on Pakistan's political scenario since 1947 is unprecedented too. The group runs two esteemed dailies-the Nawa-i-Waqt (Urdu) and The Nation (English). Besides publishing a few other monthlies and weeklies, they too are serious customers for an electronic media channel. Hailing from Sangla Hill, a youth Hameed Nizami (late) went out taking a paper that was badly needed by the Muslims of India during the Pakistan Movement. Hameed was a renowned student leader in the sub-continent who only gained proximity with the Quaid-c-Azam because of his distinct and selfless for an independent Pakistan. Though Hameed died very young in 1962, he gave Majid Nizami a rich legacy to take care of. The youngest Nizami, Khalil, died some years ago and was also part of this illustrious group. Out of Hameed Nizami's three sons-Shoaib, Arif and Tahir, only Arif has followed in his father's footsteps and is the sitting President 0f All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS). Nizamis are a 60-year old entity too.
8. The Saif Group
Is owned and operated by the sons of famous NWFP lady politician Begum Kalsum Saifullah. Her eldest son Javid Saifullah heads Ibis very powerful business group. Javid obtained his Master degree in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh, USA in 1973, followed by diversified experience of over 30 years in textiles, telecommunication, cement and Information Technology. He also remained the Chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) for two years and NWFP for seven years. He has also been the member Task Force IT & Telecommunication Advisory Board, Ministry of Science and Technology, Member of Task Force (Liberalization & Privatization of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited), Ministry of Science & Technology)Javed Saifullah Khan is looking after the group businesses for the past 20 years. Saifullahs are in power always, in one form or the other. Javaid's brothers Anwar Saifullah, Khan (Former Federal Minister), Salim Saifullah Khan king-maker in NWFP polities) and Osman Saifullah (another APTMA& wizard) have very close family ties with a lot of key politicians in the country, besides being related directly or indirectly through marriages to the families of a few leading and famous Army Generals who ruled Pakistan.
9. The Crescent Group
The history of this group dates back to 1910 when Shams Din of Chiniot and his four sons came into business with a tannery at Amritsar. This family was allotted 125 acres in Faisalabad in lieu of their left-over property in India. These brothers' Muhammad Antis, Muhammad Bashir, Fazal Karim and Muhammad Shafi-then ruse up to become country's largest textile exporters. They had initially set up the Mohammad Amin-Muhammad Bashir Limited for export of cotton and import of various products. Having more than two dozen concerns in its fold, Crescent is majestic force to reckon with. This empire serves as the best example of cohesion among cousins, uncles and nephews. Altaf Saleem of this group has enjoyed the slot of Chairman Privatisation Commission during the Musharraf regime, but has not been accused of any bungling during despite having served on a Prized slot. The group today owns numerous textile, steel, sugar, modaraba, food, leasing, knitwear, software, power, chemical, banking and investment units. They are one of the richest people in the country for the last 40 odd years. This Chinioti Sheikh family has lived up with quite a wonderful reputation, bearing an excellent record with its creditors throughout its bu.siness history. Men running Crescent do not have to make contacts, for the privilege comes to them naturally.
10. The Monnoo Group
The Monnoo dynasty was founded by two brothers-Dust Muhammad and Nazir Hussain in 1905 at Calcutta. The first unit owned by the Monnoos was the Olympia Rubber Works. And then time saw the Monnoos setting up sonic 20 textile mills in succession. Former President Shahzada Alam Monnoo is the man behind the strength of this group-known more for its achievements in the textile sector. Munnoos have been a symbol of wealth during the last 65 years or so. Shahzada's brothers, .Jahengir and Kaiser are assisting him in business, while silting APTMA Central Chairman Waqar Monnoo also hails from this magnificent group. In East Pakistan, Monnoos had also left a few power, feed, textile and agriculture-related units some nine in all. Their elder Munir Monnoo, after leaving East Pakistan, had set up looms at Faisalabad. Shahzada Alum Monnoo, perhaps the well-dressed man in the country along with Saddar-ud-Din Hashwani, is no alien for any ruler. The Monnoos are Chiniotis too. Shahzada Alum Monnoo, after some break, is again active in the politics of Lahore Chamber while Jahengir Monnoo is siding with Waqar Monnoo in latter's vicious battle of ego with Messrs Tariq Saigol and Mian Mansha. They star in business politics of and on, but seem to have Inst the taste of ii somehow. Perhaps had enough of salutes!
11. The Dewan Group
Dewan Yousaf Farooqui. The mentor of this group has been the Sindh Minister for Local Bodies. Industries, Labour, Transport, Mines & Minerals. Holding of so many portfolios by a single man bears ample testimony to the fact that the Dewans keep a leg sticking in polities too. The Dewan Mushtaq Group is one of the Pakistan's largest industrial conglomerates in sectors like polyester acrylic fiber, manufacturing and automotives. Six of their companies are listed at the Karachi & stock Exchange and one at the Luxembourg bourse. Dewan Farooqui Motors assembles around 10,000 cars annually under technical license agreement with Hyundai and Kia Motors of Korea The Dewan Salman Fiber is the pride of this empire as it ranks 11th in the world in total production capacity. The group owns three textile units, a motorcycle manufacturing concern and the largest sugar unit in the country. Dewans also have business interests in India. They possess dozens of millions of shares of Saudi Cement and Pak land Cement. They finance some 40 medical dispensaries and over a dozen schools, apart from funding roads/drinking water and Bio-energy infrastructures. Dewans arc on their way building a $ 1O million SME Resources with IFC investment of $ 3 million. The Dewans enjoy massive influence in the engineering sector.
12. The Lakson Group
The Lakhanis are currently having a hard time at the hands of NAB. Sultan Lakhani and his three brothers run this prestigious group and the chain of McDonald's restaurants in Pakistan. NAB has alleged the Lakhanis of having created phoney companies through worthless directors and raised massive loans from various banks and financial institutions. Sultan is currently abroad after having served a jail term with younger sibling Amin, though the latter was released much earlier. NAB had reportedly demanded Rs 7 billion from Lakhanis, but later agreed they pay only Rs 1.5 billion over a 10-year period. Lakhanis, like their arch-rivals Hashwanis, are the most well-known of all Ismaeli tycoons. Their stakes range from media, tobacco, paper, chemicals and surgical equipment to cotton, packaging, insurance, detergents and other house-hold items, many of which are joint ventures with leading international conglomerates. Though Lakhanis are in turbulent waters currently, the success that greeted them during the last 25 years especially has been tremendous. They have rifts with large business empires despite being known fur their genteel nature. Whether it is any government in Sindh or at the Federal level, Lakhanis have had trusted friends everywhere, though the present era has proved a painful exception.
13. The Sapphire Group
Headed by a veteran industrialist Mian Abdullah, this splendid empire owns 11 yarn spinning plants (producing 60,000 tonnes of yarn annually), 3 woven plants of greige fabric ( producing 50 million metres annually), one yarn dyeing plant (capacity 5 tonnes per day), one knitting unit (10 tonnes per day), one knitted fabric dyeing plant (10 tonnes per day), one woven fabric dyeing and finishing plant ( 1.2 million metres per month) and three power plants having the capability to produce 40 MW of energy. Sapphire forms synergies with off-shore garments companies. The group markets its products in biggest brand names in Asia, Europe, Australia and North America. Sapphire started with one spinning mill in 1969 and employs over 10,000 people and has an annual turnover of $ 219 million. Mian Abdullah's repute can be gauged from the fact during the October 2003 minis at APTMA, more than 1000 textile millers bad tendered their resignations against incumbent Chief Waqar Monnoo to him. Dozens of leading tycoons had proposed his name to head APTMA in case of an interim setup. Having an influence among textile millers is no easy job but Mian Abdullah stands privileged in this context He is often seen part of the entourages of key business leaders to foreign countries and provides input to fellow colleagues whenever requested.
14. The Dawood Group
Was ranked Pakistan's biggest group in 1970, 3rd in 1990 and 15th in 1997 like all. Nationalization and the East Pakistan tragedy trampled all over the Dawoods too. Today, the original Dawood Group stands split in three factions. The owners of this empire refrained from opening any unit for a good part of some 20 odd years. This group was founded by Ahmed Dawood, but later the dynasty found itself divided among the three Dawood brothers-Ahmad Sadiq and Suleman, The key players in this group led lives in exile during the Bhutto regime. Former Federal Minister fur Commerce and Trade Razzak Dawood, the son of the late Suleman Dawned runs the Descon Engineering and a few other units dealing in manufacturing refrigerators and other consumer products. Hussain Dawuod, sun of Ahmed Dawood, has already rendered meritorious philanthropic services in the field of education by supporting brilliant and needy students. Hussain runs Dawood Hercules, some modaraba companies and a few textile units. The Sadiq Dawned Group owns a few leasing, modaraba and insurance concerns too, apart from the Dawood Yamaha. Sadiq Dawood's decision to become an MNA in 1951 and Treasurer Pakistan Muslim League during Ayub's rule certainly benefited the Dawoods.
15. The Best Way Group
Sir Anwar Pervaiz is the Chairman of Bestway Group which started off as a specialist Asian food store in West London in 1962. More retail units followed and by the early l970's the group had opened ten general food stores. He may easily be dubbed the richest Pakistani. The Bestway Group moved into the wholesale business in 1976 when its first Bestway cash and carry warehouse was established in London. Rapid expansion in wholesaling followed during the 1980's and 1990's, and to date, the Bestway Group comprises of about 30. The Bestway Group moved into the cement business in 1995 when it decided to set up cement manufacturing plant in Pakistan at a cost of $120 million. In 2002, the Bestway Group acquired a 25.5% stake in United Bank Limited. Today, the Bestway Group has a diversified portfolio, with interests in cash & carry wholesale, property investments, retail outlets, milling of rice, lentils and pulses, cement production and more recently into banking. The group's total sales amounted to in excess of £ 1 billion for the year ended 30th June 2002. The group provides direct employment to over 2300 people.
16. The Haroon Family
Headed by Yusuf Haroon, 9l, the former Sindh Chief Minister and Governor West Pakistan, this family owns The Herald Group of publications which includes the Daily Dawn, Monthly Herald, Aurora and Spider magazines. When he rose to Karachi's Mayorship, Yousaf was the youngest Mayor in sub-continent's history. This prominent scion of the Memon clan had remained a strong believer that General Zia-ul-Haq bad launched systematic discrimination against the Karachi businessmen that made the Memons fly outside Pakistan with their money. Yosaf's younger brother Mabmood A.Haroon has also remained Sindh's Governor, besides having served as ADC to Quaid-Azam at the age of 17. The Haroons; wealthiest in the country once, are prominent media barons of today who enjoy unmatched influence in country's political and business arena. Sir Abdullah Haroon, father of Yousaf and Mahmood, bad died in 1942, but sot before he had devoted his residence for the cause of Pakistan. Handling both business and politics at the same time never seemed tough job for the disciplined sons of Sir Abdullah Haroon. Yousaf Haroon also served a country's High Commissioner to Australia. The great grandfathers of the Haroons had migrated to Karachi some 150 years ago where they made fortunes in clothing and sugar trades.
17. The Yunus Brothers
The Chairman of this group is Abdul Razzak Tabba. This group owns one of the largest warehouses (textile products) in Pakistan. The concerns falling under the ambit of the Younus Brothers are Fazal Textiles, Gadoon Textiles, Lucky Cement, Lucky Energy, Lucky Power-Tech, Lucky Textiles, Younus Textiles, Security Electric Power Company and Younus Brothers etc. Razzak Tabba is an active player in the politics of the prestigious All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) too, apart from assuming a king-maker's role in the political arena of the FPCCI. Tabba came to more limelight last year when he hosted very heavily attended dinners in honour of the textile magnates from all across the country, while siding with Messrs Tariq Saigol and Mian Mansha in their battle against the APTMA Chief Waqar Monnno. He is quite a philanthropist too and has initiated various welfare projects for his Memon community in Karachi and Sindh. He frequently stars in the community welfare programmes held under the auspices of the Asia Tabba Foundation, World Memon Foundation and the Kathiawar Cooperative Housing society etc Tabba is a man who likes to keep away from camera and despite all his influence and riches-something which has made him earn tots of respect.
18. Gul Ahmad/Al-Karam Group
Gut Ahmad is one of the most vibrant Memon business houses in the country that was founded by Haji Mohammad Pakolawala, but is now split between Gul Ahmad and Al-Karam Group of Industries. While Gul Ahmad is headed by Bashir Al Muhammad, the Al-Karam faction is controlled by Umar Haji Karim. In 1953, Gul Ahmad was incorporated as a private limited company with a capital of Rs eight million. Gul Ahmad is presently a composite unit with an installed capacity of 88,000 spindles, 108 air-jet looms and 297 conventional looms. The group has been a pioneer in the field of power generation as well. Gul Ahmad's directors have held top positions in various textile bodies, export committees, besides having assisted government of Pakistan in few major talks with EU and US. The group is set to launch the Excel Insurance Company shortly as required licenses/documentation stands done. Al-Karam, on (be other hand, is one of the largest textile concerns in Pakistan producing superior quality yarn, apart from having Amna Industries, Orient Textiles, Imran Crown Cork, Gul Agencies, Dabheji Salt Works and Pakistan Synthetics in its wallet. It owns a dairy-related establishment too by the name of Pakistan Dairy Products Limited. During Moeen Qureshi's tenure, Alt Muhammad was appointed Vice Chairman of Export Promotion Bureau.
19. The Bawany Group
Bawany dynasty was founded by two Bawany brothers, Ahmad Karim Ebrahim Bawany and Abdul Latif Ibrahim Bawany born in 1882 and 1890 respectively at Jetpur, Kathiawar, who had migrated to Burma towards end the end of 19th century and set up Ahmad Violin Hosiery Works in Rangoon. In 1947, they migrated to Pakistan. It was perhaps in memory of the Hosiery Mills at Rangoon that a company with the same name was incorporated in Karachi and is doing a flourishing business. The name Bawany has its origin in the name of an elder of the family, who was known for his honesty and hard work in home-town Jetpur. They were the first among the Memons to open a purchase office in Japan and nre currently active in textiles, jute, sugar, particle board, Oxygen, leather, garments, tanneries and cables Bawanis are known to have maite night investment decisions at the right time and their contemperaine still acknowledge them for his quality. Bawanis are known to have made right investments us the right time-something their contemporaries acknowledge.
20. The Servis Group
Shahid Hussain is the Chairman of this massive foot-wear giant whicb now is neck-deep in textile business too. Shahid has replaced Ch Ahmad Saeed (sitting PIA Chairman (as the Servis boss. Both Chaudhary Ahmed Saeed and President General Musharraf happen to be old friends from their Forman Christian College days. Ch. Ahmad Saeed's younger brother Chaudhary Ahmed Multhtar is a well-known Pakistan Peoples Party leader who has been the Federal Commerce Minister of Pakistan during one of the two tenures of two-time ex-Premier Benazir Bhutto. Ch. Ahmad Saeed's son Arif Saeed is Chairman APTMA Punjab and is siding with his Central Chief Waqar Munnoo against a huge number of textile gurus. The Servis Group operates in sectors like shoes, tyres, cotton yarn, leather, syringes and retailing. The political constituency of these politicians-cum-businessmen also happens in be the feud-ridden Gujrat district of Punjab where Ahmed Mukhtar sometimes emerges triumphant against President Pakistan Muslim League Ch Shujaat Hussain, and at times loses the support of voters for a National Assembly seat. It is this proximity with various regimes that the Servis Group bus been rated so highly. And then, even if alleged for a white-collard crime, these Servis guys remain relatively comfortable-courtesy their clout as a political-cum-business family.
21. The Tata Family
Do not confuse the Tatas in Pakistan with their name-sake market leaders in India. Having migrated from Nepal Mehboob Elahi started with a tannery in Bangladesh much before 1971 but his five Sons Mehboob lqbal 'Tata ( Chairman Jinnah Hospital Lahore). Riaz Tata (President FPCCI) Anwar Tata (Former Chairman APTMA), Khalid Tata and ljaz Tate together built 15 odd units, ably supported by the third generation scions like Shahid, Masud and Hasan Tata. Tatas are in textile spinning, weaving, denim, woven, knitwear, leather and energy business. Having annual turnover in excess of Rs 1.5 billion, this Chinioti family too traces its presence in business as early as 200 years from now. Bound in a cohesive bond, each of the Tatas heads a separate unit. The sitting Federation President Riaz Tata heads the Naveena Exports Division and despite having faced some tough times at the top slot in the apex body. Pakistan's key business leader is holding his throne tightly, though there have been occasions when he (Riaz Tata) seriously thought in terms of vacating office due to business pre-occupation. But the mammoth number of colleagues and friends around him barred him from doing so. The vintage Tatas overall lead unassuming life styles. They love to remain in low key but prove their worth when times demand.
22. The Alam Group
This establishment comprising three leather and two textile units is led by former President Karachi Chamber Shahzada Alam, elder brother of sitting Vice President FPCCI and Senior Vice chairman Pak-USA Business Council Arshad Alam. Messrs Leather Connections, a joint venture with a UK conglomerate, is one of those units managed by this group which happens to be Pakistan's largest exporter of value-added leather products. While Leather Connections is looked after by Arshad Alam's son Khurshid Alam, the textile arm of this group is supervised by Faraz Alam son of Shafiq Alam, the youngest Alam brother. The family has also made huge investments in real estate and stocks, within and outside Pakistan. While the younger creed looks after business, the elder Alams give time to their passion of playing ring leaders in the politics of the FPCCI and other business chambers. The group also runs an import/export entity by the name of Continental Traders, besides having recently set sails for investment in media too. Shahzada Alam gained more recognition when he went out airing strong resentment against the involvement of business institutions in country's politics. The Alams are an eminent Chinioti family in business for the last 150 odd years, known more for dominance in leather sector. COMPASS is the name of the philanthropic school for retarded and disabled children which the Alams operate in Gulberg Lahore sans any external assistance.
23. The Guard Group
The 87-year old Malik Shafi, decorated with Pakistan's highest civil award, still looks after numerous business entities with complete vigour. Eldest of his four sons is the former LCCI/FPCCI President lftikhar Malik who is also the sitting Chairman of Pak-US Business Council. The Guard Group deals in automotive parts, filters, brake fluids and other vital accessories of motor vehicles. The group has enjoyed monopoly in this business since 1959, when the government servant turned magnate Malik Shaft decided to enter business. Guard Rice, one of the largest exporters of this community around the world, is being run by Shafis youngest son Shahzad Matte who is also holding the slot of Lahore Chamber's Vice President. The' other two Maliks-Waqar and Shahbaz control the technical sides of their family business, apart from keeping an eye on this group's real estate & agricultural land holdings. Maliks are an Arain Punjabi family that also runs a few free hospitals and dispensaries. Malik lftikhar however, is keener with his hobby to be in limelight all the time and is perhaps Pakistan's most photographed tycoon. While people refrain from coming under camera when they grow in stature, Malik loves operating a Lahore-Islamabad shuttle service to sit next to anyone who is ruling. But then he delivers when needed
24. The Ejaz Group
This establishment owns country's largest knitwear-cum-dyeing facility at Lahore. More than half a dozen textile units of Ejaz Group are being run by yet another chinioti scion Mian Gohar Ejaz, son of late Senator Sheikh Ejaz. Gohar held the reins of this group very much during his college days when Sheikh Ejaz left for his heavenly abode after protracted illness that lasted months. Gohar is now a noted policy maker at both Federal and Provincial Textile Boards. He is one of the Boards of Governors at the Punjab institute of Cardiology Lahore. People started paying a heed to his leadership abilities in 1997, when he took on the APTMA grey-heads convincingly during the 1997 annual polls and narrowly lost to his opponent in fight for the top slot. Gohar then had led a rebellion comprising promising youth from renowned textile families. Against the hegemony of stalwarts including the likes of Messrs Tariq Saigol, Mansha and Jahengir Elahi etc. His younger brother Mian Faisal Ejaz is the son-in-law of Shahzada Alam Monnoo. He is yet another investor in mutual funds and real estate, though relies more on his obsession i.e. the textiles and his passion which is value-addition in this sector. The services Gohar has rendered for creating awareness with reference to value-addition are certainly quite meritrions.
25. The Tabani Family
The Tabanis are also deemed as one of the biggest groups associated with manufacturing, trade, export and import business. They are one of the few Pakistani industrialists holding massive stakes in Central Asian Republics. They own Pakistan's first private airline-Aero Asia. Yaqoob Tabani is this group's chairman. The fields of Tabanis' businesses include counter trade and barter transactions, textiles, fashion garments, leather, tourism, automobiles, shipping, power generation, oil and gas, metals, chemicals, fertilizers, cigarettes, cement and medicines. Tabanis have wings stretched everywhere. You name a business field and Tabanis are there. But despite all the clout it enjoys at the top levels, the family opts to remain modest. Ashraf Tabani, an elder Tabani, has served Sindh's Governor, Provincial Minister of Finance, Industries, Excise and Taxation between 1981 and 1984. He was appointed Honorary Administrator of the FPCCI during the 1971-1973 periods soon after Bhutto's Nationalization. Ashraf Tabani has also served as Chairman Employers Federation Pakistan, President Silk and Rayon Mills Association and former Chairman of Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan's Board of Directors. They are a leading Memon family, also engaged in funding various public welfare schemes. Though scandals can confront any industrial establishment of this size, Tabanis have been fairly lucky in evading them.
26. The Tapal Group
Is headed by Aftab Tapal. The group's success in tea business has astounded many. The journey of Tapal's remarkable success is the combined harvest of three generations of this family. In 1947, Tapal started out as a family concern under the supervision of Adam Ali Tapal. Faced with tough competition from very well known tea brands in the market, the Tapals dispelled the common impression that their capital base would soon be eroded. The company grew under Faizullah Tapal, whose son Aftab today brings a lot of innovation and marketing vision to make Tapal a household name. After having lived abroad, Aftab rushed hack home with flourishing ideas and introduced new concepts in the commodity that was first sold at Thomas Garway's Coffee House in London in 1657. Equipped with latest state-of-the art blending and tea-mixing paraphernalia. Tapal is today Pakistan largest tea company as its consumption runs into millions of cups every month, according to an estimate by this company's marketing division. In December 1997, Tapal Tea became the first Pakistani of its kind to have attained the ISO-9001 certification. Tapals are also known to have stakes in power generation business. But their tea makes the Tapals known to all. The group claims nearly 1.4 million cups of tea in Pakistan are made of Tapal every hour.
27. The Atlas Group
This group was founded by Yousaf Sherazi, a former Income Tax official and journalist in 1962 with a capital of Rs 03 million only. The first company set by the Atlas Group was Sherazi Investments (Pvt) Limited and since then, there is no looking back. The East Pakistan tragedy, however, nearly crippled Sherazi but he never lost hope and went out forming numerous joint ventures with leading Japanese concerns like Honda. Atlas-Honda today is a name to reckon with in country's engineering sector and associated with this just one name are hundreds of vendors. He holds stakes in insurance, financial services, information technology, leasing, warehouses, office equipment, motor cars and motorcycle-assembling units, besides running a renowned firm that manufactures batteries. Sherazi owns the Atlas Investment Bank too. The Federal Budget 2004-05 is perhaps the only budget in country's history that has hit the very influential car manufacturers on the head, otherwise people like Yousaf Sherazi have always managed to dictate terms where it matters. The Atlas Group owns no less than seven companies quoted on the stock exchanges of Pakistan. The group's assets are believed to have touched the Rs 15 billion mark and so have the sales.
28. The Abid Group
Is run by Sheikh Abid Hussain alias Seth Abid. He is one of the most resourceful developers/builders in the country owning vast stretches of land in major cities. On this land worth many billion of rupees, Seth has constructed residential schemes under the brand name of "Green Fort." Seth came into this business after decades of notoriety as being one of the spearheads in cross-border smuggling. While many remember Seth for his allegedly illegal trading stints, a lot of informed circles still say with conviction that he, along with Dr.Qadeer and former Premier Bhutto, was the brain behind the success of Pakistan's nuclear programme. About three dozen of Seth's very close relatives, friends and nephews are members of country's bourses and for many years now, the Seth Abid group assumes the role of king-makers during the annual polls of these stock exchanges. He is a leading investor in stocks, metals and currency but what gives him immense pleasure is his philanthropic institution Hamza Foundation that he sponsors for the welfare of deaf and dumb children. Pakistan has not had a single ruler, politician, bureaucrat or Army General who doesn't know the Seth who is more of a myth for most. The Seth, throughout his life, has avoided publicity-a fact known to most journalists.
29. The Sheikhani Family
They are one of the most reputed land developers in the country. The Sheikhani, although not a very big industrial establishment by any means, are led by Abu Bakar Sheikhani. The Sheikhanis are famous for their construction and land development-related errands. Abu Bakar is deemed to be one of the largest investors in real estate trade at Gwadar Port. He has all the right connections that are required to be in such business. Despite being well known to the national political circles, the man in street knew more of him during March/April 1991 when he surfaced as the single largest contributor to then Premier Nawaz Sharif's Debt Retirement Fund with a donation of Rs 450 million. Today, his adversaries dub him a land mafia man, alleging him for selling his Gwadar land at only $ 4000 per acre only to senior Army officials while the same was being sold at $ 2,50,000 per acre to ordinary investors. But that is the way Sheikhani runs his vast land/construction empire. Accusations don't disturb Sheikhani, who according to many large developers is a man who has managed to create tremendous impression in land business. The rumours of his landing in any Pakistani City for land acquisition purposes, helps the price of real estate surge unprecedently overnight.
30. The Dadabhoy Group
Abdul Ghani Dadabhoy was the founder of Dadabhoy group, starting in trade and branching off into the construction business. The group has a big share of cement market in Southern Pakistan. Memons by clan, Dadabhoys are closely related to the Bawanies. Abdul Ghani Dadabhoy had five sons and two daughters, namely Noor Mohammad Dadabhoy, Mohammad Farooq Dadabhoy, Mohammad Hussain Dadabhoy, Abdullah Hussain Dada Bhoy and Ghulam Mohammad Dadabhoy. Daughters are Mrs Mehrunisa Jaffer and Mrs Zaibunisa Tanveer. This Group has massive investments in cement, energy, construction, leasing, polyester, banking and insurance etc. Dadabhoys are seasoned campaigners and perhaps do not like being brought into any sort of reckoning like the Habibs. Despite being a formidable business entity, this family is deemed to be extremely reluctant throughout its history, when it comes to flashing headlines, but mind you these unassuming Dadabhoys are still news-worthy. Any good day, you might hear them doing something new. Stock pundits know a lot more about their past stints at the country's bourses.
31. The Bahria Town (Pvt) Limited
Malik Riaz Hussain heads the massive project which is currently developing state-of-the-art schemes in Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad. Though Malik Riaz may not be having a very renowned name in business circles, fact has it that the value of his land-holdings both within & outside Pakistan amounts dozens of billions of rupees. Emerging out of the blue, this developer has reportedly developed tremendous connections where it matters in Pakistan-One of the few reasons why his constructed projects get completed in time without hindrance. Whether he has gifted bungalows free of cost of country's bigwigs or offered them at highly concessional rates, the reality on the ground is that Malik has managed to mesmerize most through his generous wallet. Possessing no convincing financial background, Malik Riaz is known to have been benefited immensely-courtesy patronage of former Pakistan Navy chief admiral retired Mansoor ul Haq. Others say both Malik and the admiral had stuck a $ 200,000 deal but the man behind the Bahria Town is least moved and irrespective of who is in power; he continues to build house after house-swelling his wealth. And then he is happy being a sponsor for many-welfare parties held under patronage of the ruling elite.
32. Adamjee Group
The seed of the formidable Adamjee Empire was sown by Haji DAwood in 1896 by establishing a commodity trading company. His son Sir Adeamjee, Haji Dawood went out building a match factory, second largest of its kind then, in 1923 at Rangoon (Burma). By 1947 Adamjee Group wan the biggest exporter of jute from Calcutta. During Bhutto's nationalization, they lost the Muslim Commercial Bank & stakes in the Mohammadi Steamship Company, leaving then with only Adamjee sugar Mills and Adamjee Cotton Mills, Karachi. Toda, they own the KSB pumps, besides having poured money in paper flooring, diesel engineering, construction centre, garments, general trading, insurance and chemicals etc. one of the biggest names in 1970's, the Adamjee some-how failed to keep hold on Pakistan's largest insurance companies. The Adamjee Insurance Company is one of them, which still has around 70% of country's total insurance business & is the most internationally reputed and accepted Pakistani company of its kind.
33. Jahangir Siddiqui& Co
This firm has floated ABAMCO which is perhaps the largest mutual fund in Pakistan's capital market arena. The firm offers full financial services in the securities industry. ABAMCO is a joit venture among major Pakistani and foreign institutions including International Financial Corporation (IFC) headquartered in Washington. Muslim Commercial Bank, Saudi Pak Commercial Bank & Messrs AMVESCAP, which is a British company created through the merger of the AIM Management Group with and into a subsidiary of INVESCO which is one of the largest asset managers on the globe having assets worth approximately $ 348 billion under its direct management. While the Munawwar Aslam Siddiqui is the Chairman of this apex capital market operator, Najam Ali sits in the Chairman's office of the Jahengir Siddiqui and company. The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PCRA) has awarded heartening long and short term ratings to this concern. ABAMCO was incorporated in 1995. ABAMCO is the first asset management company in the private sector in the country. MCB, with a deposit base in excess of Rs 182 billion & operating with a network of 257 on-line branches too has played a major role in ABAMCO's success.
34. The Din Group
The group is headed by S.M.Muneer, former president of FPCCI and that of the Karachi Gymkhana. He is vice chairman of Muslim Commercial Bank too.Muneer's din Group is engaged in textiles and leather business mainly, though this Chinoti family has also made massive investments in real estates and stock business too.Muneer has been active in few political tenures too, as the former two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto had appointed him Minister of state along with Mian Habibullah, another Chinoti who has headed the FPCCI too. Though people still remember Habibullah as having served as Chairman Export Promotion Bureau during Benazir Bhutto's regime, they tend to forget that time had come when Muneer also shared EPB's Fairs and Exhibition Division with him.Muneer's son SM.Tanveer is a key figure at APTMA Punjab Zone. He is a busy bee in business politics. Despite hectic life schedule, he still manages to take time out and play an active role at prime business bodies in one way or the other.muneer has a visible instinct to be district-a passion that has helped him rise to all heights. At Din Textiles, the entrepreneurs have strived to produce nearly 1000 shades by mixing dyed cotton.
35. The Adil Group
Mian Adil Mehmood, who is married to Mian Mansha's niece, is in textiles business mainly, but what has actually helped him climb the ladder of fame and respect, have been his untiring efforts to resolve the problems of bank defaulters under Governor State Bank of Pakistan, in collaboration with country's Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) all of which has resulted in revival of sick induxtries. Both defaulters & banks appear indebted to Adil as he has visibly save one party from a possible action & other from spending millions of rupees on lenghthy litigation. Along with Mian Usman, Adil was appointed member Governor SBP, s Dispute Resolution Committee on Defaulted Loans in 2001 and since then he has been flying between Lahore & Karachi to provide respite to some 700 defaulters meaning thereby that he has been catalyst in helping banks recover billions of rupees from their stuck up credits. Adil is also senior Vice Chairman APTMA Punjab zone. By vitue of the honorary slots he holds, this Chinoti magnate has been one of the most sought after businessman in the country of late, despite him chanting the merit slogan. Like most of his contemporaries, he too has excelled in philanthropic services. Free eye-treatment is what his charity specialises in.
36. Chenab Group
Mian Muhammad Latif supervises this group along with his brother Mian Ashfaque- a legislator in the National Assembly of Pakistan. Founded in 1975, Chenab Limited set up its first fashion outlet "Chen One." Chen One has seven outlets throughout Pakistan. After establishing its retail chain stores in various cities of Saudi Arabia, the group is now planning to establish its new retail chains in Bahrain, UA.E, Qatar, Kuwait and Central Asian Republics. While Chenab Group is an eight-time Export Trophy winner, its Chief Mian Latif has won the 'Businessman of the Year award on four different occasions from various business bodies. Chenab is principally engaged in manufacture and distribution of clothing, furniture goods, including non-iron suit, quilt cover and curtains etc. Chenab processes 50 million square metres fabric weaving and 75 million square metres fabric dyeing every year and has established a global sales network spanning across five continents. Chenab is licensed to the Swedish Texcote Technology in the manufacturing and sale of textile materials, garments and textile house-hold goods. In August 2003, the Chenab Group signed a Rs 900 million loan facility with the National Bank of Pakistan. The group's textile products have been awarded the Oekotex 100 accreditation.
37. Sitara Group
Started its activity with textile weaving as early as 1956, under brothers Haji Abdul Ghafoor and Haji Bashir Ahmed. It is now its textile cloth finishing and processing, textile spinning, chlor-alkali sector and in power generation. The units owned by this establishment include Sitara Chemicals, Sitara Chemicals (Textile Division 1) and Sitara Chemicals (Textile Division 11), Sitara Textiles, Sitara Energy and Yasir Spinning. The charities being managed under the aegis of Sitara group are Aziz Fatima Hospital, Ghafoor Bashir Children Hospital and Aziz Fatima Girls School. Sitara's name with the industrial City of Faisalabad is synonymous. They are the decades-old veterans in business, who have excelled in leaps and bounds. At their units, the owners of Sitara use technology imported from Japan, UK and Germany and are export leaders in bedding and fabric collection to South America, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Europe. Their textile divisions together operate at strength of 33,984 spindles. The Sitara (group, to a common man, is more famous for its lawn brands like Sitara Sapna and Mughal-e-Azam. The men at helm of affairs in Sitara hardly believe in setting up dozens of units, of which they are otherwise very much capable of.
38. The Colony Group
Mian Muhammad lsmaeel Sheikh, who laid the foundation stone of this group, set up his first factory in 1898, first flour mill in 1908, taking Colony Group's total tally to 14 ginning factories and 4 flour mills by 1947. The group suffered heavily during Zulfiqar Bhutto's nationalization and it was left only with a few textile mills, flour mills and ginning factories. Though Sheikh Ismaeel's heirs could not manage to take Colony's name to the top, they have had an excellent time. But despite their share of hard luck, Colony Group's owners that still run some jute, textile and financial companies. Colony Textile Mills was the first unit of its kind to go into operation in independent Pakistan. Ismaeel Sheikh's sons Aziz, Naseer, Farooq and Mughis have also been active in politics. They once owned equities in newspaper and a few of them even went out contesting elections in 1970. These Colony people, many thought, could have scaled far more greater heights, because the kind of start they had in business falls in the lap of very lucky people only.
39. Arif Habib Securities
This company is owned by Chairman Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) Arif Habib. It is one of the largest brokerage operations on the bourse. One of its subsidiaries-Arif Habib Investment Management Limited-specialises in mutual funds. By 2001, this concern was listed on all the three stock exchanges. Since its inception, Arif Habib Securities has been one of the best-performing and most profitable brokerage houses in the country, helping its net profit jump to Rs 751.9 million by almost 200%. At the same time, the overall capital base of this firm had almost doubled to Rs 1415.1 million till 2003. Recently, Arif went out slating the imposition of 0.1 per cent Capital Value Tax on turnover and managed to get it slashed through negotiations with the government. Operating with numerous high-worth clients, Arif Habib has won it all through the reputation and connections he has managed to build since 1989. Arif's success is also attributed to the generous per centage of cash dividend and bonus issues that he believes in announcing regularly. The company's assets had surged from Rs 73.54 million in 1997-98 to Rs 2178.95 million by 2002-03, while earning per share had soared from 3.72 to 12532 during the same corresponding period.
40. Kassim Dada
Kassim Dada, hails from a 19th Century Memon business family known to have possessed the vision of international trade when most of their contemporaries were rather naïve on this count. This family had offices in Burma, South Africa and countries of the Far-East long before 1940. Dadas, have held decisive positions at the Karachi Stock Exchange and own shares of various Pakistani and foreign monopolies without creating any hype. Kassim Dada's family is known to have held major local equity in multinationals like Glaxo SmithKline, Brook Bond and Berger Paints, besides being the sponsoring directors of Messrs Hyderabad Electronics, Automotive Battery Limited and Interfund Bank etc. Kassim Dada is one of the few Pakistani Tycoons who used to fly on private planes from Karachi to his cement plants in Hyderabad. It was this family which had hired Mahatama Gandhi as a solicitor in 1890 to contest a business case in South Africa. Dada, was once a symbol of wealth.
Mian Muhammad Mansha Yaha is the captain of this splendid ship having around 30 companies on board. Mansha, who owns the Muslim Commercial Bank as well, is now setting up a billion rupee ($ 17 m) paper sack project too. He is one of the richest Pakistanis around. Nishat Group was country's 15th richest family in 1970, 6th in 1990 and Number 1 in 1997. Mansha is on the board of nearly 50 companies. Chinioti by clan, Mansha is married to Yousaf Saigol's daughter. He is deemed to have made investments in many bourses, currency and metal exchanges both within and outside Pakistan. He has had his share of luck on many occasions in life and has recently been awarded Pakistan's highest civil award by President Musharraf. He could have bought the United Bank too, but then who doesn't have adversaries. Nishat Group comprises of textiles, cement, leasing, insurance and management companies. If Mansha was bitten by Bhutto's nationalization stint of 1970, his friends think he was compensated by Nawaz Sharif's denationalization programme to a very good effect. There is no stopping Mansha and he is still on the move!
2. The Jang Group
This huge media empire was founded by late Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman some six decades ago. Today, around 10 top newspapers and the multi-billion rupee GEO TV project are being run by Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, Mir Khalil's brainy son, who has a lot of projects pertaining to real estate under his belt too. Though he can be very modest, Shakeel is known to have taken country's Prime Ministers head-on. His tussle with Nawaz Sharif in 1999 spoke volumes of his unmatched influence in all domestic and international quarters which matter Shakeel is one of Asia's most well known media barons, whose newspapers have served to be the breeding nurseries for country's top journalists. He invests massively in stocks business regularly. His elder brother Mir Javed ur Rehman and tender son Mir Ibrahim also assist him in business. Such magnificent has been his influence that at times, a few governments have opted to take a few of his employees as ministers. The Group, as most politicians agree, has been instrumental in both toppling and building governments in Pakistan for decades now. Limelight is the product that he sells but doesn't like tasting the fruits of his own garden.
3. The Hashoo Group
Led by the vintage Saddaruddin Haswani, the Hashoo Group is more known for its dominance in Pakistan's hotel industry, though the people who know a bit more about the Hashwanis are of their strength in real estate business too. Hashwanis are involved in trading of cotton grain and steel and till the nationalization of cotton export in 1974, they were widely being dubbed as the Cotton Kings of Pakistan. Today, this group has excelled in export of rice, wheat, cotton and barley. It owns textile units, besides having invested billions in mines, minerals. hotels, insurance, batteries, tobacco, residential properties, construction, engineering and information technology. In 1984, Hashwani defeated the Lakhanis in the bid for Premier Tobacco but was arrested along with his brother Akbar in 1986 for allegedly evading customs duty on cigarettes. Sadarduddin's brother Akbar and the children of another late brother Hassan Ali Hashwani together manage around 45 companies. Akbar runs the second Hashwani Group. He is one of the most well-known magnates in Pakistan who is a regular invitee at the Diplomatic Enclave. The list of local and international bigwigs known personally to Hashwani is unending.
4. The Packages Group
The seed of this huge empire was sown by Syed Maratib All, a renowned supplier for British Army and the Indian Railways before partition. The group launched a joint venture with Lever Brothers soon after 1947, but massive production of Pakistan Tobacco Company later reportedly made Syed Maratib All and sons install a packaging Unit by the names of Packages. Two of Maratib's sons-Syed Amjad Ali and Syed Babar Ali have remained Pakistan's finance Ministers and two of his well-known grand-children-Syeda Abida Hussain and Syed Fakhar Imam-are political stalwarts who need no recognition. Late Syed Amjad Ali was Pakistan's first Ambassador to the United Nations, while Syed Babar Ali is the force behind the establishment of the LUMS. The group owns Nestle Pakistan too which is being run by Syed Yawar Ali. Syed Babar Ali has also served as Chairman National Fertilizer Corporation during the Bhutto regime too and has been the Chairman of Hoeist Pakistan, Lever Brothers and Siemen. The group also acquired a good number of Coca Cola plants in Pakistan. Its famous brands include Nestle Milk Pak, Treet, Mitchells and Tri Pack Films. It has stakes in the textile, dairy, agriculture and rice Sectors too. The groups Contributions towards the cause of an independent Pakistan are unprecedented.
5. The House of Habib
Legend has it that the Goddess of Wealth has been in love with the seasoned Habibs more than anybody else in Pakistan. Most pundits believe that Habibs own at least 100 companies throughout the world, but these content mega-tycoons never boast off, something which has made it uphill for most to predict about their financial standing. This industrial group was founded by Seth Habib Mitha, born in 1878 to Esmail Ali-a factory owner in Bombay. The financial strength of the Habibs can be gauged from the fact that Muhammad Ali Habib gave a cheque of Rs 80 million to Quaid-e-Azam in 1948 at a time when Pakistan government was penniless owing to delay in transfer of Pakistan's share of Rs. 750 million by the Reserve Bank of India. They had offices in Europe in 1912. They incorporated the Habib Bank in 1941. They own the Habib Bank A.G Zurich, Bank Al-Habib, Indus Motors assembling Corolla cars and many dozens of units in sectors such as jute, paper sack, minerals, steel, tiles, synthetics sugar, glass, construction, concrete, farm autos, banking, oil, computers, music, paper, packages, leasing and capital management. Habibs today are headed by Rafiq Habib and Rashid Habib in two distinct groups. What makes them extremely influential players of all times is the fact that for dozens of top businessmen today, Habib were a myth once.
6. The Saigols
Saigols originally hail from Jehlum. The pioneer of the Saigol dynasty in 1890 was Amin Saigol who established a shoe shop that eventually transformed into Kohinoor Rubber Works. And then times saw them shining literally like the Kohinoor until their progress was by Nationalization in which they lost two-thirds of their wealth. Saigols got trifurcated in 1976 and 15 descendents of Amin Saigols tour sons got a share. The name of the Saigols has been used in this part of the world as similes describing quantum of wealth. Yousaf Saigol, along with his brothers Sayeed Saigol, Bashir Saigol and Gul Saigol then nourished an excellent crop. In 1948, Saigols established the Kohinoor Textile Mills with a cost of Rs 8 million and this group happens to be the first to open an LC with the State Bank of Pakistan. They bought the United Bank in 1959 and then witnessed five of their units getting nationalized. They lived in Saudi Arabia during the Bhutto regime. Today, cousins Tariq and Nasim are holding the family's fort together and have risen to unprecedented heights in individual capacities. NAB did haunt Nasim but Tariq spent more lime either accepting or refusing prized slots everywhere. Tariq is the one of the finest business brains around.
7. Nawa-E-Waqt Group
The Nizamis may not be Rockefellers or the Sheikh Muhammad, but arc the custodians of a highly influential media empire. Since media is now beginning to be classified as very serious business, clout of this group's head Majid Nizami and that of his nephew Arif Nizami in nearly every sphere or the Pakistani society is being widely acknowledged. The impact this group has managed create on Pakistan's political scenario since 1947 is unprecedented too. The group runs two esteemed dailies-the Nawa-i-Waqt (Urdu) and The Nation (English). Besides publishing a few other monthlies and weeklies, they too are serious customers for an electronic media channel. Hailing from Sangla Hill, a youth Hameed Nizami (late) went out taking a paper that was badly needed by the Muslims of India during the Pakistan Movement. Hameed was a renowned student leader in the sub-continent who only gained proximity with the Quaid-c-Azam because of his distinct and selfless for an independent Pakistan. Though Hameed died very young in 1962, he gave Majid Nizami a rich legacy to take care of. The youngest Nizami, Khalil, died some years ago and was also part of this illustrious group. Out of Hameed Nizami's three sons-Shoaib, Arif and Tahir, only Arif has followed in his father's footsteps and is the sitting President 0f All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS). Nizamis are a 60-year old entity too.
8. The Saif Group
Is owned and operated by the sons of famous NWFP lady politician Begum Kalsum Saifullah. Her eldest son Javid Saifullah heads Ibis very powerful business group. Javid obtained his Master degree in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh, USA in 1973, followed by diversified experience of over 30 years in textiles, telecommunication, cement and Information Technology. He also remained the Chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) for two years and NWFP for seven years. He has also been the member Task Force IT & Telecommunication Advisory Board, Ministry of Science and Technology, Member of Task Force (Liberalization & Privatization of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited), Ministry of Science & Technology)Javed Saifullah Khan is looking after the group businesses for the past 20 years. Saifullahs are in power always, in one form or the other. Javaid's brothers Anwar Saifullah, Khan (Former Federal Minister), Salim Saifullah Khan king-maker in NWFP polities) and Osman Saifullah (another APTMA& wizard) have very close family ties with a lot of key politicians in the country, besides being related directly or indirectly through marriages to the families of a few leading and famous Army Generals who ruled Pakistan.
9. The Crescent Group
The history of this group dates back to 1910 when Shams Din of Chiniot and his four sons came into business with a tannery at Amritsar. This family was allotted 125 acres in Faisalabad in lieu of their left-over property in India. These brothers' Muhammad Antis, Muhammad Bashir, Fazal Karim and Muhammad Shafi-then ruse up to become country's largest textile exporters. They had initially set up the Mohammad Amin-Muhammad Bashir Limited for export of cotton and import of various products. Having more than two dozen concerns in its fold, Crescent is majestic force to reckon with. This empire serves as the best example of cohesion among cousins, uncles and nephews. Altaf Saleem of this group has enjoyed the slot of Chairman Privatisation Commission during the Musharraf regime, but has not been accused of any bungling during despite having served on a Prized slot. The group today owns numerous textile, steel, sugar, modaraba, food, leasing, knitwear, software, power, chemical, banking and investment units. They are one of the richest people in the country for the last 40 odd years. This Chinioti Sheikh family has lived up with quite a wonderful reputation, bearing an excellent record with its creditors throughout its bu.siness history. Men running Crescent do not have to make contacts, for the privilege comes to them naturally.
10. The Monnoo Group
The Monnoo dynasty was founded by two brothers-Dust Muhammad and Nazir Hussain in 1905 at Calcutta. The first unit owned by the Monnoos was the Olympia Rubber Works. And then time saw the Monnoos setting up sonic 20 textile mills in succession. Former President Shahzada Alam Monnoo is the man behind the strength of this group-known more for its achievements in the textile sector. Munnoos have been a symbol of wealth during the last 65 years or so. Shahzada's brothers, .Jahengir and Kaiser are assisting him in business, while silting APTMA Central Chairman Waqar Monnoo also hails from this magnificent group. In East Pakistan, Monnoos had also left a few power, feed, textile and agriculture-related units some nine in all. Their elder Munir Monnoo, after leaving East Pakistan, had set up looms at Faisalabad. Shahzada Alum Monnoo, perhaps the well-dressed man in the country along with Saddar-ud-Din Hashwani, is no alien for any ruler. The Monnoos are Chiniotis too. Shahzada Alum Monnoo, after some break, is again active in the politics of Lahore Chamber while Jahengir Monnoo is siding with Waqar Monnoo in latter's vicious battle of ego with Messrs Tariq Saigol and Mian Mansha. They star in business politics of and on, but seem to have Inst the taste of ii somehow. Perhaps had enough of salutes!
11. The Dewan Group
Dewan Yousaf Farooqui. The mentor of this group has been the Sindh Minister for Local Bodies. Industries, Labour, Transport, Mines & Minerals. Holding of so many portfolios by a single man bears ample testimony to the fact that the Dewans keep a leg sticking in polities too. The Dewan Mushtaq Group is one of the Pakistan's largest industrial conglomerates in sectors like polyester acrylic fiber, manufacturing and automotives. Six of their companies are listed at the Karachi & stock Exchange and one at the Luxembourg bourse. Dewan Farooqui Motors assembles around 10,000 cars annually under technical license agreement with Hyundai and Kia Motors of Korea The Dewan Salman Fiber is the pride of this empire as it ranks 11th in the world in total production capacity. The group owns three textile units, a motorcycle manufacturing concern and the largest sugar unit in the country. Dewans also have business interests in India. They possess dozens of millions of shares of Saudi Cement and Pak land Cement. They finance some 40 medical dispensaries and over a dozen schools, apart from funding roads/drinking water and Bio-energy infrastructures. Dewans arc on their way building a $ 1O million SME Resources with IFC investment of $ 3 million. The Dewans enjoy massive influence in the engineering sector.
12. The Lakson Group
The Lakhanis are currently having a hard time at the hands of NAB. Sultan Lakhani and his three brothers run this prestigious group and the chain of McDonald's restaurants in Pakistan. NAB has alleged the Lakhanis of having created phoney companies through worthless directors and raised massive loans from various banks and financial institutions. Sultan is currently abroad after having served a jail term with younger sibling Amin, though the latter was released much earlier. NAB had reportedly demanded Rs 7 billion from Lakhanis, but later agreed they pay only Rs 1.5 billion over a 10-year period. Lakhanis, like their arch-rivals Hashwanis, are the most well-known of all Ismaeli tycoons. Their stakes range from media, tobacco, paper, chemicals and surgical equipment to cotton, packaging, insurance, detergents and other house-hold items, many of which are joint ventures with leading international conglomerates. Though Lakhanis are in turbulent waters currently, the success that greeted them during the last 25 years especially has been tremendous. They have rifts with large business empires despite being known fur their genteel nature. Whether it is any government in Sindh or at the Federal level, Lakhanis have had trusted friends everywhere, though the present era has proved a painful exception.
13. The Sapphire Group
Headed by a veteran industrialist Mian Abdullah, this splendid empire owns 11 yarn spinning plants (producing 60,000 tonnes of yarn annually), 3 woven plants of greige fabric ( producing 50 million metres annually), one yarn dyeing plant (capacity 5 tonnes per day), one knitting unit (10 tonnes per day), one knitted fabric dyeing plant (10 tonnes per day), one woven fabric dyeing and finishing plant ( 1.2 million metres per month) and three power plants having the capability to produce 40 MW of energy. Sapphire forms synergies with off-shore garments companies. The group markets its products in biggest brand names in Asia, Europe, Australia and North America. Sapphire started with one spinning mill in 1969 and employs over 10,000 people and has an annual turnover of $ 219 million. Mian Abdullah's repute can be gauged from the fact during the October 2003 minis at APTMA, more than 1000 textile millers bad tendered their resignations against incumbent Chief Waqar Monnoo to him. Dozens of leading tycoons had proposed his name to head APTMA in case of an interim setup. Having an influence among textile millers is no easy job but Mian Abdullah stands privileged in this context He is often seen part of the entourages of key business leaders to foreign countries and provides input to fellow colleagues whenever requested.
14. The Dawood Group
Was ranked Pakistan's biggest group in 1970, 3rd in 1990 and 15th in 1997 like all. Nationalization and the East Pakistan tragedy trampled all over the Dawoods too. Today, the original Dawood Group stands split in three factions. The owners of this empire refrained from opening any unit for a good part of some 20 odd years. This group was founded by Ahmed Dawood, but later the dynasty found itself divided among the three Dawood brothers-Ahmad Sadiq and Suleman, The key players in this group led lives in exile during the Bhutto regime. Former Federal Minister fur Commerce and Trade Razzak Dawood, the son of the late Suleman Dawned runs the Descon Engineering and a few other units dealing in manufacturing refrigerators and other consumer products. Hussain Dawuod, sun of Ahmed Dawood, has already rendered meritorious philanthropic services in the field of education by supporting brilliant and needy students. Hussain runs Dawood Hercules, some modaraba companies and a few textile units. The Sadiq Dawned Group owns a few leasing, modaraba and insurance concerns too, apart from the Dawood Yamaha. Sadiq Dawood's decision to become an MNA in 1951 and Treasurer Pakistan Muslim League during Ayub's rule certainly benefited the Dawoods.
15. The Best Way Group
Sir Anwar Pervaiz is the Chairman of Bestway Group which started off as a specialist Asian food store in West London in 1962. More retail units followed and by the early l970's the group had opened ten general food stores. He may easily be dubbed the richest Pakistani. The Bestway Group moved into the wholesale business in 1976 when its first Bestway cash and carry warehouse was established in London. Rapid expansion in wholesaling followed during the 1980's and 1990's, and to date, the Bestway Group comprises of about 30. The Bestway Group moved into the cement business in 1995 when it decided to set up cement manufacturing plant in Pakistan at a cost of $120 million. In 2002, the Bestway Group acquired a 25.5% stake in United Bank Limited. Today, the Bestway Group has a diversified portfolio, with interests in cash & carry wholesale, property investments, retail outlets, milling of rice, lentils and pulses, cement production and more recently into banking. The group's total sales amounted to in excess of £ 1 billion for the year ended 30th June 2002. The group provides direct employment to over 2300 people.
16. The Haroon Family
Headed by Yusuf Haroon, 9l, the former Sindh Chief Minister and Governor West Pakistan, this family owns The Herald Group of publications which includes the Daily Dawn, Monthly Herald, Aurora and Spider magazines. When he rose to Karachi's Mayorship, Yousaf was the youngest Mayor in sub-continent's history. This prominent scion of the Memon clan had remained a strong believer that General Zia-ul-Haq bad launched systematic discrimination against the Karachi businessmen that made the Memons fly outside Pakistan with their money. Yosaf's younger brother Mabmood A.Haroon has also remained Sindh's Governor, besides having served as ADC to Quaid-Azam at the age of 17. The Haroons; wealthiest in the country once, are prominent media barons of today who enjoy unmatched influence in country's political and business arena. Sir Abdullah Haroon, father of Yousaf and Mahmood, bad died in 1942, but sot before he had devoted his residence for the cause of Pakistan. Handling both business and politics at the same time never seemed tough job for the disciplined sons of Sir Abdullah Haroon. Yousaf Haroon also served a country's High Commissioner to Australia. The great grandfathers of the Haroons had migrated to Karachi some 150 years ago where they made fortunes in clothing and sugar trades.
17. The Yunus Brothers
The Chairman of this group is Abdul Razzak Tabba. This group owns one of the largest warehouses (textile products) in Pakistan. The concerns falling under the ambit of the Younus Brothers are Fazal Textiles, Gadoon Textiles, Lucky Cement, Lucky Energy, Lucky Power-Tech, Lucky Textiles, Younus Textiles, Security Electric Power Company and Younus Brothers etc. Razzak Tabba is an active player in the politics of the prestigious All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) too, apart from assuming a king-maker's role in the political arena of the FPCCI. Tabba came to more limelight last year when he hosted very heavily attended dinners in honour of the textile magnates from all across the country, while siding with Messrs Tariq Saigol and Mian Mansha in their battle against the APTMA Chief Waqar Monnno. He is quite a philanthropist too and has initiated various welfare projects for his Memon community in Karachi and Sindh. He frequently stars in the community welfare programmes held under the auspices of the Asia Tabba Foundation, World Memon Foundation and the Kathiawar Cooperative Housing society etc Tabba is a man who likes to keep away from camera and despite all his influence and riches-something which has made him earn tots of respect.
18. Gul Ahmad/Al-Karam Group
Gut Ahmad is one of the most vibrant Memon business houses in the country that was founded by Haji Mohammad Pakolawala, but is now split between Gul Ahmad and Al-Karam Group of Industries. While Gul Ahmad is headed by Bashir Al Muhammad, the Al-Karam faction is controlled by Umar Haji Karim. In 1953, Gul Ahmad was incorporated as a private limited company with a capital of Rs eight million. Gul Ahmad is presently a composite unit with an installed capacity of 88,000 spindles, 108 air-jet looms and 297 conventional looms. The group has been a pioneer in the field of power generation as well. Gul Ahmad's directors have held top positions in various textile bodies, export committees, besides having assisted government of Pakistan in few major talks with EU and US. The group is set to launch the Excel Insurance Company shortly as required licenses/documentation stands done. Al-Karam, on (be other hand, is one of the largest textile concerns in Pakistan producing superior quality yarn, apart from having Amna Industries, Orient Textiles, Imran Crown Cork, Gul Agencies, Dabheji Salt Works and Pakistan Synthetics in its wallet. It owns a dairy-related establishment too by the name of Pakistan Dairy Products Limited. During Moeen Qureshi's tenure, Alt Muhammad was appointed Vice Chairman of Export Promotion Bureau.
19. The Bawany Group
Bawany dynasty was founded by two Bawany brothers, Ahmad Karim Ebrahim Bawany and Abdul Latif Ibrahim Bawany born in 1882 and 1890 respectively at Jetpur, Kathiawar, who had migrated to Burma towards end the end of 19th century and set up Ahmad Violin Hosiery Works in Rangoon. In 1947, they migrated to Pakistan. It was perhaps in memory of the Hosiery Mills at Rangoon that a company with the same name was incorporated in Karachi and is doing a flourishing business. The name Bawany has its origin in the name of an elder of the family, who was known for his honesty and hard work in home-town Jetpur. They were the first among the Memons to open a purchase office in Japan and nre currently active in textiles, jute, sugar, particle board, Oxygen, leather, garments, tanneries and cables Bawanis are known to have maite night investment decisions at the right time and their contemperaine still acknowledge them for his quality. Bawanis are known to have made right investments us the right time-something their contemporaries acknowledge.
20. The Servis Group
Shahid Hussain is the Chairman of this massive foot-wear giant whicb now is neck-deep in textile business too. Shahid has replaced Ch Ahmad Saeed (sitting PIA Chairman (as the Servis boss. Both Chaudhary Ahmed Saeed and President General Musharraf happen to be old friends from their Forman Christian College days. Ch. Ahmad Saeed's younger brother Chaudhary Ahmed Multhtar is a well-known Pakistan Peoples Party leader who has been the Federal Commerce Minister of Pakistan during one of the two tenures of two-time ex-Premier Benazir Bhutto. Ch. Ahmad Saeed's son Arif Saeed is Chairman APTMA Punjab and is siding with his Central Chief Waqar Munnoo against a huge number of textile gurus. The Servis Group operates in sectors like shoes, tyres, cotton yarn, leather, syringes and retailing. The political constituency of these politicians-cum-businessmen also happens in be the feud-ridden Gujrat district of Punjab where Ahmed Mukhtar sometimes emerges triumphant against President Pakistan Muslim League Ch Shujaat Hussain, and at times loses the support of voters for a National Assembly seat. It is this proximity with various regimes that the Servis Group bus been rated so highly. And then, even if alleged for a white-collard crime, these Servis guys remain relatively comfortable-courtesy their clout as a political-cum-business family.
21. The Tata Family
Do not confuse the Tatas in Pakistan with their name-sake market leaders in India. Having migrated from Nepal Mehboob Elahi started with a tannery in Bangladesh much before 1971 but his five Sons Mehboob lqbal 'Tata ( Chairman Jinnah Hospital Lahore). Riaz Tata (President FPCCI) Anwar Tata (Former Chairman APTMA), Khalid Tata and ljaz Tate together built 15 odd units, ably supported by the third generation scions like Shahid, Masud and Hasan Tata. Tatas are in textile spinning, weaving, denim, woven, knitwear, leather and energy business. Having annual turnover in excess of Rs 1.5 billion, this Chinioti family too traces its presence in business as early as 200 years from now. Bound in a cohesive bond, each of the Tatas heads a separate unit. The sitting Federation President Riaz Tata heads the Naveena Exports Division and despite having faced some tough times at the top slot in the apex body. Pakistan's key business leader is holding his throne tightly, though there have been occasions when he (Riaz Tata) seriously thought in terms of vacating office due to business pre-occupation. But the mammoth number of colleagues and friends around him barred him from doing so. The vintage Tatas overall lead unassuming life styles. They love to remain in low key but prove their worth when times demand.
22. The Alam Group
This establishment comprising three leather and two textile units is led by former President Karachi Chamber Shahzada Alam, elder brother of sitting Vice President FPCCI and Senior Vice chairman Pak-USA Business Council Arshad Alam. Messrs Leather Connections, a joint venture with a UK conglomerate, is one of those units managed by this group which happens to be Pakistan's largest exporter of value-added leather products. While Leather Connections is looked after by Arshad Alam's son Khurshid Alam, the textile arm of this group is supervised by Faraz Alam son of Shafiq Alam, the youngest Alam brother. The family has also made huge investments in real estate and stocks, within and outside Pakistan. While the younger creed looks after business, the elder Alams give time to their passion of playing ring leaders in the politics of the FPCCI and other business chambers. The group also runs an import/export entity by the name of Continental Traders, besides having recently set sails for investment in media too. Shahzada Alam gained more recognition when he went out airing strong resentment against the involvement of business institutions in country's politics. The Alams are an eminent Chinioti family in business for the last 150 odd years, known more for dominance in leather sector. COMPASS is the name of the philanthropic school for retarded and disabled children which the Alams operate in Gulberg Lahore sans any external assistance.
23. The Guard Group
The 87-year old Malik Shafi, decorated with Pakistan's highest civil award, still looks after numerous business entities with complete vigour. Eldest of his four sons is the former LCCI/FPCCI President lftikhar Malik who is also the sitting Chairman of Pak-US Business Council. The Guard Group deals in automotive parts, filters, brake fluids and other vital accessories of motor vehicles. The group has enjoyed monopoly in this business since 1959, when the government servant turned magnate Malik Shaft decided to enter business. Guard Rice, one of the largest exporters of this community around the world, is being run by Shafis youngest son Shahzad Matte who is also holding the slot of Lahore Chamber's Vice President. The' other two Maliks-Waqar and Shahbaz control the technical sides of their family business, apart from keeping an eye on this group's real estate & agricultural land holdings. Maliks are an Arain Punjabi family that also runs a few free hospitals and dispensaries. Malik lftikhar however, is keener with his hobby to be in limelight all the time and is perhaps Pakistan's most photographed tycoon. While people refrain from coming under camera when they grow in stature, Malik loves operating a Lahore-Islamabad shuttle service to sit next to anyone who is ruling. But then he delivers when needed
24. The Ejaz Group
This establishment owns country's largest knitwear-cum-dyeing facility at Lahore. More than half a dozen textile units of Ejaz Group are being run by yet another chinioti scion Mian Gohar Ejaz, son of late Senator Sheikh Ejaz. Gohar held the reins of this group very much during his college days when Sheikh Ejaz left for his heavenly abode after protracted illness that lasted months. Gohar is now a noted policy maker at both Federal and Provincial Textile Boards. He is one of the Boards of Governors at the Punjab institute of Cardiology Lahore. People started paying a heed to his leadership abilities in 1997, when he took on the APTMA grey-heads convincingly during the 1997 annual polls and narrowly lost to his opponent in fight for the top slot. Gohar then had led a rebellion comprising promising youth from renowned textile families. Against the hegemony of stalwarts including the likes of Messrs Tariq Saigol, Mansha and Jahengir Elahi etc. His younger brother Mian Faisal Ejaz is the son-in-law of Shahzada Alam Monnoo. He is yet another investor in mutual funds and real estate, though relies more on his obsession i.e. the textiles and his passion which is value-addition in this sector. The services Gohar has rendered for creating awareness with reference to value-addition are certainly quite meritrions.
25. The Tabani Family
The Tabanis are also deemed as one of the biggest groups associated with manufacturing, trade, export and import business. They are one of the few Pakistani industrialists holding massive stakes in Central Asian Republics. They own Pakistan's first private airline-Aero Asia. Yaqoob Tabani is this group's chairman. The fields of Tabanis' businesses include counter trade and barter transactions, textiles, fashion garments, leather, tourism, automobiles, shipping, power generation, oil and gas, metals, chemicals, fertilizers, cigarettes, cement and medicines. Tabanis have wings stretched everywhere. You name a business field and Tabanis are there. But despite all the clout it enjoys at the top levels, the family opts to remain modest. Ashraf Tabani, an elder Tabani, has served Sindh's Governor, Provincial Minister of Finance, Industries, Excise and Taxation between 1981 and 1984. He was appointed Honorary Administrator of the FPCCI during the 1971-1973 periods soon after Bhutto's Nationalization. Ashraf Tabani has also served as Chairman Employers Federation Pakistan, President Silk and Rayon Mills Association and former Chairman of Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan's Board of Directors. They are a leading Memon family, also engaged in funding various public welfare schemes. Though scandals can confront any industrial establishment of this size, Tabanis have been fairly lucky in evading them.
26. The Tapal Group
Is headed by Aftab Tapal. The group's success in tea business has astounded many. The journey of Tapal's remarkable success is the combined harvest of three generations of this family. In 1947, Tapal started out as a family concern under the supervision of Adam Ali Tapal. Faced with tough competition from very well known tea brands in the market, the Tapals dispelled the common impression that their capital base would soon be eroded. The company grew under Faizullah Tapal, whose son Aftab today brings a lot of innovation and marketing vision to make Tapal a household name. After having lived abroad, Aftab rushed hack home with flourishing ideas and introduced new concepts in the commodity that was first sold at Thomas Garway's Coffee House in London in 1657. Equipped with latest state-of-the art blending and tea-mixing paraphernalia. Tapal is today Pakistan largest tea company as its consumption runs into millions of cups every month, according to an estimate by this company's marketing division. In December 1997, Tapal Tea became the first Pakistani of its kind to have attained the ISO-9001 certification. Tapals are also known to have stakes in power generation business. But their tea makes the Tapals known to all. The group claims nearly 1.4 million cups of tea in Pakistan are made of Tapal every hour.
27. The Atlas Group
This group was founded by Yousaf Sherazi, a former Income Tax official and journalist in 1962 with a capital of Rs 03 million only. The first company set by the Atlas Group was Sherazi Investments (Pvt) Limited and since then, there is no looking back. The East Pakistan tragedy, however, nearly crippled Sherazi but he never lost hope and went out forming numerous joint ventures with leading Japanese concerns like Honda. Atlas-Honda today is a name to reckon with in country's engineering sector and associated with this just one name are hundreds of vendors. He holds stakes in insurance, financial services, information technology, leasing, warehouses, office equipment, motor cars and motorcycle-assembling units, besides running a renowned firm that manufactures batteries. Sherazi owns the Atlas Investment Bank too. The Federal Budget 2004-05 is perhaps the only budget in country's history that has hit the very influential car manufacturers on the head, otherwise people like Yousaf Sherazi have always managed to dictate terms where it matters. The Atlas Group owns no less than seven companies quoted on the stock exchanges of Pakistan. The group's assets are believed to have touched the Rs 15 billion mark and so have the sales.
28. The Abid Group
Is run by Sheikh Abid Hussain alias Seth Abid. He is one of the most resourceful developers/builders in the country owning vast stretches of land in major cities. On this land worth many billion of rupees, Seth has constructed residential schemes under the brand name of "Green Fort." Seth came into this business after decades of notoriety as being one of the spearheads in cross-border smuggling. While many remember Seth for his allegedly illegal trading stints, a lot of informed circles still say with conviction that he, along with Dr.Qadeer and former Premier Bhutto, was the brain behind the success of Pakistan's nuclear programme. About three dozen of Seth's very close relatives, friends and nephews are members of country's bourses and for many years now, the Seth Abid group assumes the role of king-makers during the annual polls of these stock exchanges. He is a leading investor in stocks, metals and currency but what gives him immense pleasure is his philanthropic institution Hamza Foundation that he sponsors for the welfare of deaf and dumb children. Pakistan has not had a single ruler, politician, bureaucrat or Army General who doesn't know the Seth who is more of a myth for most. The Seth, throughout his life, has avoided publicity-a fact known to most journalists.
29. The Sheikhani Family
They are one of the most reputed land developers in the country. The Sheikhani, although not a very big industrial establishment by any means, are led by Abu Bakar Sheikhani. The Sheikhanis are famous for their construction and land development-related errands. Abu Bakar is deemed to be one of the largest investors in real estate trade at Gwadar Port. He has all the right connections that are required to be in such business. Despite being well known to the national political circles, the man in street knew more of him during March/April 1991 when he surfaced as the single largest contributor to then Premier Nawaz Sharif's Debt Retirement Fund with a donation of Rs 450 million. Today, his adversaries dub him a land mafia man, alleging him for selling his Gwadar land at only $ 4000 per acre only to senior Army officials while the same was being sold at $ 2,50,000 per acre to ordinary investors. But that is the way Sheikhani runs his vast land/construction empire. Accusations don't disturb Sheikhani, who according to many large developers is a man who has managed to create tremendous impression in land business. The rumours of his landing in any Pakistani City for land acquisition purposes, helps the price of real estate surge unprecedently overnight.
30. The Dadabhoy Group
Abdul Ghani Dadabhoy was the founder of Dadabhoy group, starting in trade and branching off into the construction business. The group has a big share of cement market in Southern Pakistan. Memons by clan, Dadabhoys are closely related to the Bawanies. Abdul Ghani Dadabhoy had five sons and two daughters, namely Noor Mohammad Dadabhoy, Mohammad Farooq Dadabhoy, Mohammad Hussain Dadabhoy, Abdullah Hussain Dada Bhoy and Ghulam Mohammad Dadabhoy. Daughters are Mrs Mehrunisa Jaffer and Mrs Zaibunisa Tanveer. This Group has massive investments in cement, energy, construction, leasing, polyester, banking and insurance etc. Dadabhoys are seasoned campaigners and perhaps do not like being brought into any sort of reckoning like the Habibs. Despite being a formidable business entity, this family is deemed to be extremely reluctant throughout its history, when it comes to flashing headlines, but mind you these unassuming Dadabhoys are still news-worthy. Any good day, you might hear them doing something new. Stock pundits know a lot more about their past stints at the country's bourses.
31. The Bahria Town (Pvt) Limited
Malik Riaz Hussain heads the massive project which is currently developing state-of-the-art schemes in Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad. Though Malik Riaz may not be having a very renowned name in business circles, fact has it that the value of his land-holdings both within & outside Pakistan amounts dozens of billions of rupees. Emerging out of the blue, this developer has reportedly developed tremendous connections where it matters in Pakistan-One of the few reasons why his constructed projects get completed in time without hindrance. Whether he has gifted bungalows free of cost of country's bigwigs or offered them at highly concessional rates, the reality on the ground is that Malik has managed to mesmerize most through his generous wallet. Possessing no convincing financial background, Malik Riaz is known to have been benefited immensely-courtesy patronage of former Pakistan Navy chief admiral retired Mansoor ul Haq. Others say both Malik and the admiral had stuck a $ 200,000 deal but the man behind the Bahria Town is least moved and irrespective of who is in power; he continues to build house after house-swelling his wealth. And then he is happy being a sponsor for many-welfare parties held under patronage of the ruling elite.
32. Adamjee Group
The seed of the formidable Adamjee Empire was sown by Haji DAwood in 1896 by establishing a commodity trading company. His son Sir Adeamjee, Haji Dawood went out building a match factory, second largest of its kind then, in 1923 at Rangoon (Burma). By 1947 Adamjee Group wan the biggest exporter of jute from Calcutta. During Bhutto's nationalization, they lost the Muslim Commercial Bank & stakes in the Mohammadi Steamship Company, leaving then with only Adamjee sugar Mills and Adamjee Cotton Mills, Karachi. Toda, they own the KSB pumps, besides having poured money in paper flooring, diesel engineering, construction centre, garments, general trading, insurance and chemicals etc. one of the biggest names in 1970's, the Adamjee some-how failed to keep hold on Pakistan's largest insurance companies. The Adamjee Insurance Company is one of them, which still has around 70% of country's total insurance business & is the most internationally reputed and accepted Pakistani company of its kind.
33. Jahangir Siddiqui& Co
This firm has floated ABAMCO which is perhaps the largest mutual fund in Pakistan's capital market arena. The firm offers full financial services in the securities industry. ABAMCO is a joit venture among major Pakistani and foreign institutions including International Financial Corporation (IFC) headquartered in Washington. Muslim Commercial Bank, Saudi Pak Commercial Bank & Messrs AMVESCAP, which is a British company created through the merger of the AIM Management Group with and into a subsidiary of INVESCO which is one of the largest asset managers on the globe having assets worth approximately $ 348 billion under its direct management. While the Munawwar Aslam Siddiqui is the Chairman of this apex capital market operator, Najam Ali sits in the Chairman's office of the Jahengir Siddiqui and company. The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PCRA) has awarded heartening long and short term ratings to this concern. ABAMCO was incorporated in 1995. ABAMCO is the first asset management company in the private sector in the country. MCB, with a deposit base in excess of Rs 182 billion & operating with a network of 257 on-line branches too has played a major role in ABAMCO's success.
34. The Din Group
The group is headed by S.M.Muneer, former president of FPCCI and that of the Karachi Gymkhana. He is vice chairman of Muslim Commercial Bank too.Muneer's din Group is engaged in textiles and leather business mainly, though this Chinoti family has also made massive investments in real estates and stock business too.Muneer has been active in few political tenures too, as the former two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto had appointed him Minister of state along with Mian Habibullah, another Chinoti who has headed the FPCCI too. Though people still remember Habibullah as having served as Chairman Export Promotion Bureau during Benazir Bhutto's regime, they tend to forget that time had come when Muneer also shared EPB's Fairs and Exhibition Division with him.Muneer's son SM.Tanveer is a key figure at APTMA Punjab Zone. He is a busy bee in business politics. Despite hectic life schedule, he still manages to take time out and play an active role at prime business bodies in one way or the other.muneer has a visible instinct to be district-a passion that has helped him rise to all heights. At Din Textiles, the entrepreneurs have strived to produce nearly 1000 shades by mixing dyed cotton.
35. The Adil Group
Mian Adil Mehmood, who is married to Mian Mansha's niece, is in textiles business mainly, but what has actually helped him climb the ladder of fame and respect, have been his untiring efforts to resolve the problems of bank defaulters under Governor State Bank of Pakistan, in collaboration with country's Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) all of which has resulted in revival of sick induxtries. Both defaulters & banks appear indebted to Adil as he has visibly save one party from a possible action & other from spending millions of rupees on lenghthy litigation. Along with Mian Usman, Adil was appointed member Governor SBP, s Dispute Resolution Committee on Defaulted Loans in 2001 and since then he has been flying between Lahore & Karachi to provide respite to some 700 defaulters meaning thereby that he has been catalyst in helping banks recover billions of rupees from their stuck up credits. Adil is also senior Vice Chairman APTMA Punjab zone. By vitue of the honorary slots he holds, this Chinoti magnate has been one of the most sought after businessman in the country of late, despite him chanting the merit slogan. Like most of his contemporaries, he too has excelled in philanthropic services. Free eye-treatment is what his charity specialises in.
36. Chenab Group
Mian Muhammad Latif supervises this group along with his brother Mian Ashfaque- a legislator in the National Assembly of Pakistan. Founded in 1975, Chenab Limited set up its first fashion outlet "Chen One." Chen One has seven outlets throughout Pakistan. After establishing its retail chain stores in various cities of Saudi Arabia, the group is now planning to establish its new retail chains in Bahrain, UA.E, Qatar, Kuwait and Central Asian Republics. While Chenab Group is an eight-time Export Trophy winner, its Chief Mian Latif has won the 'Businessman of the Year award on four different occasions from various business bodies. Chenab is principally engaged in manufacture and distribution of clothing, furniture goods, including non-iron suit, quilt cover and curtains etc. Chenab processes 50 million square metres fabric weaving and 75 million square metres fabric dyeing every year and has established a global sales network spanning across five continents. Chenab is licensed to the Swedish Texcote Technology in the manufacturing and sale of textile materials, garments and textile house-hold goods. In August 2003, the Chenab Group signed a Rs 900 million loan facility with the National Bank of Pakistan. The group's textile products have been awarded the Oekotex 100 accreditation.
37. Sitara Group
Started its activity with textile weaving as early as 1956, under brothers Haji Abdul Ghafoor and Haji Bashir Ahmed. It is now its textile cloth finishing and processing, textile spinning, chlor-alkali sector and in power generation. The units owned by this establishment include Sitara Chemicals, Sitara Chemicals (Textile Division 1) and Sitara Chemicals (Textile Division 11), Sitara Textiles, Sitara Energy and Yasir Spinning. The charities being managed under the aegis of Sitara group are Aziz Fatima Hospital, Ghafoor Bashir Children Hospital and Aziz Fatima Girls School. Sitara's name with the industrial City of Faisalabad is synonymous. They are the decades-old veterans in business, who have excelled in leaps and bounds. At their units, the owners of Sitara use technology imported from Japan, UK and Germany and are export leaders in bedding and fabric collection to South America, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Europe. Their textile divisions together operate at strength of 33,984 spindles. The Sitara (group, to a common man, is more famous for its lawn brands like Sitara Sapna and Mughal-e-Azam. The men at helm of affairs in Sitara hardly believe in setting up dozens of units, of which they are otherwise very much capable of.
38. The Colony Group
Mian Muhammad lsmaeel Sheikh, who laid the foundation stone of this group, set up his first factory in 1898, first flour mill in 1908, taking Colony Group's total tally to 14 ginning factories and 4 flour mills by 1947. The group suffered heavily during Zulfiqar Bhutto's nationalization and it was left only with a few textile mills, flour mills and ginning factories. Though Sheikh Ismaeel's heirs could not manage to take Colony's name to the top, they have had an excellent time. But despite their share of hard luck, Colony Group's owners that still run some jute, textile and financial companies. Colony Textile Mills was the first unit of its kind to go into operation in independent Pakistan. Ismaeel Sheikh's sons Aziz, Naseer, Farooq and Mughis have also been active in politics. They once owned equities in newspaper and a few of them even went out contesting elections in 1970. These Colony people, many thought, could have scaled far more greater heights, because the kind of start they had in business falls in the lap of very lucky people only.
39. Arif Habib Securities
This company is owned by Chairman Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) Arif Habib. It is one of the largest brokerage operations on the bourse. One of its subsidiaries-Arif Habib Investment Management Limited-specialises in mutual funds. By 2001, this concern was listed on all the three stock exchanges. Since its inception, Arif Habib Securities has been one of the best-performing and most profitable brokerage houses in the country, helping its net profit jump to Rs 751.9 million by almost 200%. At the same time, the overall capital base of this firm had almost doubled to Rs 1415.1 million till 2003. Recently, Arif went out slating the imposition of 0.1 per cent Capital Value Tax on turnover and managed to get it slashed through negotiations with the government. Operating with numerous high-worth clients, Arif Habib has won it all through the reputation and connections he has managed to build since 1989. Arif's success is also attributed to the generous per centage of cash dividend and bonus issues that he believes in announcing regularly. The company's assets had surged from Rs 73.54 million in 1997-98 to Rs 2178.95 million by 2002-03, while earning per share had soared from 3.72 to 12532 during the same corresponding period.
40. Kassim Dada
Kassim Dada, hails from a 19th Century Memon business family known to have possessed the vision of international trade when most of their contemporaries were rather naïve on this count. This family had offices in Burma, South Africa and countries of the Far-East long before 1940. Dadas, have held decisive positions at the Karachi Stock Exchange and own shares of various Pakistani and foreign monopolies without creating any hype. Kassim Dada's family is known to have held major local equity in multinationals like Glaxo SmithKline, Brook Bond and Berger Paints, besides being the sponsoring directors of Messrs Hyderabad Electronics, Automotive Battery Limited and Interfund Bank etc. Kassim Dada is one of the few Pakistani Tycoons who used to fly on private planes from Karachi to his cement plants in Hyderabad. It was this family which had hired Mahatama Gandhi as a solicitor in 1890 to contest a business case in South Africa. Dada, was once a symbol of wealth.
Area Code Locator and Reverse Phone Lookup Services
In the age when it is so easy to reach out and make a telephone call, it has become difficult (if not impossible) to keep trace off area codes and information about telephone numbers. Imagine there are 372 current area codes and 14 more already allocated for expansion. Keeping track of which area codes are located where can be an overwhelming.
Thanks to Area Code Locator that they have made it easy. Whenever you need information related to an area code, just perform a search at AreaCodeLocator.org and find out exactly were exactly is the area code is located. They also have displayed the list of all U.S. based area codes and have separated each one by state to make your search fast and easy. By selecting an area code from the list you'll gain information related to the general location, relative county, city and zip code. If you need to perform a more in-depth search, enter a full phone number in the search box provided to get instant results for the information you're looking for.
What is more, you can perform a Reverse Phone Lookup that will give you detailed results about any number you search for. By entering in a phone number in the search box on the site, you instantly get information that tells you what are the phone number came from. Or perform an advance reverse phone search for more information. Have a look at the site and see what they are offering and how. Better still, try them.
Thanks to Area Code Locator that they have made it easy. Whenever you need information related to an area code, just perform a search at AreaCodeLocator.org and find out exactly were exactly is the area code is located. They also have displayed the list of all U.S. based area codes and have separated each one by state to make your search fast and easy. By selecting an area code from the list you'll gain information related to the general location, relative county, city and zip code. If you need to perform a more in-depth search, enter a full phone number in the search box provided to get instant results for the information you're looking for.
What is more, you can perform a Reverse Phone Lookup that will give you detailed results about any number you search for. By entering in a phone number in the search box on the site, you instantly get information that tells you what are the phone number came from. Or perform an advance reverse phone search for more information. Have a look at the site and see what they are offering and how. Better still, try them.
What Type of Personality You Have
Are you single and still looking? What are your chances to settle with the ‘ideal’ person with whom you want to spend rest of your life. Take dating quiz to find out what type of personality you have – frustrated, romantic, cool. The short quiz at WestEastCafe.eu is very cool and fun. Try that.
Economic Recession
Given this economic recession, I asked people from different segments of our multi-classed society to account for their monthly income and spending. All the accounts were very revealing. This is the story that moved every one.
An old lady named Suban, in her late 70s may be, she did not know her age, lives alone with no male member to look her after. Having lived all her life in the remote village in district Chitral, her total possession is three goats she had. She takes them out for grazing every day and also performs other domestic chores single-handed. She is healthy, active and happy with life. I once asked her about how she manages her expanses (read budget)? On lot of coaxing she said, "I will be happier if my goat delivers three lambs this time." Surprised, I asked her to explain. She said, "I will sell the lambs and put a new roof on my home and will sell all the milk to live comfortably!" Her budget is simpler but life certainly is tough.
An old lady named Suban, in her late 70s may be, she did not know her age, lives alone with no male member to look her after. Having lived all her life in the remote village in district Chitral, her total possession is three goats she had. She takes them out for grazing every day and also performs other domestic chores single-handed. She is healthy, active and happy with life. I once asked her about how she manages her expanses (read budget)? On lot of coaxing she said, "I will be happier if my goat delivers three lambs this time." Surprised, I asked her to explain. She said, "I will sell the lambs and put a new roof on my home and will sell all the milk to live comfortably!" Her budget is simpler but life certainly is tough.
Politics in Punjab
Anwar Syed
We the Punjabis have never excelled in the art of associating together to pursue the common good. A few relevant cases described below may be of interest.
An unceasing quest for dominance destabilised the Punjab Muslim League and its government within weeks of the country’s establishment. On Aug 16, 1947 Nawab Mamdot, the party’s provincial president, became the chief minister. Mumtaz Daultana, one of the party’s leading men, was taken as a minister in his cabinet. He did not think much of Mamdot’s standing as a landed aristocrat or his abilities as a politician and administrator.
By the end of December the estrangement between the two became widely known and began to create factional divisions in both the administration and the party organisation. Mr Jinnah twice summoned them to Karachi to resolve their differences but his efforts failed. The governor, Sir Francis Mudie, also tried to bring about a reconciliation between them but he too failed.
Mumtaz Daultana resigned his cabinet post in June 1948. In November he ran for the party president’s office against Mamdot’s nominee, Alauddin Siddiqui, and won by a small margin. He proceeded to campaign for Mamdot’s removal as chief minister and got a little more than one half of the party’s MPAs to sign a statement demanding his resignation. Daultana sent word of this statement to Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and advised him to dismiss the Mamdot ministry.
Liaquat Ali Khan came to Lahore in January 1949 and Mamdot showed him a statement signed by a majority of the MPAs expressing confidence in him. The prime minister noticed that the names and signatures of several MPAs appeared on both statements.
Instead of asking the governor to call the assembly to session to show whether Mamdot had majority support, he advised the governor general to dismiss the Mamdot ministry, dissolve the assembly, and impose governor’s rule in the province.
The Punjab Muslim League council met on July 24, 1950 but the meeting turned chaotic. Mian Abdul Bari, its president at the time, failed to restore order and left the meeting along with Mamdot and their supporters. Daultana and his supporters stayed on, dismissed Bari and elected Soofi Abdul Hamid, a Daultana nominee, as president. Despondent, Mamdot left the Muslim League and set up a party of his own called the Jinnah Awami Muslim League.
Provincial assembly elections were held in March 1951 which the Punjab Muslim League won with a landslide and elected Daultana as the chief minister. He got the position for which he had resorted to manipulation and intrigue for four years. His dominance in the PML and the government in Punjab would, however, last only a couple of years.
Following the elections of 1970, Punjab emerged as the stronghold of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the PPP. Ahmad Raza Kasuri, one of the party’s founding members, denounced Bhutto’s decision to stay away from the National Assembly session scheduled for March 3, 1971. He tried to set up a faction within the party but eventually left to join Asghar Khan’s Tehrik-i-Istaqlal. Mukhtar Rana, a militant socialist and effective labour leader in Faisalabad, criticised Mr Bhutto’s ‘fascist’ inclinations. He was sent to prison on a charge of inciting violence and, allegedly, died under torture.
Fist fights between PPP factions were reported from several Punjab towns as far back as May 1972. Higher party dignitaries were by no means above factional rivalries. Sheikh Rashid, one of the venerated party elders, was president of the Punjab PPP while Ghulam Mustafa Khar, known to be close to Mr Bhutto, was the secretary general. He, being the domineering type, did not want to work with Rashid who was popular with many of the party leaders and workers. At the beginning of 1972, Khar became Governor of Punjab but retained his party post.
Khar as governor had influence with the provincial police and controlled some of the government patronage. He used these levers, and his reputation as Bhutto’s friend, to harass and dislodge Rashid’s supporters. By May 1973 there was hardly a party branch organisation in Lahore that had any pro-Rashid functionaries.
In a party ‘reorganisation’ in the summer of 1973, Sheikh Rashid lost his position and a Khar nominee, Mohammad Afzal Wattoo, one of the few PPP candidates to have been defeated in the 1970 elections, replaced him. Thus Khar emerged as the effective head of both the government and the party in Punjab. But as in the earlier case of Daultana, his glory would be short-lived: he was forced to resign his post in March 1974.
Coming to more recent times, we saw Shahbaz Sharif and the PML-N members in his cabinet asking the PPP ministers to go away. They argued that since the PML-N had withdrawn from the PPP-led government at the centre, the PPP ministers in Punjab should be nice guys and reciprocate. This was poor reasoning. Nawaz Sharif withdrew his men from the central government because he was unhappy with Asif Zardari, who had gone back on his promise to reinstate the deposed judges. But the PPP ministers in Punjab were not unhappy and had no reason to quit their posts.
It would have been proper for Shahbaz Sharif to throw out the PPP ministers if they had been particularly corrupt or incompetent, or if they had been obstructionists in cabinet meetings. But none of that was alleged. The real reason for the PML-N’s demand has never been revealed. I venture to suggest that it may have been something like the following:
As the recently reported settlement between the two sides tells us, the PPP ministers wanted their share of development funds and jobs, and they wanted their advice concerning the postings and transfers of officials in their areas to be heeded. This would have shown their constituents that they were doing a good job for the folks back home and would incline them to vote for the same aspirants in the next election.
Shahbaz Sharif and company did not want these PPP politicians to win next time. They wanted to replace them with their own people who would use funds and jobs to ingratiate themselves with the PPP’s current voters and defeat that party’s candidates in the next election.
In other words, it was the PML-N’s design to drive the PPP, its main rival, out of Punjab. It is good that eventually wiser counsels prevailed.
The writer is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts.
We the Punjabis have never excelled in the art of associating together to pursue the common good. A few relevant cases described below may be of interest.
An unceasing quest for dominance destabilised the Punjab Muslim League and its government within weeks of the country’s establishment. On Aug 16, 1947 Nawab Mamdot, the party’s provincial president, became the chief minister. Mumtaz Daultana, one of the party’s leading men, was taken as a minister in his cabinet. He did not think much of Mamdot’s standing as a landed aristocrat or his abilities as a politician and administrator.
By the end of December the estrangement between the two became widely known and began to create factional divisions in both the administration and the party organisation. Mr Jinnah twice summoned them to Karachi to resolve their differences but his efforts failed. The governor, Sir Francis Mudie, also tried to bring about a reconciliation between them but he too failed.
Mumtaz Daultana resigned his cabinet post in June 1948. In November he ran for the party president’s office against Mamdot’s nominee, Alauddin Siddiqui, and won by a small margin. He proceeded to campaign for Mamdot’s removal as chief minister and got a little more than one half of the party’s MPAs to sign a statement demanding his resignation. Daultana sent word of this statement to Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and advised him to dismiss the Mamdot ministry.
Liaquat Ali Khan came to Lahore in January 1949 and Mamdot showed him a statement signed by a majority of the MPAs expressing confidence in him. The prime minister noticed that the names and signatures of several MPAs appeared on both statements.
Instead of asking the governor to call the assembly to session to show whether Mamdot had majority support, he advised the governor general to dismiss the Mamdot ministry, dissolve the assembly, and impose governor’s rule in the province.
The Punjab Muslim League council met on July 24, 1950 but the meeting turned chaotic. Mian Abdul Bari, its president at the time, failed to restore order and left the meeting along with Mamdot and their supporters. Daultana and his supporters stayed on, dismissed Bari and elected Soofi Abdul Hamid, a Daultana nominee, as president. Despondent, Mamdot left the Muslim League and set up a party of his own called the Jinnah Awami Muslim League.
Provincial assembly elections were held in March 1951 which the Punjab Muslim League won with a landslide and elected Daultana as the chief minister. He got the position for which he had resorted to manipulation and intrigue for four years. His dominance in the PML and the government in Punjab would, however, last only a couple of years.
Following the elections of 1970, Punjab emerged as the stronghold of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the PPP. Ahmad Raza Kasuri, one of the party’s founding members, denounced Bhutto’s decision to stay away from the National Assembly session scheduled for March 3, 1971. He tried to set up a faction within the party but eventually left to join Asghar Khan’s Tehrik-i-Istaqlal. Mukhtar Rana, a militant socialist and effective labour leader in Faisalabad, criticised Mr Bhutto’s ‘fascist’ inclinations. He was sent to prison on a charge of inciting violence and, allegedly, died under torture.
Fist fights between PPP factions were reported from several Punjab towns as far back as May 1972. Higher party dignitaries were by no means above factional rivalries. Sheikh Rashid, one of the venerated party elders, was president of the Punjab PPP while Ghulam Mustafa Khar, known to be close to Mr Bhutto, was the secretary general. He, being the domineering type, did not want to work with Rashid who was popular with many of the party leaders and workers. At the beginning of 1972, Khar became Governor of Punjab but retained his party post.
Khar as governor had influence with the provincial police and controlled some of the government patronage. He used these levers, and his reputation as Bhutto’s friend, to harass and dislodge Rashid’s supporters. By May 1973 there was hardly a party branch organisation in Lahore that had any pro-Rashid functionaries.
In a party ‘reorganisation’ in the summer of 1973, Sheikh Rashid lost his position and a Khar nominee, Mohammad Afzal Wattoo, one of the few PPP candidates to have been defeated in the 1970 elections, replaced him. Thus Khar emerged as the effective head of both the government and the party in Punjab. But as in the earlier case of Daultana, his glory would be short-lived: he was forced to resign his post in March 1974.
Coming to more recent times, we saw Shahbaz Sharif and the PML-N members in his cabinet asking the PPP ministers to go away. They argued that since the PML-N had withdrawn from the PPP-led government at the centre, the PPP ministers in Punjab should be nice guys and reciprocate. This was poor reasoning. Nawaz Sharif withdrew his men from the central government because he was unhappy with Asif Zardari, who had gone back on his promise to reinstate the deposed judges. But the PPP ministers in Punjab were not unhappy and had no reason to quit their posts.
It would have been proper for Shahbaz Sharif to throw out the PPP ministers if they had been particularly corrupt or incompetent, or if they had been obstructionists in cabinet meetings. But none of that was alleged. The real reason for the PML-N’s demand has never been revealed. I venture to suggest that it may have been something like the following:
As the recently reported settlement between the two sides tells us, the PPP ministers wanted their share of development funds and jobs, and they wanted their advice concerning the postings and transfers of officials in their areas to be heeded. This would have shown their constituents that they were doing a good job for the folks back home and would incline them to vote for the same aspirants in the next election.
Shahbaz Sharif and company did not want these PPP politicians to win next time. They wanted to replace them with their own people who would use funds and jobs to ingratiate themselves with the PPP’s current voters and defeat that party’s candidates in the next election.
In other words, it was the PML-N’s design to drive the PPP, its main rival, out of Punjab. It is good that eventually wiser counsels prevailed.
The writer is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts.
Non Proft Debt Consolidation
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Have a look at Delray Credit Counceling and see what they are offering and how? See their free ongoing credit counseling services and educational materials for everyone and learn about their debt management plan program.
Have a look at Delray Credit Counceling and see what they are offering and how? See their free ongoing credit counseling services and educational materials for everyone and learn about their debt management plan program.
Delray Credit Counseling is a non-profit educational service dedicated to providing consumers with the financial education and resources they need. Their goal is to provide consumers information not only pertaining to the specified fields that they operate in, but also provide them with a proper referral service that will be able to meet their needs in the event that they are not able to help.
Delray Credit Counseling offers Debt Consolidation Services or Debt Management Plans. Debt consolidation services are for Credit Cards, Medical Bills and/or Collections Accounts. (No "secured" debts can be included. This includes house, or car payments, and any loans or accounts with collateral attached). Only consumers having difficulty meeting monthly payment requirements or are un-able to reduce their balances should apply.
The Debt Management Plan may reduce or eliminate interest rates as well as stop late and over-limit fees. This program may also reduce a consumer's overall monthly payment. Interest rates will vary depending on the creditors, but are usually around 6-9% and sometimes eliminated.
All of the debt consolidation services and benefits are extended by the credit grantors. Consumer's payments must be made on time or creditors may drop a consumer from a DMP and not allow re-instatement. If this happens then the benefits extended by the creditors will be revoked.
Creditors will not allow further charges on the accounts while the included in program so the accounts will be closed. Creditors may open new lines of credit once the accounts are paid in full at their discretion.
Explore the site and learn more about the services they offer.
The Debt Management Plan may reduce or eliminate interest rates as well as stop late and over-limit fees. This program may also reduce a consumer's overall monthly payment. Interest rates will vary depending on the creditors, but are usually around 6-9% and sometimes eliminated.
All of the debt consolidation services and benefits are extended by the credit grantors. Consumer's payments must be made on time or creditors may drop a consumer from a DMP and not allow re-instatement. If this happens then the benefits extended by the creditors will be revoked.
Creditors will not allow further charges on the accounts while the included in program so the accounts will be closed. Creditors may open new lines of credit once the accounts are paid in full at their discretion.
Explore the site and learn more about the services they offer.
A Reverse Phone Trace
One of the most irritating things is getting calls from unknown numbers. Best is to know who is calling and from where. Thanks to tracehonenumbers.org – a reverse phone trace – service that they allow you to find out who is calling? Have a look at Trace Phone Numbers and find out where the call is coming from. Try Tracephonenumbers.org when you need it.
Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty and Gift Economy
The concept of a gift economy is as old as society itself. It has always been there in one form or the other. People in all civilizations have been exchanging gifts in order to establish social relationships and strengthen existing ones or rulers would give away large amounts of goods to their followers (still do in some monarchies) or rich people give away things of value for the collective benefit of the public. Only the forms have kept changing over time.
When people give to one another, freely and without conditions, sharing their blessings with others and bearing each other's burdens, the giving multiplies and we receive far more than what was given. Even when there is no immediate prospect of return, Allah Almighty keeps accounts of all the giving, and in the end blessing will return to the giver, multiplied manifold. All religions advocate that humans should participate and give (back) some of what Allah the exalted has bestowed upon them, in what ever way possible.
Another reason perpetuating giving is that human beings have an instinctive drive to vie for social status; it is wired in by our evolutionary history. For the major part of the history that ran before the invention of agriculture, our ancestors lived in small nomadic hunting-gathering communities. High status individuals, those who were more assertive and could persuade others to follow them, got the best of every thing, and provided more for the followers.
The drive for status expresses itself in different ways, depending largely on the degree of scarcity of goods. "Defining success by what one gives rather than what one has" is neither a new practice nor an overly idealistic view. It is rooted deep in history and human nature, and is more basic than wealth or money. Remember, in hunting societies of the past, the hunter's status was not determined by how much he killed or how much of that he consumed, but rather by what he brought back for others. Lewis Hyde in his book 'The Erotic Life of Property,' writes, "In a gift economy, status is accorded to those who vie and give the most to others."
As per the definition, "Gift economy is an economic system in which participants give away things of value to the shared benefit of the community." In the present era, the scientific research, intellectual and creative work and the Internet are practical forms of gift economy. A scientist produces research papers and gives them away to other scientists, through research journals and conferences. The other scientists freely refer to the earlier scientists' research findings. The more citations the scientist has, the more standing and respect he has. All of the scientists benefit from an accumulation in the body of knowledge anywhere in the world. Although research is being increasingly commercialised these days, giving away of findings still remains the most efficient method of solving common problems within a particular scientific discipline.
Similarly, intellectuals, philosophers, creative writers and artists spread their work across the world. Despite the obscurity of the modern version of the gift economy, every one benefits from the original work and the creators earn credence in return.
Coming onto the Internet, the open source software is best example of a gift economy in this cyber age; with information being one of a major resource. Programmers make their software as well as source code available to the end users and programming community and anyone can use it as well as modify and or improve the code. Individual programmers gain prestige and respect, and the community as a whole benefits from better software. The open source has been one important factor for the Internet to grow over about three decades. Now what millions of Internet users are doing? They are giving each other information and that is the nature of transaction on the Internet.
The Internet is moving towards more than a new kind of marketplace and a new medium for exchanging money. The medium may lead to a radical change in the nature of money itself one day. Many researchers and economists have already predicted that money as we know today is due for a sweeping change. Concepts like alternative currencies and local money are being researched and propagated. Though some of these efforts predate the Internet, but modern Internet aficionados see the Internet as a vehicle for accelerating the changes that earlier have only been predicted as a fancy idea.
Gift economies co-exist with command economies, market economies and barter economies. Given the practices, next may be the move toward sustainable business and to make the business itself a gift to society. The first step toward a sustainable sense of success is taking pride in the value of contributions to others rather than taking pride in the value of personal possessions. This means striving for quality in the use of whatever power we have rather than working to get more power over others as an end in itself. In this view, economic profit and affluence may help us to contribute, but they do not themselves amount to be business success.
Similarly, intellectuals, philosophers, creative writers and artists spread their work across the world. Despite the obscurity of the modern version of the gift economy, every one benefits from the original work and the creators earn credence in return.
Coming onto the Internet, the open source software is best example of a gift economy in this cyber age; with information being one of a major resource. Programmers make their software as well as source code available to the end users and programming community and anyone can use it as well as modify and or improve the code. Individual programmers gain prestige and respect, and the community as a whole benefits from better software. The open source has been one important factor for the Internet to grow over about three decades. Now what millions of Internet users are doing? They are giving each other information and that is the nature of transaction on the Internet.
The Internet is moving towards more than a new kind of marketplace and a new medium for exchanging money. The medium may lead to a radical change in the nature of money itself one day. Many researchers and economists have already predicted that money as we know today is due for a sweeping change. Concepts like alternative currencies and local money are being researched and propagated. Though some of these efforts predate the Internet, but modern Internet aficionados see the Internet as a vehicle for accelerating the changes that earlier have only been predicted as a fancy idea.
Gift economies co-exist with command economies, market economies and barter economies. Given the practices, next may be the move toward sustainable business and to make the business itself a gift to society. The first step toward a sustainable sense of success is taking pride in the value of contributions to others rather than taking pride in the value of personal possessions. This means striving for quality in the use of whatever power we have rather than working to get more power over others as an end in itself. In this view, economic profit and affluence may help us to contribute, but they do not themselves amount to be business success.
While the exchange economy may have been appropriate for the industrial and post industrial age, the gift economy is coming back as we proceed through the information age.
And that is my humble solution to poverty.
Eye Floaters
Vision is one of the most important factors in life. Ask anyone who may be suffering from flashes of light, the spots or the dark shapes in line of vision and they will tell you how bad they are. This situation can be annoying to say the least but if not taken care can prevent you from driving, reading and or watching TV or even worst.
Thanks that there is solution to this problem. Explore Eye Floaters – a site that offers solution to completely eliminate Eye Floaters and Eye Flashers. The information rich site vividly explains what are the Eye Floaters (the inside of your eye is filled with a gel-like substance called the vitreous, which makes up over 2/3 of your total eye. This substance is actually what gives your eye its shape and form). How people keep living with them and keep suffering? There are some real life success stories that tell how they have successfully eliminated Eye Floaters. I suggest you explore the site and go through the important information that can have far reaching effects on your quality of life.
What is more, The Secret Cure for Eye Floaters they offer is backed by a solid guarantee. Use the solution and it will give you the exact and step-by-step guide that you need to eliminate Eye Floaters in just seven days. And the guarantee will give you the peace of mind.
Going through the information on the site can help you make informed decision about your quality of vision; you want to continue to suffer with maddening streaks and spots that cloud your vision and irritate you or you want to order and finally get the relief and happiness you deserve. The choice is obvious.
Purchase online is easy. You can order online and they also offer different options for payment including paypal.
Thanks that there is solution to this problem. Explore Eye Floaters – a site that offers solution to completely eliminate Eye Floaters and Eye Flashers. The information rich site vividly explains what are the Eye Floaters (the inside of your eye is filled with a gel-like substance called the vitreous, which makes up over 2/3 of your total eye. This substance is actually what gives your eye its shape and form). How people keep living with them and keep suffering? There are some real life success stories that tell how they have successfully eliminated Eye Floaters. I suggest you explore the site and go through the important information that can have far reaching effects on your quality of life.
What is more, The Secret Cure for Eye Floaters they offer is backed by a solid guarantee. Use the solution and it will give you the exact and step-by-step guide that you need to eliminate Eye Floaters in just seven days. And the guarantee will give you the peace of mind.
Going through the information on the site can help you make informed decision about your quality of vision; you want to continue to suffer with maddening streaks and spots that cloud your vision and irritate you or you want to order and finally get the relief and happiness you deserve. The choice is obvious.
Purchase online is easy. You can order online and they also offer different options for payment including paypal.
Walk on the Footpath
There should be footpaths with environment that is conducive to walking in our towns and cities. Heavily trafficked streets are stripped of life by noise, congestion and fumes and it becomes difficult for pedestrians to walk along city roads. Sadly, footpaths are continuously diminishing every day making towns and cities all over the country more and more unlivable.
Footpaths (also called sidewalks or pavements) are paths designed for pedestrian traffic and often run alongside roads. Footpaths are more common in modern urban areas and are sometimes separated from the roads by tree lanes or flower beds (depending on available spaces and prior urban planning).
In developed world, some paths are shared by pedestrians and cyclists. This can be expressed by saying that bicycle travel is allowed on the sidewalk, or that pedestrians use the bicycle path, since there is no sidewalk. In the areas in which car traffic is intense, a growing trend is to create dedicated bicycle paths for cyclists, either as a lane on a sidewalk, a lane on the road itself, or another separate path, in order to let them have a safer, distinguished space. In some countries, sidewalks are often the responsibility of the adjacent property owners. In our towns and cities, however, there is only one path and bicyclists usually have to use the road. At most places even that does not exist or if there, it may be being used for purposes other than walking.
Now imagine this: The road network in a majority of our towns and cities is characterized by narrow carriageways, poor surface quality and absence or inadequacy of footpaths. Most of the network has also not been provided with footpaths in the first place. Even the limited road capacity is further reduced by way of on street parking, encroachments by hawkers and shopkeepers on carriageways and footpaths, lack of parking or terminal facilities and existence of mixed slow moving traffic comprising motorbikes, animal-driven vehicles, rickshaws and hand carts. Unless remedial measures are taken this situation is expected to worsen in the years to come.
"There are powerful forces creating vehicular dependency," says a sociologist Dr. Muhammad Anwar Khan, "considering the attitude of the people, particularly effluent class, towards ownership and use of vehicles, it is highly unlikely that provision of safe footpaths can stop this dependency but walking friendly routs along roads and streets can slow down the trend and allow health conscious residents to take a chance by foot."
In cities and towns that are distinguished by fast pace of life, walking is a socially beneficial activity because it is cheap; it allows people to appreciate their local environment; it promotes social contacts; it is non polluting and environmentally sustainable and it is healthy, and most of all it can contribute to the Urban Renaissance. Footpaths (also open spaces) are a good proxy measure for urban health. Ideally, each road must have a safe, convenient and comfortable footpath for pedestrians. But trip hazards on footpaths are a key concern at all times.
Who is responsible for this neglect? "Municipalities have the main responsibility for land-use planning and for developing and managing the physical environment of urban areas. But city and town development is a complicated process where a number of stakeholders often have contradictory interests. The municipalities are dependent on close co-operation with the private sector, public and private developers and national authorities of various sectors in order to create a comprehensive approach, co-ordinate efforts and balance out different interests," says Abbas Kazimi, a Civil Engineer engaged in town planning. This vital cooperation seems to be lacking at all levels.
Most challenges related to land use and town planning in urban agglomerations stretch across several city development authorities with no central agency to overlook and coordinate. Land use and town planning is of great importance for choosing health-enhancing lifestyles in town and cities. More concentrated city-structures and better conditions for walking and biking will increase the levels of physical activity and general health of the residents.
In the short term, cities and town should be made walking friendly by measures such as prohibition of parking on footpaths, removal of encroachments, segregation of fast and slow moving traffic on roads, promotion of priority to public transport modes like buses over private modes through physical, fiscal and other measures, traffic inter-section improvements and lane disciplining. In the long term, every new road should necessarily have safe footpaths all the way. Besides highway department and municipalities, the private sector that has contributed to urban sprawl, through rapid developments of new localities, should be bound to do this.
Existing footpath maintenance should be carried out in response to problems faced by footpath users. Where a footpath is hazardous to users (potholes, blockades) emergency measures may be taken to provide a safer surface. Temporary repairs and damaged sections of footpath may e replaced with new material during the routine maintenance. New footpaths should be built where possible.
Brick lining of the footpaths have been replaced by asphalt and tough tiles but attitude of commuters towards pedestrians have not changed a bit. Sajida Javed, a housewife living in Defense Housing Society says, "It is a free for all society when one hits the road in any of the cities in the country. In the absence of safe footpaths, people driving in our crowded habitats should be more courteous towards those walking on roads. Otherwise women and senior citizens will always be afraid to come out of homes on foot." That too makes a difference.
"The decline of safe walking facilities along the roads in cities has severely disadvantaged those without cars. Improved public transport is not the whole solution. Opportunities for increased walking and cycling (such as footpaths and cycle lanes) are essential. It is vital that the need to travel is reduced," says Professor Dr. Norbert Pintsch, a German volunteer living and working in Pakistan. The quality of life in urban areas is closely bound up with the way they are managed and maintained. Everybody should feel safe and at ease, both in the streets and in public places. Who is to ensure that?
Footpaths (also called sidewalks or pavements) are paths designed for pedestrian traffic and often run alongside roads. Footpaths are more common in modern urban areas and are sometimes separated from the roads by tree lanes or flower beds (depending on available spaces and prior urban planning).
In developed world, some paths are shared by pedestrians and cyclists. This can be expressed by saying that bicycle travel is allowed on the sidewalk, or that pedestrians use the bicycle path, since there is no sidewalk. In the areas in which car traffic is intense, a growing trend is to create dedicated bicycle paths for cyclists, either as a lane on a sidewalk, a lane on the road itself, or another separate path, in order to let them have a safer, distinguished space. In some countries, sidewalks are often the responsibility of the adjacent property owners. In our towns and cities, however, there is only one path and bicyclists usually have to use the road. At most places even that does not exist or if there, it may be being used for purposes other than walking.
Now imagine this: The road network in a majority of our towns and cities is characterized by narrow carriageways, poor surface quality and absence or inadequacy of footpaths. Most of the network has also not been provided with footpaths in the first place. Even the limited road capacity is further reduced by way of on street parking, encroachments by hawkers and shopkeepers on carriageways and footpaths, lack of parking or terminal facilities and existence of mixed slow moving traffic comprising motorbikes, animal-driven vehicles, rickshaws and hand carts. Unless remedial measures are taken this situation is expected to worsen in the years to come.
"There are powerful forces creating vehicular dependency," says a sociologist Dr. Muhammad Anwar Khan, "considering the attitude of the people, particularly effluent class, towards ownership and use of vehicles, it is highly unlikely that provision of safe footpaths can stop this dependency but walking friendly routs along roads and streets can slow down the trend and allow health conscious residents to take a chance by foot."
In cities and towns that are distinguished by fast pace of life, walking is a socially beneficial activity because it is cheap; it allows people to appreciate their local environment; it promotes social contacts; it is non polluting and environmentally sustainable and it is healthy, and most of all it can contribute to the Urban Renaissance. Footpaths (also open spaces) are a good proxy measure for urban health. Ideally, each road must have a safe, convenient and comfortable footpath for pedestrians. But trip hazards on footpaths are a key concern at all times.
Who is responsible for this neglect? "Municipalities have the main responsibility for land-use planning and for developing and managing the physical environment of urban areas. But city and town development is a complicated process where a number of stakeholders often have contradictory interests. The municipalities are dependent on close co-operation with the private sector, public and private developers and national authorities of various sectors in order to create a comprehensive approach, co-ordinate efforts and balance out different interests," says Abbas Kazimi, a Civil Engineer engaged in town planning. This vital cooperation seems to be lacking at all levels.
Most challenges related to land use and town planning in urban agglomerations stretch across several city development authorities with no central agency to overlook and coordinate. Land use and town planning is of great importance for choosing health-enhancing lifestyles in town and cities. More concentrated city-structures and better conditions for walking and biking will increase the levels of physical activity and general health of the residents.
In the short term, cities and town should be made walking friendly by measures such as prohibition of parking on footpaths, removal of encroachments, segregation of fast and slow moving traffic on roads, promotion of priority to public transport modes like buses over private modes through physical, fiscal and other measures, traffic inter-section improvements and lane disciplining. In the long term, every new road should necessarily have safe footpaths all the way. Besides highway department and municipalities, the private sector that has contributed to urban sprawl, through rapid developments of new localities, should be bound to do this.
Existing footpath maintenance should be carried out in response to problems faced by footpath users. Where a footpath is hazardous to users (potholes, blockades) emergency measures may be taken to provide a safer surface. Temporary repairs and damaged sections of footpath may e replaced with new material during the routine maintenance. New footpaths should be built where possible.
Brick lining of the footpaths have been replaced by asphalt and tough tiles but attitude of commuters towards pedestrians have not changed a bit. Sajida Javed, a housewife living in Defense Housing Society says, "It is a free for all society when one hits the road in any of the cities in the country. In the absence of safe footpaths, people driving in our crowded habitats should be more courteous towards those walking on roads. Otherwise women and senior citizens will always be afraid to come out of homes on foot." That too makes a difference.
"The decline of safe walking facilities along the roads in cities has severely disadvantaged those without cars. Improved public transport is not the whole solution. Opportunities for increased walking and cycling (such as footpaths and cycle lanes) are essential. It is vital that the need to travel is reduced," says Professor Dr. Norbert Pintsch, a German volunteer living and working in Pakistan. The quality of life in urban areas is closely bound up with the way they are managed and maintained. Everybody should feel safe and at ease, both in the streets and in public places. Who is to ensure that?
Nationwide Phone Lookup
There are so many reasons why anyone may want to know about the related information about any phone number. Good thing is that it is possible, easy and quick. Go to Nationwide Phone Lookup – online service that allows to find people by reverse phone number lookup - and see what they are offering and how. Reverse Phone Lookup helps you find anyone by their phone number. All you do is enter the area code and the seven digit number, the service runs through its database in a matter of seconds looking for an exact match, then what that match is found the results are displayed on the screen for you. Those results should include the person's name and address associated with the phone number. Try Nationwidephonelookup.com when you need.
In the Desert
The historic Derawar Fort, enormous and impressive structure in the heart of Cholistan desert, is rapidly crumbling and if the immediate preventative measures are not taken, the edifice will be destroyed and the historians, researchers and sightseers deprived of the view of the legacy of the bygone era. Like so many other historic sites in the country, Derawar Fort is yet another sign of old times we are poised to loose forever due to the apathy of those who are responsible for its upkeep and preservation.
Before it disappears, once again, I was on my way to Cholistan: the place that is crucible of one of the world's oldest civilization, where some of the past secrets are hidden, where history is still active.
Derawar is the oldest fort and the only perennial water-hole in the area. But a visit to the Fort is painful for those locals or foreigners who value the heritage and other signs of past eras. They are disappointed with its fate and neglect of its wonders. Neither is it being maintained as a tourists’ attraction, for which it has good potential, nor as a historical and archaeological monument. Result: the days do not seem far when the Fort would be converted into a sand dune. Main entrance and ceiling have developed cracks. Most of its buildings and portions, which had been an abode of the Abbasi Nawabs, are already in ruins. The three-storey fort is now without any storey. There are also ditches in it which can be dangerous for anyone not walking with care. At least the boundary walls and the main gate of the fort can still be preserved so that something is left as an evidence of the past. The monument has architectural, historic, documentary, and symbolic values. Remain of the monument have to be preserved and saved from total ruination, a danger they are facing at present.
The Fort was built by Deoraj, a prince of Jaisalmir. It was in possession of royal family of Jaisalmir when it was captured by Abbasis in 1735. As per Bahawalpur Gazetteer (1904), in 1747 the Fort slipped from the hands of Abbasis in the reign of Nawab Bahawal Khan due to his pre-occupations at Shikarpur. Nawab Mubarak Khan took the stronghold back in 1804.
The lofty and rolling battlements made of thin red bricks, ten on each side of the fort are visible from miles around. The circumference wall is about 40 meters high. There are two old vintage guns mounted on pedestals in the dusty courtyard of the Fort. On the western side are small under ground cells now infested with bats and wood being eaten by termite. As per the fable the secret to change metal into gold was told to Prince Deoraj by his guru Yogi and there still is a treasure hidden somewhere in the Fort. ((This idea keeps coming to me again and again: what if I can find the hidden treasure?) Nawab Bahawal Khan constructed a mosque with cupolas and domes of exquisite marble in 1849. It is a replica of Moti Mosque, Delhi. As per the legend there are some graves near the fort, which are said to be of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the other Muslim reformers who rendered great services to spread the light of divine Islam in the area. A few hundred yards from the Fort in a hall with engraved doors in witch Abbasi Amirs and their families are buried: Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan (2nd), Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (2nd), Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan (3rd), Nawab Fateh Muhammad Khan, Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan (4th), Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (4th), Nawab Muhammad Bahawal khan (5th), and Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (5th), Sahibzada Abdullah son of Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (5th), Rahim Yar Khan son of Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (4th) are prominent among those buried there. There are graves of the ladies of the Abbasi family in the north-western corner.
On the way to Derawar, pass Shahi Wala and Burji 42 Hazar and start thinking of Cholistan as an idea for which no language has an apt word, something waiting to be discovered in some out-of-the-way place, difficult to access, if one is enterprising enough to go out and look; an indefinite thing, taking different shapes in the minds of different individuals according to their interests and wishes.
“Derawar itself is considered as pre historic and pre Harappan settlement. It survived not only during pre Harappan period but also afterwards,” says contemporary historian and researcher Nurul Zaman Ahmad Auj, “The fact that it was the first settlement of Indo-Scythian race also points to the antiquity of the place. The settlement existed when Alexander crossed the Hakra River near Derawar. It was one of the important boarder posts of the caravan route and lastly was the capital of Bahawalpur State. Abbasi rulers turned the Hindu city into a perfect Muslim metropolis.”
Leaving the road and the four wheels driven jeep at Derawar, it was while exploring beyond that I found a few of the desert realities. Aside from wildlife, scenery, big solitude, and nomad culture, Cholistan also offer plenty of wind. The rippled shadows of the landscape dissolve at midday, and then deepen again in the afternoon. You find the sense of isolation. The faint white ridge line that marks the far edge drops beneath the horizon and one finds himself adrift in a sterile sea of yellow dunes. Inspired by the gorgeous absence of everything but curves and light, get in the utter emptiness of the landscape and vividly see slight details: telltale irregularities in the texture of the sand; the metallic ping of the odd pebbles beneath feet; a lone big black ant marching up a dune, its abdomen tilted skyward, lizard (Kirla) raising head to look at you from the distance and then rushing to the sanctuary of a bill in hurry, camels marching in perfect order or grazing on shrub called Katran. There is a complete lack of odour in the air.
There is an inland dry delta southwest of Fort Derawar. Some researchers are of the opinion that this is the place where the Hakra River ended centuries ago. The presence of the delta suggests that all, or most, of the River’s water was sopped up in this area where it would have been used for intensive agriculture and other pastoral needs. There seems to have been enough water to support intensive agriculture but not enough to push through to the Arabian Sea. However, a second group of experts holds the opinion that the Hakra River did reach the Arabian Sea. Both the groups have substantial data to prove their points.
At night, walking through the desert under the light of the moon was quite similar to hiking the dunes in daylight. The only difference was that the air was cool, the sand was gray and the Milky Way was more clearly defined in the sky. Later at night, footfalls did not sound like they were coming from my own feet any more; I kept turning around to see if I was being followed. Even sudden patches of soft sand would give me an occasional start in the dim silence.
Eventually, my paranoid habit of veering caught up with me, when - just short of midnight - I found familiar Jeep tyre marks in the sand. Since I had been walking what I thought was east for nearly eight hours, I had been circling around the same set of dunes near the Fort.
Before it disappears, once again, I was on my way to Cholistan: the place that is crucible of one of the world's oldest civilization, where some of the past secrets are hidden, where history is still active.
Derawar is the oldest fort and the only perennial water-hole in the area. But a visit to the Fort is painful for those locals or foreigners who value the heritage and other signs of past eras. They are disappointed with its fate and neglect of its wonders. Neither is it being maintained as a tourists’ attraction, for which it has good potential, nor as a historical and archaeological monument. Result: the days do not seem far when the Fort would be converted into a sand dune. Main entrance and ceiling have developed cracks. Most of its buildings and portions, which had been an abode of the Abbasi Nawabs, are already in ruins. The three-storey fort is now without any storey. There are also ditches in it which can be dangerous for anyone not walking with care. At least the boundary walls and the main gate of the fort can still be preserved so that something is left as an evidence of the past. The monument has architectural, historic, documentary, and symbolic values. Remain of the monument have to be preserved and saved from total ruination, a danger they are facing at present.
The Fort was built by Deoraj, a prince of Jaisalmir. It was in possession of royal family of Jaisalmir when it was captured by Abbasis in 1735. As per Bahawalpur Gazetteer (1904), in 1747 the Fort slipped from the hands of Abbasis in the reign of Nawab Bahawal Khan due to his pre-occupations at Shikarpur. Nawab Mubarak Khan took the stronghold back in 1804.
The lofty and rolling battlements made of thin red bricks, ten on each side of the fort are visible from miles around. The circumference wall is about 40 meters high. There are two old vintage guns mounted on pedestals in the dusty courtyard of the Fort. On the western side are small under ground cells now infested with bats and wood being eaten by termite. As per the fable the secret to change metal into gold was told to Prince Deoraj by his guru Yogi and there still is a treasure hidden somewhere in the Fort. ((This idea keeps coming to me again and again: what if I can find the hidden treasure?) Nawab Bahawal Khan constructed a mosque with cupolas and domes of exquisite marble in 1849. It is a replica of Moti Mosque, Delhi. As per the legend there are some graves near the fort, which are said to be of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the other Muslim reformers who rendered great services to spread the light of divine Islam in the area. A few hundred yards from the Fort in a hall with engraved doors in witch Abbasi Amirs and their families are buried: Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan (2nd), Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (2nd), Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan (3rd), Nawab Fateh Muhammad Khan, Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan (4th), Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (4th), Nawab Muhammad Bahawal khan (5th), and Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (5th), Sahibzada Abdullah son of Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (5th), Rahim Yar Khan son of Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (4th) are prominent among those buried there. There are graves of the ladies of the Abbasi family in the north-western corner.
On the way to Derawar, pass Shahi Wala and Burji 42 Hazar and start thinking of Cholistan as an idea for which no language has an apt word, something waiting to be discovered in some out-of-the-way place, difficult to access, if one is enterprising enough to go out and look; an indefinite thing, taking different shapes in the minds of different individuals according to their interests and wishes.
“Derawar itself is considered as pre historic and pre Harappan settlement. It survived not only during pre Harappan period but also afterwards,” says contemporary historian and researcher Nurul Zaman Ahmad Auj, “The fact that it was the first settlement of Indo-Scythian race also points to the antiquity of the place. The settlement existed when Alexander crossed the Hakra River near Derawar. It was one of the important boarder posts of the caravan route and lastly was the capital of Bahawalpur State. Abbasi rulers turned the Hindu city into a perfect Muslim metropolis.”
Leaving the road and the four wheels driven jeep at Derawar, it was while exploring beyond that I found a few of the desert realities. Aside from wildlife, scenery, big solitude, and nomad culture, Cholistan also offer plenty of wind. The rippled shadows of the landscape dissolve at midday, and then deepen again in the afternoon. You find the sense of isolation. The faint white ridge line that marks the far edge drops beneath the horizon and one finds himself adrift in a sterile sea of yellow dunes. Inspired by the gorgeous absence of everything but curves and light, get in the utter emptiness of the landscape and vividly see slight details: telltale irregularities in the texture of the sand; the metallic ping of the odd pebbles beneath feet; a lone big black ant marching up a dune, its abdomen tilted skyward, lizard (Kirla) raising head to look at you from the distance and then rushing to the sanctuary of a bill in hurry, camels marching in perfect order or grazing on shrub called Katran. There is a complete lack of odour in the air.
There is an inland dry delta southwest of Fort Derawar. Some researchers are of the opinion that this is the place where the Hakra River ended centuries ago. The presence of the delta suggests that all, or most, of the River’s water was sopped up in this area where it would have been used for intensive agriculture and other pastoral needs. There seems to have been enough water to support intensive agriculture but not enough to push through to the Arabian Sea. However, a second group of experts holds the opinion that the Hakra River did reach the Arabian Sea. Both the groups have substantial data to prove their points.
At night, walking through the desert under the light of the moon was quite similar to hiking the dunes in daylight. The only difference was that the air was cool, the sand was gray and the Milky Way was more clearly defined in the sky. Later at night, footfalls did not sound like they were coming from my own feet any more; I kept turning around to see if I was being followed. Even sudden patches of soft sand would give me an occasional start in the dim silence.
Eventually, my paranoid habit of veering caught up with me, when - just short of midnight - I found familiar Jeep tyre marks in the sand. Since I had been walking what I thought was east for nearly eight hours, I had been circling around the same set of dunes near the Fort.
Public Genealogy
Those who want to trace their roots and or find out about their genealogy must start at Public Genealogy. Their state of the art ancestry database, you will be able to find all the pertinent information you will need to begin making your very own family tree. Their records are efficient and it is easy to find out required information.
Ohio Prison Inmate Reports
Knowing who is living in your locality and or around you is very reassuring and safe. Get inmate records as well as inmate license records for Ohio, OH and all other pertinent vital records. Have a look at Ohio Prison Inmate Reports and find out about inmates. Their database is very comprehensive and ohio inmate search is quick and efficient. Have a look and know about the inmates in Ohio when you need.
Greeting Cards Business
“In these hard times when book industry is under economic crunch and a common reader does not have the potential to buy a book and those who have money do not want to buy and (read)”, says a book seller Ataur Rehman Khan, “greeting cards are what keeps us going.”. Such important card sending occasions (like Eid, Christmas and New Year Eve) not only give boost to the greeting card industry but also to postal and private courier services. And of course the exchange of feelings and greetings on a massive scale revive old relations and spread love in the society.
The messages printed on the greeting cards are poetic, passionate, persuasive and very comforting. The cards available in the market meet the requirements of all the conceivable situations in the human relationship. There are in endless varieties, designs, shapes and sizes from simple messages like ‘I wish you were here with me on this Eid’ to such questions as I often wonder what made us fall in love and more?
Than there are formal and official greeting cards from politicians, government agencies, commercial institutions and non-governmental organizations. They carry the messages from the senders: along with the good wishes and greetings. One of the cards that I have received is from the Chairman of an NGO. Almost entire manifesto of the NGO is printed on the card. I might not have read the material if I was given a leaflet about the NGO but the card is so beautifully and aesthetically presented that not only I read it but it touched my heart too. I wish others could follow the line to make their voices heard in this din.
The greeting card shows how our cultural heritage values architectural styles, fashion designs and form visible record of our history. Most of the cards are work of art that is collector’s delight.
Many people have passion for collecting greeting cards. Zafar Zaidi a friend of mine told that “about 20 years ago I started collecting cards, now when I go through the cards I had received earlier they give me sheer pleasure.” I was amazed to see the huge collection (though did not read what was written in them). What is stronger, whole-some and useful for life in latter years than some good memories?
The best card I had the pleasure to receive on last Eid was from a foreign volunteer working “to fight against poverty in rural areas in Pakistan.” It was beautiful. Simple pattern was embroidered on a small piece of cloth in multicolor and studded with golden stars that were pasted on the paper folder with a space to write a message. The good thing is that the sale from these cards was distributed among the girls of the village who made those cards. Shopping during economically stagnant times is hard enough. But buying such hand made cards for loved ones would certainly make them feel special.
Advent of the Internet has added another cultural dimension in our society; cyber greeting through the Internet and or cell phones. There are so many sites on the World Wide Web offering free cyber greetings for all occasions including Eid from where users can select, customize and send cards with a few clicks.
But having a hard copy is different. I still wait for cards to be delivered by postman before Eid. How other people prefer to receive greetings on festive occasions; digital or hard copies?
The messages printed on the greeting cards are poetic, passionate, persuasive and very comforting. The cards available in the market meet the requirements of all the conceivable situations in the human relationship. There are in endless varieties, designs, shapes and sizes from simple messages like ‘I wish you were here with me on this Eid’ to such questions as I often wonder what made us fall in love and more?
Than there are formal and official greeting cards from politicians, government agencies, commercial institutions and non-governmental organizations. They carry the messages from the senders: along with the good wishes and greetings. One of the cards that I have received is from the Chairman of an NGO. Almost entire manifesto of the NGO is printed on the card. I might not have read the material if I was given a leaflet about the NGO but the card is so beautifully and aesthetically presented that not only I read it but it touched my heart too. I wish others could follow the line to make their voices heard in this din.
The greeting card shows how our cultural heritage values architectural styles, fashion designs and form visible record of our history. Most of the cards are work of art that is collector’s delight.
Many people have passion for collecting greeting cards. Zafar Zaidi a friend of mine told that “about 20 years ago I started collecting cards, now when I go through the cards I had received earlier they give me sheer pleasure.” I was amazed to see the huge collection (though did not read what was written in them). What is stronger, whole-some and useful for life in latter years than some good memories?
The best card I had the pleasure to receive on last Eid was from a foreign volunteer working “to fight against poverty in rural areas in Pakistan.” It was beautiful. Simple pattern was embroidered on a small piece of cloth in multicolor and studded with golden stars that were pasted on the paper folder with a space to write a message. The good thing is that the sale from these cards was distributed among the girls of the village who made those cards. Shopping during economically stagnant times is hard enough. But buying such hand made cards for loved ones would certainly make them feel special.
Advent of the Internet has added another cultural dimension in our society; cyber greeting through the Internet and or cell phones. There are so many sites on the World Wide Web offering free cyber greetings for all occasions including Eid from where users can select, customize and send cards with a few clicks.
But having a hard copy is different. I still wait for cards to be delivered by postman before Eid. How other people prefer to receive greetings on festive occasions; digital or hard copies?
Dog Boarding
Where do you keep your dog when you are away? That is one of the problems for people who love their dogs. Thanks to Dog Boarding - the top flight site that's taking the nation by storm that they have solved the problem. Dogboarding.com database contains a registry of dog boarding facilities anywhere in America. Dog Boarding in Florida database contains a nationwide registry of dog boarding facilities clear across the country. Explore the site and see the listings that include everything from your basic dog boarding kennel to top of the line, luxury dog boarding facilities.
ANP and its Antecedents
Anwar Syed
There was once a political party named the Awami League, based largely in East Pakistan and headed by Maulana Bhashani. In February 1957 it split because of differences between him and Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy over issues of foreign policy.
Bhashani and the leftist contingent in the party left and in July formed the National Awami Party (NAP).
It included a number of politicians from West Pakistan, notably Abdul Wali Khan, Mian Iftikharuddin, Abdul Majid Sindhi and Mahmudul Haq Osmani. It stood for full autonomy for both East and West Pakistan, non-alignment in foreign policy and parliamentary democracy. It remained united and moderately active in national politics for about 10 years, but then in November 1967 it split again. Abdul Wali Khan became the leader of a pro-Moscow faction while Maulana Bhashani headed a pro-Chinese group. In post-1971 Pakistan, Mr Bhutto’s government banned NAP. It re-emerged in 1986 with a slightly different name, that is the Awami National Party (ANP).
Abdul Wali Khan (d.2006), first president of the ANP, was a seasoned politician, widely respected for his candour and integrity. As he grew old and fragile, his wife Nasim directed the party for a few years, and his son Asfandyar Wali Khan has been its president since 1999. He appears to have inherited his father’s self-esteem, sense of personal honour, dedication to the Pakhtun identity and, presumably, his political ethic.
Born in February 1949 at Charsadda, Asfandyar Wali received his early education at Aitchison College in Lahore, a BA degree from the University of Peshawar, and somewhere along the line a master’s degree in business administration. Like his grandfather (Abdul Ghaffar Khan; d. 1988) and his father, he does not seem to have ever worked for a living. He may have inherited a good deal of property and wealth.
Asfandyar Wali was active in student politics, joined groups that opposed Ayub Khan and later Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was arrested, along with several ANP politicians, tried and convicted by a special tribunal in Hyderabad jail, and sentenced to imprisonment for 15 years. Gen Ziaul Haq released him and some of the others in 1978. He was elected a member of the NWFP Assembly in 1990 and a member of the National Assembly three years later. He lost in 1997, but was elected senator in 2003 for a six-year term and, once again, an MNA in February 2008.
Asfandyar Wali regards all Pakhtuns, including those from Afghanistan who came and settled in the tribal areas on the Pakistani side, as one people. He and his party are dedicated to promoting their well-being. He wants the tribal belt to be politically integrated with the NWFP. The fact that the Taliban, who have been killing his people, are also Pakhtuns puts him in a difficult position.
Initially he advocated means other than military force for dealing with them. His attitude has radically changed following the recent suicide bombing at his own doorstep in Charsadda and an attack on Amir Haider Hoti’s home in Mardan. He now wants to make sure that the generals and the government in Islamabad are determined enough in their campaign to eradicate the Taliban.
The ANP has maintained a significant presence in the legislatures. Of the 80 seats in the NWFP assembly, it won ten in the 1988 election, 23 in 1990, 18 in 1993 and 32 in 1997. The number of seats in the assembly increased to 124 just before the 2002 election. It is well known that this election was rigged to the advantage of the ANP’s opponents, especially the Islamic parties, and the party ended up with only seven seats that year. It emerged as the largest party in the house following the elections of 2008 and formed the government in coalition with the PPP.
The party has all along shown a bias in favour of socialism, but more as political theory than as a controlling framework for policymaking. In any case it stands to the left of centre in its policy preferences. Note also that it has always been unambiguously secular-minded. It opposes Al Qaeda, the Taliban and all expressions of religious fundamentalism and extremism. It is Asfandyar Wali Khan’s and his party’s avowed mission to counter and defeat these movements which they fear are spreading to settled districts of the NWFP and parts of Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab.
The ANP claims to be, and I think it actually is, a liberal, progressive and modernising force in Pakistan. It is committed to democracy (holds regular internal party elections) and social justice. Being the ruling party in the NWFP at the present time (in coalition with the PPP), it will have the opportunity to improve the lives of the poor. Let us see what it does.
The party is well known for its espousal of provincial autonomy and the right of the various nationalities in the country to preserve and promote their languages and cultures. The matter of nationalities was associated with the ANP’s parent organisation, NAP, in the 1960s. Its proponents distinguished nationality from the nation state which, they said, is often composed of distinct linguistic and cultural groups, each with a historic identity that it cherishes and wants to preserve. This kind of thinking does not alarm us today but it was not well received by the centralising regimes in the 1960s.
The issue of provincial autonomy is as old as the state itself. Most of our political parties advocate it, albeit in varying measure. There is, however, no consensus on its dimensions. Some of the ‘nationalists’ in Sindh and Balochistan would allow the federation nothing more than partial charge of defence and foreign affairs, deny it revenue-raising authority and make it dependent on subventions from the provinces. This is an extreme position which most other parties would avoid. As far as I know, the ANP has never spelled out how much of provincial autonomy would be good enough.
It should be noted that, as in the case of many other parties in the subcontinent, a specific family’s predominance in the ANP’s affairs gives it a dynastic character. Abdul Wali Khan was its first president, then came his wife Begum Nasim who was followed by her son Asfandyar. The newly elected chief minister of the NWFP, Amir Haider Khan Hoti, is Asfandyar Wali’s nephew. He is a 36-year-old man whom the party’s executive committee chose in preference to Bashir Ahmed Bilour, a veteran politician and a long-time party stalwart.
The writer is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts.
There was once a political party named the Awami League, based largely in East Pakistan and headed by Maulana Bhashani. In February 1957 it split because of differences between him and Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy over issues of foreign policy.
Bhashani and the leftist contingent in the party left and in July formed the National Awami Party (NAP).
It included a number of politicians from West Pakistan, notably Abdul Wali Khan, Mian Iftikharuddin, Abdul Majid Sindhi and Mahmudul Haq Osmani. It stood for full autonomy for both East and West Pakistan, non-alignment in foreign policy and parliamentary democracy. It remained united and moderately active in national politics for about 10 years, but then in November 1967 it split again. Abdul Wali Khan became the leader of a pro-Moscow faction while Maulana Bhashani headed a pro-Chinese group. In post-1971 Pakistan, Mr Bhutto’s government banned NAP. It re-emerged in 1986 with a slightly different name, that is the Awami National Party (ANP).
Abdul Wali Khan (d.2006), first president of the ANP, was a seasoned politician, widely respected for his candour and integrity. As he grew old and fragile, his wife Nasim directed the party for a few years, and his son Asfandyar Wali Khan has been its president since 1999. He appears to have inherited his father’s self-esteem, sense of personal honour, dedication to the Pakhtun identity and, presumably, his political ethic.
Born in February 1949 at Charsadda, Asfandyar Wali received his early education at Aitchison College in Lahore, a BA degree from the University of Peshawar, and somewhere along the line a master’s degree in business administration. Like his grandfather (Abdul Ghaffar Khan; d. 1988) and his father, he does not seem to have ever worked for a living. He may have inherited a good deal of property and wealth.
Asfandyar Wali was active in student politics, joined groups that opposed Ayub Khan and later Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was arrested, along with several ANP politicians, tried and convicted by a special tribunal in Hyderabad jail, and sentenced to imprisonment for 15 years. Gen Ziaul Haq released him and some of the others in 1978. He was elected a member of the NWFP Assembly in 1990 and a member of the National Assembly three years later. He lost in 1997, but was elected senator in 2003 for a six-year term and, once again, an MNA in February 2008.
Asfandyar Wali regards all Pakhtuns, including those from Afghanistan who came and settled in the tribal areas on the Pakistani side, as one people. He and his party are dedicated to promoting their well-being. He wants the tribal belt to be politically integrated with the NWFP. The fact that the Taliban, who have been killing his people, are also Pakhtuns puts him in a difficult position.
Initially he advocated means other than military force for dealing with them. His attitude has radically changed following the recent suicide bombing at his own doorstep in Charsadda and an attack on Amir Haider Hoti’s home in Mardan. He now wants to make sure that the generals and the government in Islamabad are determined enough in their campaign to eradicate the Taliban.
The ANP has maintained a significant presence in the legislatures. Of the 80 seats in the NWFP assembly, it won ten in the 1988 election, 23 in 1990, 18 in 1993 and 32 in 1997. The number of seats in the assembly increased to 124 just before the 2002 election. It is well known that this election was rigged to the advantage of the ANP’s opponents, especially the Islamic parties, and the party ended up with only seven seats that year. It emerged as the largest party in the house following the elections of 2008 and formed the government in coalition with the PPP.
The party has all along shown a bias in favour of socialism, but more as political theory than as a controlling framework for policymaking. In any case it stands to the left of centre in its policy preferences. Note also that it has always been unambiguously secular-minded. It opposes Al Qaeda, the Taliban and all expressions of religious fundamentalism and extremism. It is Asfandyar Wali Khan’s and his party’s avowed mission to counter and defeat these movements which they fear are spreading to settled districts of the NWFP and parts of Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab.
The ANP claims to be, and I think it actually is, a liberal, progressive and modernising force in Pakistan. It is committed to democracy (holds regular internal party elections) and social justice. Being the ruling party in the NWFP at the present time (in coalition with the PPP), it will have the opportunity to improve the lives of the poor. Let us see what it does.
The party is well known for its espousal of provincial autonomy and the right of the various nationalities in the country to preserve and promote their languages and cultures. The matter of nationalities was associated with the ANP’s parent organisation, NAP, in the 1960s. Its proponents distinguished nationality from the nation state which, they said, is often composed of distinct linguistic and cultural groups, each with a historic identity that it cherishes and wants to preserve. This kind of thinking does not alarm us today but it was not well received by the centralising regimes in the 1960s.
The issue of provincial autonomy is as old as the state itself. Most of our political parties advocate it, albeit in varying measure. There is, however, no consensus on its dimensions. Some of the ‘nationalists’ in Sindh and Balochistan would allow the federation nothing more than partial charge of defence and foreign affairs, deny it revenue-raising authority and make it dependent on subventions from the provinces. This is an extreme position which most other parties would avoid. As far as I know, the ANP has never spelled out how much of provincial autonomy would be good enough.
It should be noted that, as in the case of many other parties in the subcontinent, a specific family’s predominance in the ANP’s affairs gives it a dynastic character. Abdul Wali Khan was its first president, then came his wife Begum Nasim who was followed by her son Asfandyar. The newly elected chief minister of the NWFP, Amir Haider Khan Hoti, is Asfandyar Wali’s nephew. He is a 36-year-old man whom the party’s executive committee chose in preference to Bashir Ahmed Bilour, a veteran politician and a long-time party stalwart.
The writer is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts.
Blogs are Pervasive and Part of Our Daily Lives
There have been a number of studies aimed at understanding the size of the Blogosphere, yielding widely disparate estimates of both the number of blogs and blog readership. All studies agree, however, that blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream. Read Technorati Annual repoert here.
Blog to Business
A strong online presence is important for businesses in today's high-speed and competitive world. Blogs have already become a new are a new buzz marketing. Marketers are blogging for organizations, products, ideas and or for other organizational goals and achieving.
That has not started happening in Pakistan yet. An overwhelming majority of local consumers who do not (or cannot) use the Internet and even marketing professionals still ask what is Blog?
To understand blogging as a corporate communications tool, we must understand the nature of blogs. Here is a short definition, "Blogs - an abbreviation of 'weblogs' - are published on the web, typically as microsites standing by themselves but today also as parts of traditional web sites. They reflect the interests, thoughts and opinions of the person, sometimes persons, publishing the blog. Blogs are characterized by frequent updates, an informal tone and many links to other blogs and web sites."
A business blog is a blog published by or with the support of an organization to reach that organization's goals. In external communications the potential benefits include strengthened relationships with important target groups and the positioning of the publishing organization as industry experts. Internally blogs are generally referred to as tools for collaboration and knowledgemanagement.
Blogs can drive visitors to existing web site and help find new customers and engage the ones organizations already have. Blogs are prevailing and cost-effective marketing tools. As far as businesses is concerned, there are clients and potential clients. A blog will create a dialogue between the business, present client base, and potential buyers. Communication has never been easier and user friendly.
Once an organization has a blog, it offers immediate and high impact interaction with its target audience. As more people have online access, they'll want more than the standard online newsletter or typical PR response (we are so averse to existing PR stereotypes). Long gone are the days when companies simply fed information to their customers. Now everyone asks for a dialogue - a meaningful exchange of information. People also want to know that organizations are listening to them and paying heeds to what is being suggested, and blogs allow just that -- responding quickly and openly.
From a business point of view there are several potential reasons to blog particularly in less connected country like Pakistan. But, as always, it depends on what businesses want. Blogs are no different from channels like video, print, audio, presentations and even word of mouth marketing. They all deliver results - but of varying kind. The kind you can expect from blogs is mainly about stronger relations with important target groups.
Who should blog for the businesses? Ideally, front line people who know the business in and out should blog about it. Marketing professionals can also use this powerful tool. Organization can hire professional writers to blog for them under company's name or blog under their own. Depending upon the feedback and information provided by audience, an inside blogger can develop the ability to write in his or her own voice and create content for business blog. Outsider bloggers can view business with an objective eye and offer fresh marketing ideas and strategies.
Outsider blogger can study company's marketing materials, reports, other collateral information, and meet key people in organization to learn about what organization does and how best to market the product through blogging.
In developed world, blogging is being taught in most business school as a part of business studies and or part of mass communication courses.
Bloggers can post material written in editorial style and voice, updating at least once a day, three-to-five days a week. The content may also include company news, events, and information about new products and services relevant to your business.
Earlier, online marketing and web sites never picked up in Pakistan because of obvious "digital divide that exists due to individual disparities in levels of income, education standards, psychological reasons, age, gender, rural urban divide, and quality of life or collective deprivations like lack of physical infrastructure."
Pakistan corporate world should look at blogging as an opportunity to reach out but sadly, this has still not started to happen.
That has not started happening in Pakistan yet. An overwhelming majority of local consumers who do not (or cannot) use the Internet and even marketing professionals still ask what is Blog?
To understand blogging as a corporate communications tool, we must understand the nature of blogs. Here is a short definition, "Blogs - an abbreviation of 'weblogs' - are published on the web, typically as microsites standing by themselves but today also as parts of traditional web sites. They reflect the interests, thoughts and opinions of the person, sometimes persons, publishing the blog. Blogs are characterized by frequent updates, an informal tone and many links to other blogs and web sites."
A business blog is a blog published by or with the support of an organization to reach that organization's goals. In external communications the potential benefits include strengthened relationships with important target groups and the positioning of the publishing organization as industry experts. Internally blogs are generally referred to as tools for collaboration and knowledgemanagement.
Blogs can drive visitors to existing web site and help find new customers and engage the ones organizations already have. Blogs are prevailing and cost-effective marketing tools. As far as businesses is concerned, there are clients and potential clients. A blog will create a dialogue between the business, present client base, and potential buyers. Communication has never been easier and user friendly.
Once an organization has a blog, it offers immediate and high impact interaction with its target audience. As more people have online access, they'll want more than the standard online newsletter or typical PR response (we are so averse to existing PR stereotypes). Long gone are the days when companies simply fed information to their customers. Now everyone asks for a dialogue - a meaningful exchange of information. People also want to know that organizations are listening to them and paying heeds to what is being suggested, and blogs allow just that -- responding quickly and openly.
From a business point of view there are several potential reasons to blog particularly in less connected country like Pakistan. But, as always, it depends on what businesses want. Blogs are no different from channels like video, print, audio, presentations and even word of mouth marketing. They all deliver results - but of varying kind. The kind you can expect from blogs is mainly about stronger relations with important target groups.
Who should blog for the businesses? Ideally, front line people who know the business in and out should blog about it. Marketing professionals can also use this powerful tool. Organization can hire professional writers to blog for them under company's name or blog under their own. Depending upon the feedback and information provided by audience, an inside blogger can develop the ability to write in his or her own voice and create content for business blog. Outsider bloggers can view business with an objective eye and offer fresh marketing ideas and strategies.
Outsider blogger can study company's marketing materials, reports, other collateral information, and meet key people in organization to learn about what organization does and how best to market the product through blogging.
In developed world, blogging is being taught in most business school as a part of business studies and or part of mass communication courses.
Bloggers can post material written in editorial style and voice, updating at least once a day, three-to-five days a week. The content may also include company news, events, and information about new products and services relevant to your business.
Earlier, online marketing and web sites never picked up in Pakistan because of obvious "digital divide that exists due to individual disparities in levels of income, education standards, psychological reasons, age, gender, rural urban divide, and quality of life or collective deprivations like lack of physical infrastructure."
Pakistan corporate world should look at blogging as an opportunity to reach out but sadly, this has still not started to happen.
Kentucky Inmates
If you are living around Kentucky, you can easily find about inmates through kentucky inmate search. The service is online and you can find nationwide federal inmate records as quickly as you need them and priced just right. They also have database containing records in every state across the United States of America. So if you are looking for an inmate record this could be your chance to retrieve them.
Jensen Precast Temporary Concrete Barrier
Temporary Railing (Type K), also known as k-rail or Krail, is the State of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) specification for temporary concrete barrier rail.
Jensen Precast - one of the largest independently owned precast concrete companies in the United States operating twelve facilities, with over 1,000 employees, and more than 120 strong fleet of special delivery vehicles - has been manufacturing and renting K-Rail for 23 years.
Jensen Precast design, manufacture and supply different products including temporary concrete barrier to meet large-scale infrastructure demands for highway construction, retaining walls, electric and gas utility, telecommunications, water, on-site wastewater, sewage applications and more.
Jensen Precast is a group of most experienced and knowledgeable professionals in the precast concrete industry that can produce and deliver quality products on site direct from different locations in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii. They have earned fame for superior design quality, technical expertise and safety through their in-house engineering department. Explore their users’ friendly and information rich site see the wide range of products. Approach them {Northern California (707)432-3180 and Southern California: (909) 429-4112} for any inquiry you may have.
They deliver the best, in time and on site. Try them for all your precast concert needs.
Jensen Precast - one of the largest independently owned precast concrete companies in the United States operating twelve facilities, with over 1,000 employees, and more than 120 strong fleet of special delivery vehicles - has been manufacturing and renting K-Rail for 23 years.
Jensen Precast design, manufacture and supply different products including temporary concrete barrier to meet large-scale infrastructure demands for highway construction, retaining walls, electric and gas utility, telecommunications, water, on-site wastewater, sewage applications and more.
Jensen Precast is a group of most experienced and knowledgeable professionals in the precast concrete industry that can produce and deliver quality products on site direct from different locations in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii. They have earned fame for superior design quality, technical expertise and safety through their in-house engineering department. Explore their users’ friendly and information rich site see the wide range of products. Approach them {Northern California (707)432-3180 and Southern California: (909) 429-4112} for any inquiry you may have.
They deliver the best, in time and on site. Try them for all your precast concert needs.
Art of Plagiarism
Broadly speaking, plagiarism as per the popular literature on the subject refers to use of another's work without giving credit. This dangerous trend is not new but advent of the Internet has facilitated the speed and methods used.
It is a chronic problem that has been greatly facilitated by the resources rich Internet. Students (mostly those who are not Internet savvy), who plagiarize, do it old fashion way here -- finding some relevant article printed somewhere and getting it typed. In case one article does not cover all dimensions of the topic, a wary student may get some old book on the subject (perceiving that the teacher might not have read it), mark apparently relevant paragraphs and give it to the typist to prepare the assignment. The source material is commonly known among students' fraternity as chappa or nuskha. Some may proof read the typed paper, correct mistakes and clear irrelevant references in the text while some other may not take the trouble of reading "their work".
Clearly, plagiarism is far easier for those who are familiar with the Internet and spend some time online. While plagiary attempts like brazenly copying whole article verbatim from the Internet and giving it to the teachers as one's own work is easy for students but it is out rightly insulting to the capabilities and sense of responsibility of teachers, and rude. So cautious students take two or three relevant articles from the Internet and syntheses them in a way that it looks, at least apparently, like a different work altogether, even though they do not add any thing new in it. But what some students are found doing is this: "searching an article written on the subject and using it as a "template" and working on it, changing the words using thesaurus, paraphrasing, removing advances and unfamiliar adjectives and jargons, adding local context and flavour in the process," says Mohsin Aziz, a management teacher at Allama Iqbal Open University Centre who has to assess lot of written work because most of the students' course work in open university is in the form of written reports, "It is time consuming but fairly secure." That is what makes it hard for technology to detect.
Depending upon how much efforts any one has put in to camouflage the purloined work, a few clicks should yield result. Tracking simple plagiarism on the Internet does not require any special skill. Any one who can log on and use one of those efficient search engines can find out if the text has been taken straight from the Internet. Put some keywords and unique phrases, in quotes preferably, and hit Go. A clever quote may even lead to the whole article.
The very technologies that make such plagiarism so simple, tempting, and seductive can also be used to nail the perpetrators. A quick search reveals that there are a lot of plagiarism detection sites and software solutions claiming to help teachers to detect; go to Google directory for a comprehensive list. (Search also exposes sources that pride in selling written papers or writing as per the specific requirement.) The effectiveness of any detection service or software depends on their being able to identify the text from the indexed material like most search engines. Even if the material has been copied from the Internet source and the detection sites have not indexed that, it will not be traced.
So what teachers can and should do while assessing the class assignments and research papers? Let us enumerate some factors before attempting to answer this question: first, adequate local contents on any subject are not yet available on the Internet, though a lot is available in print form. Second, the educational institutions are not taking this trend seriously; they leave it to the teachers to handle. Where as no teachers, who were contacted for this piece, denied plagiarism practice among students, but no one confirmed the presence of any official institutional policy on the chronic issue or the use of any detection service or software in Pakistan. Surprisingly some senior teachers even hesitated while giving their views on the subject. Third, students have more computers and the Internet know-how as compared to the teachers and not many teachers encourage their students to deposit the written work on diskettes or via email. Most prefer a hard copy, for record sack if nothing else.
I am reminded of what my teacher Ghulam Muhammad used to say, "No body can stop students from doing what they want to do. Teaches (and parents) can only make them understand the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. (This axiom also holds good for ongoing governments' efforts to ban porno sites). First and foremost thing to fight this plagiarism is to let students know about the moral, ethical and intellectual as well as legal aspects of plagiarism and its impact on their life and studies in the long run. Presently, one finds that this subject is not talked about unless.
The other important thing teachers can do is to give specific and contextual topics for written exercises and monitor the progress stepwise as the students write. Dr. Yahya Bakhtiar, Sociologist, says, "I stress upon the process rather than the product. I discuss the topic of their own choice and interest with students, ask for detailed synopses, and lead them to write a report that they should be ready to present in the class and defend if required. Knowing my students, their language skills and vocabulary, I can precisely make out if any of my students use outside help. Any teacher can make out. And for that it is not necessary that teacher may have had come across the stuff earlier." Another teacher says, "We in our department ask students to produce hand written reports." Personally, I do not subscribe to the idea of getting hand written reports and denying the students facilities of efficient word processing. The argument that "They (students) lean something while writing in their own hand even if they copy from somewhere" does not hold ground.
Plagiarism in the first place defeats the fundamental objective of the exercise of the written assignment. "Spending time and efforts in such unhealthy pursuit is unproductive and wear down educational standards in educational institutions. The practice impairs the plagiarists to think logically, construct own arguments, and draw inferences " says Muhammad Wasif, "They can produce better results if they spend the same time and energies creatively and let their own analytical faculties work. They should learn to use others' work to substantiate own points of view giving them due credit."
The unproductive tug of war can go on and on. Unless, perhaps, both teachers and students arrive at a point where teachers can trust students and students guard the trust, but students have to earn the trust first.
It is a chronic problem that has been greatly facilitated by the resources rich Internet. Students (mostly those who are not Internet savvy), who plagiarize, do it old fashion way here -- finding some relevant article printed somewhere and getting it typed. In case one article does not cover all dimensions of the topic, a wary student may get some old book on the subject (perceiving that the teacher might not have read it), mark apparently relevant paragraphs and give it to the typist to prepare the assignment. The source material is commonly known among students' fraternity as chappa or nuskha. Some may proof read the typed paper, correct mistakes and clear irrelevant references in the text while some other may not take the trouble of reading "their work".
Clearly, plagiarism is far easier for those who are familiar with the Internet and spend some time online. While plagiary attempts like brazenly copying whole article verbatim from the Internet and giving it to the teachers as one's own work is easy for students but it is out rightly insulting to the capabilities and sense of responsibility of teachers, and rude. So cautious students take two or three relevant articles from the Internet and syntheses them in a way that it looks, at least apparently, like a different work altogether, even though they do not add any thing new in it. But what some students are found doing is this: "searching an article written on the subject and using it as a "template" and working on it, changing the words using thesaurus, paraphrasing, removing advances and unfamiliar adjectives and jargons, adding local context and flavour in the process," says Mohsin Aziz, a management teacher at Allama Iqbal Open University Centre who has to assess lot of written work because most of the students' course work in open university is in the form of written reports, "It is time consuming but fairly secure." That is what makes it hard for technology to detect.
Depending upon how much efforts any one has put in to camouflage the purloined work, a few clicks should yield result. Tracking simple plagiarism on the Internet does not require any special skill. Any one who can log on and use one of those efficient search engines can find out if the text has been taken straight from the Internet. Put some keywords and unique phrases, in quotes preferably, and hit Go. A clever quote may even lead to the whole article.
The very technologies that make such plagiarism so simple, tempting, and seductive can also be used to nail the perpetrators. A quick search reveals that there are a lot of plagiarism detection sites and software solutions claiming to help teachers to detect; go to Google directory for a comprehensive list. (Search also exposes sources that pride in selling written papers or writing as per the specific requirement.) The effectiveness of any detection service or software depends on their being able to identify the text from the indexed material like most search engines. Even if the material has been copied from the Internet source and the detection sites have not indexed that, it will not be traced.
So what teachers can and should do while assessing the class assignments and research papers? Let us enumerate some factors before attempting to answer this question: first, adequate local contents on any subject are not yet available on the Internet, though a lot is available in print form. Second, the educational institutions are not taking this trend seriously; they leave it to the teachers to handle. Where as no teachers, who were contacted for this piece, denied plagiarism practice among students, but no one confirmed the presence of any official institutional policy on the chronic issue or the use of any detection service or software in Pakistan. Surprisingly some senior teachers even hesitated while giving their views on the subject. Third, students have more computers and the Internet know-how as compared to the teachers and not many teachers encourage their students to deposit the written work on diskettes or via email. Most prefer a hard copy, for record sack if nothing else.
I am reminded of what my teacher Ghulam Muhammad used to say, "No body can stop students from doing what they want to do. Teaches (and parents) can only make them understand the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. (This axiom also holds good for ongoing governments' efforts to ban porno sites). First and foremost thing to fight this plagiarism is to let students know about the moral, ethical and intellectual as well as legal aspects of plagiarism and its impact on their life and studies in the long run. Presently, one finds that this subject is not talked about unless.
The other important thing teachers can do is to give specific and contextual topics for written exercises and monitor the progress stepwise as the students write. Dr. Yahya Bakhtiar, Sociologist, says, "I stress upon the process rather than the product. I discuss the topic of their own choice and interest with students, ask for detailed synopses, and lead them to write a report that they should be ready to present in the class and defend if required. Knowing my students, their language skills and vocabulary, I can precisely make out if any of my students use outside help. Any teacher can make out. And for that it is not necessary that teacher may have had come across the stuff earlier." Another teacher says, "We in our department ask students to produce hand written reports." Personally, I do not subscribe to the idea of getting hand written reports and denying the students facilities of efficient word processing. The argument that "They (students) lean something while writing in their own hand even if they copy from somewhere" does not hold ground.
Plagiarism in the first place defeats the fundamental objective of the exercise of the written assignment. "Spending time and efforts in such unhealthy pursuit is unproductive and wear down educational standards in educational institutions. The practice impairs the plagiarists to think logically, construct own arguments, and draw inferences " says Muhammad Wasif, "They can produce better results if they spend the same time and energies creatively and let their own analytical faculties work. They should learn to use others' work to substantiate own points of view giving them due credit."
The unproductive tug of war can go on and on. Unless, perhaps, both teachers and students arrive at a point where teachers can trust students and students guard the trust, but students have to earn the trust first.
County Jail Records
Anyone who wants to have an access to jail records must start at County Jail Records – a website where you can retrieve county jail reports fast. Their database includes list of prison jail records recovered in any county across The United States. They offer whatever record you desire quick, cheap and easy. Try them
I Live on Your Feedback
Posts that come from heart and speak personal truth and experience are the best. "Hit an emotional chord, not just intellectual ones," as a friend says. Next best are those when experts share their knowledge on specific subjects.That said, one of the best ways that I have found out to expand my bloggy fraternity is to set a goal to comment on say 5-10 blogs a day that are outside my usual reads. I also continue to see the work others are doing about topics of my interests. Technocrati is a good source to see what other bloggers are writing about on a specific topic I am exploring.
We all like to be linked to and so the more I have trackbacks to other people’s work they are expected to come by and read mine and eventually may link too! I try in addition to putting a link or two into my posts. It seems to have worked really well for me.
How do you reach out and how are you expanding your blog community? Another thing, Though gender is not the issue while reaching out but I some time see bloggers commenting men to me, men to women, women to women, women to men. Is there any substance to this hypothesis?
Texas Death Records
Public records like death or birth records are very important and some time it becomes difficult to get them when needed. Thanks to Texas, TX Death Certificate Search that they have made it easy. Their archive is comprised of a vast number of death certificates found across Texas. If you need texas death records, access their Death Certificate database quickly and effortlessly and find what you need.
Eid Millan
Men At Their Best (55 PMA Lahore Chapter) and their families are meeting once again on Sep 11, 2008 in an exclusive club. ZK, an untiring 'socialite and a spirit'- is making it possible to have our traditional Eid Millan. It seems the Lahore Men at their best cant have enough of each other. (Photo from File)
Find Area Codes
Sometime you need to find out area codes and information related to them. Now you can Find Area Codes at Area Code Locator. Just select an area code from the list on the site and you will know general location, Relative County, city and zip code. If you need to perform a more in-depth search, enter a full phone number in the search box provided to get instant results for the information you are looking for. Try this wonder of technology online.
History’s Ghetto: Stranded Pakistanis
Raza Rumi
It was almost by accident that I visited the Mohammadpur Geneva camp in Dhaka – one of the largest settlements housing thousands of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh. On my last visit to Dhaka, my guide Ronny offered the possibility of getting the best bihari kebabs in town. He told me that his house was near the place and I could meet him somewhere close.
This was an extraordinary afternoon when the receding sun was converting the sky into a field of unimaginable colours that artists can only aspire to create through their limited palettes. Dhaka, the noisy, overcrowded megapolis can be enchanting at times, especially during late springtime when the Krishnochura trees (the Flame of the Forest) bloom all over with their fiery flowers.
I almost cancelled the trip thinking that a walk in the park might be a better alternative to the usual South Asian gluttony. Quite soon, I arrived at the meeting point having rationalised my proclivity for indulgence.
Little did I know that the meeting point was nowhere but at the doorstep of Dhaka’s underbelly, the easy to ignore Bihari camp. Not until I had reached there had I realised how the wounds of 1971 were festering for hundreds and thousands of men, women and children who have waited for all these years to attain identity and citizenship of Pakistan. As if it were a curse, the Pakistani state soon forgot about their existence as its ethnic politics dominated the policy commitments of Bhutto. And for the Bangladeshis these were the “traitors” who continued to wave Pakistani flags when the vast majority of East Pakistanis revolted against the excesses and the might of Pakistan army following the infamous and mischievous army action of 1971.
In a few minutes I had all but forgotten about the famous Mustaqeem kebabs and parathas and forced Ronny to take me inside the camp. Very soon I realised I did not need any Bangla-speaking guide as the ghetto was Urdu speaking, and portraits of Pakistani leaders and flags could still be spotted despite the passage of three and a half decades. Ronny knew the locals and found his younger friends, child workers and idle youth who took charge of our little tour.
Shamed by guilt and excited by the real experience, I wandered the smelly, open-drained and dark streets of the ghetto. I have frequented other slums but this one was special for it reeked of the contemporary elite politics, bloodshed and cold inhumanity that Pakistanis are shy of confronting. The living conditions would put any half-concerned South Asian to shame. The homes for most of the families comprised tiny little rooms, with all the belongings and large families concentrated in the inner space. No proper toilets and water supply – as if civilization had taken a backseat here.
The tragedy of these stateless people was immense and of an in-your-face variety. Such moments can only be experienced – readings and theorisations rarely help. Mohammadpur is just one of the 116 camps all over Bangladesh set up immediately after the Liberation War of 1971, euphemistically referred to as the “Fall of Dhaka” in our textbooks. How did all this happen?
Not unlike much of the mess afflicting the region, the Partition of India in 1947 witnessed large-scale communal riots and thousands of Muslims from Bihar, West Bengal and other provinces arrived in what was known then as East Pakistan. The refugee settlements, reminiscent of Karachi, were inward looking monocultural spaces, a little away from the Bengalis. In the complex political economy of a united Pakistan, “Biharis,” by now a composite term for the non-Bengali Pakistanis in East Pakistan, became the object of Bengali ire based on common perceptions that the state gave them a preferential treatment. It is estimated that by 1971, over 1.5 million such non-Bengalis, ‘Biharis,’ were present in East Pakistan.
In 1971, the Biharis were a torn community. The Pakistan army, sensing this divide, apparently recruited some Biharis to fight the rebellious Bengalis. Whether they supported the Pakistan army or not, many Biharis remained neutral in 1971, shy of taking sides with their local brethren.
Thus the schism widened in those tumultuous years leading to the sub-human ghettoisation of the wretched children of a lesser God. After the war in 1971, the International Community for the Red Cross intervened and found out that most Biharis wanted to migrate to the truncated Pakistan. Over half a million registered “Urdu-speaking” Pakistanis found a voice at the high level Simla pact of July 1972 and later an agreement was reached in 1973 between Pakistan, India and Bangladesh on this issue. As per the agreement, the Bengali prisoners were released and sent to Bangladesh. However, not all Urdu-speaking Pakistanis were repatriated to Pakistan. Even today hundreds of thousands live in Bangladesh in camps as non-citizens.
So Mohammadpur turned out to be an encircled little inferno located next to fairly well-to-do neighbourhoods and commercial areas. Human spirit however knows how to counter the forces of nature and history. Inside the camp, little Bihars had been recreated with the memories and longings that the migrants are well known for. The cuisine, the sweets and eateries were all preparing and selling the Bihar delights: Pua, prepared from a mixture of powdered rice, milk, ghee, and honey, Pittha (steamed powdered rice mix), Khaja (a sweet delicacy); and Ladoos, Kala Jamun, and so many others that have escaped my memory.
Handicrafts and automobile repairs were common professions. As I peeped into the dingy rooms – homes and workshops rolled into one – women and men were busy working on brightly coloured saris. Many youth find this their ordained profession. There were also places for recreation: snooker, carom boards and tea stalls. We stopped at a tea stall and sipped the milky tea with lots of sugar served with anarasas (sweet round-shaped snacks). For some reason many people had gathered there and my Pakistani status was now well-known. Details of Pakistan, Karachi and lost relatives were recounted with much passion. The tea stall owner, Ahmad’s brother, had escaped to Pakistan but Ahmad never heard from him for years. Sometimes these situations land you in a zone where words are empty and meaningless; and perhaps listening becomes the best mode of communication.
We got up and reached another side of the slum packed with Urdu-wallahs. There is obviously a hint of racism when the Biharis are mentioned in the mainstream parlance in Bangladesh. The older generation complains more than the younger ones, who by their situation are better integrated and bilingual. At a carom club, the young men tell me they like Pakistan but do not wish to go there. “This is our country and our home, we are Bangladeshis.” Others nodded and chuckled at the remark. Free of the baggage, the younger generations are far more ready to become Bangladeshis.
Probably this is the reason that civic activism has earned voting rights for those born after 1971. The court ruled in 2008 that “the refugees who were minors in 1971 or born after the independence of Bangladesh are citizens of Bangladesh,” after years of legal wrangling and ideological debates in the country. However, those who were adults in 1971 were not covered.
The warmth for a Pakistani was more palpable among the elderly. I was treated with much affection in their houses. Yes, I did visit them as well, trying hard to disguise my shock at what constituted “housing.” But the conversations were fun-filled and hearty. Mirza Saheb from Muzaffarnagar related the stories of how he migrated as a child with his family after communal riots of 1947 nearly destroyed them. Respect for Jinnah and the idea of Pakistan also filtered through the discussions. But then there were witty lines and little anecdotes as well on how some Pakistanis were half or quarter Pakistanis. The full status could only be earned if you are not a Bihari!
Education is a casualty. In part this is a result of marginalisation from the state services and in most cases a simple case of poverty where family-based work for money is more important than the luxuries of schooling. Stories of discrimination were also related as to how difficult it was get a job when you were from a stateless camp.
Arif, a rickshaw-puller, narrated the woes of getting registered as a rickshaw-wallah without an identity card. He had bribed his way through and somehow used the black economy to remain employed. His wife, Nazia, a cheerful and attractive woman, insisted that I should have tea. I stayed longer. The family watched a lot of TV, especially the Indian soaps as they were in Hindi/Urdu and thus accessible. In fact, most homes had TV sets fixed on the walls – the fruits of globalisation quite evident and pluck-able.
I was concerned about Ronny, my companion, who stayed with me throughout. He later confessed that he did not approve of such treatment of the Biharis and in fact many people of his generation were appalled at this. Ronny also made his fondness for the Pakistani cricket team and beautiful girls quite clear, relating how he had a little internet romance with a girl in Karachi. But she was married before he could muster the finances and courage to actually visit Pakistan. Now he was married to another Bangladeshi-Kuwaiti girl whom he also met on the internet after the stymied Pakistan love-chapter.
Ronny’s banter lightened my inner turmoil. Another dose of escapism was offered by the tender and delicious kebabs that we devoured at the end of the camp visit. And I can say for sure that these were the best Bihari kebabs I had tasted. As we finished our late dinner, I noted how a newly constructed glitzy apartment tower overlooked us and the Geneva camp.
There is a Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee, the courts have issued rulings and the politicians in Pakistan religiously issue statements each year bemoaning the plight of the stranded Pakistanis. True, many Biharis would not return but those who want to might just die dreaming of a homeland that never will be. In South Asia we have made a royal mess of things – first the Partiton, the violence against Bangaldeshis and our refusal to admit that we were wrong; and then such insensitivity to those who are trapped between conflicting histories and ideologies.
Raza Rumi is a writer. He blogs at www.razarumi.com and edits a cyber magazine, Pak Tea House, and the Lahore Nama blog-zine.
It was almost by accident that I visited the Mohammadpur Geneva camp in Dhaka – one of the largest settlements housing thousands of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh. On my last visit to Dhaka, my guide Ronny offered the possibility of getting the best bihari kebabs in town. He told me that his house was near the place and I could meet him somewhere close.This was an extraordinary afternoon when the receding sun was converting the sky into a field of unimaginable colours that artists can only aspire to create through their limited palettes. Dhaka, the noisy, overcrowded megapolis can be enchanting at times, especially during late springtime when the Krishnochura trees (the Flame of the Forest) bloom all over with their fiery flowers.
I almost cancelled the trip thinking that a walk in the park might be a better alternative to the usual South Asian gluttony. Quite soon, I arrived at the meeting point having rationalised my proclivity for indulgence.
Little did I know that the meeting point was nowhere but at the doorstep of Dhaka’s underbelly, the easy to ignore Bihari camp. Not until I had reached there had I realised how the wounds of 1971 were festering for hundreds and thousands of men, women and children who have waited for all these years to attain identity and citizenship of Pakistan. As if it were a curse, the Pakistani state soon forgot about their existence as its ethnic politics dominated the policy commitments of Bhutto. And for the Bangladeshis these were the “traitors” who continued to wave Pakistani flags when the vast majority of East Pakistanis revolted against the excesses and the might of Pakistan army following the infamous and mischievous army action of 1971.
In a few minutes I had all but forgotten about the famous Mustaqeem kebabs and parathas and forced Ronny to take me inside the camp. Very soon I realised I did not need any Bangla-speaking guide as the ghetto was Urdu speaking, and portraits of Pakistani leaders and flags could still be spotted despite the passage of three and a half decades. Ronny knew the locals and found his younger friends, child workers and idle youth who took charge of our little tour.
Shamed by guilt and excited by the real experience, I wandered the smelly, open-drained and dark streets of the ghetto. I have frequented other slums but this one was special for it reeked of the contemporary elite politics, bloodshed and cold inhumanity that Pakistanis are shy of confronting. The living conditions would put any half-concerned South Asian to shame. The homes for most of the families comprised tiny little rooms, with all the belongings and large families concentrated in the inner space. No proper toilets and water supply – as if civilization had taken a backseat here.
The tragedy of these stateless people was immense and of an in-your-face variety. Such moments can only be experienced – readings and theorisations rarely help. Mohammadpur is just one of the 116 camps all over Bangladesh set up immediately after the Liberation War of 1971, euphemistically referred to as the “Fall of Dhaka” in our textbooks. How did all this happen?
Not unlike much of the mess afflicting the region, the Partition of India in 1947 witnessed large-scale communal riots and thousands of Muslims from Bihar, West Bengal and other provinces arrived in what was known then as East Pakistan. The refugee settlements, reminiscent of Karachi, were inward looking monocultural spaces, a little away from the Bengalis. In the complex political economy of a united Pakistan, “Biharis,” by now a composite term for the non-Bengali Pakistanis in East Pakistan, became the object of Bengali ire based on common perceptions that the state gave them a preferential treatment. It is estimated that by 1971, over 1.5 million such non-Bengalis, ‘Biharis,’ were present in East Pakistan.
In 1971, the Biharis were a torn community. The Pakistan army, sensing this divide, apparently recruited some Biharis to fight the rebellious Bengalis. Whether they supported the Pakistan army or not, many Biharis remained neutral in 1971, shy of taking sides with their local brethren.
Thus the schism widened in those tumultuous years leading to the sub-human ghettoisation of the wretched children of a lesser God. After the war in 1971, the International Community for the Red Cross intervened and found out that most Biharis wanted to migrate to the truncated Pakistan. Over half a million registered “Urdu-speaking” Pakistanis found a voice at the high level Simla pact of July 1972 and later an agreement was reached in 1973 between Pakistan, India and Bangladesh on this issue. As per the agreement, the Bengali prisoners were released and sent to Bangladesh. However, not all Urdu-speaking Pakistanis were repatriated to Pakistan. Even today hundreds of thousands live in Bangladesh in camps as non-citizens.
So Mohammadpur turned out to be an encircled little inferno located next to fairly well-to-do neighbourhoods and commercial areas. Human spirit however knows how to counter the forces of nature and history. Inside the camp, little Bihars had been recreated with the memories and longings that the migrants are well known for. The cuisine, the sweets and eateries were all preparing and selling the Bihar delights: Pua, prepared from a mixture of powdered rice, milk, ghee, and honey, Pittha (steamed powdered rice mix), Khaja (a sweet delicacy); and Ladoos, Kala Jamun, and so many others that have escaped my memory.
Handicrafts and automobile repairs were common professions. As I peeped into the dingy rooms – homes and workshops rolled into one – women and men were busy working on brightly coloured saris. Many youth find this their ordained profession. There were also places for recreation: snooker, carom boards and tea stalls. We stopped at a tea stall and sipped the milky tea with lots of sugar served with anarasas (sweet round-shaped snacks). For some reason many people had gathered there and my Pakistani status was now well-known. Details of Pakistan, Karachi and lost relatives were recounted with much passion. The tea stall owner, Ahmad’s brother, had escaped to Pakistan but Ahmad never heard from him for years. Sometimes these situations land you in a zone where words are empty and meaningless; and perhaps listening becomes the best mode of communication.
We got up and reached another side of the slum packed with Urdu-wallahs. There is obviously a hint of racism when the Biharis are mentioned in the mainstream parlance in Bangladesh. The older generation complains more than the younger ones, who by their situation are better integrated and bilingual. At a carom club, the young men tell me they like Pakistan but do not wish to go there. “This is our country and our home, we are Bangladeshis.” Others nodded and chuckled at the remark. Free of the baggage, the younger generations are far more ready to become Bangladeshis.
Probably this is the reason that civic activism has earned voting rights for those born after 1971. The court ruled in 2008 that “the refugees who were minors in 1971 or born after the independence of Bangladesh are citizens of Bangladesh,” after years of legal wrangling and ideological debates in the country. However, those who were adults in 1971 were not covered.
The warmth for a Pakistani was more palpable among the elderly. I was treated with much affection in their houses. Yes, I did visit them as well, trying hard to disguise my shock at what constituted “housing.” But the conversations were fun-filled and hearty. Mirza Saheb from Muzaffarnagar related the stories of how he migrated as a child with his family after communal riots of 1947 nearly destroyed them. Respect for Jinnah and the idea of Pakistan also filtered through the discussions. But then there were witty lines and little anecdotes as well on how some Pakistanis were half or quarter Pakistanis. The full status could only be earned if you are not a Bihari!
Education is a casualty. In part this is a result of marginalisation from the state services and in most cases a simple case of poverty where family-based work for money is more important than the luxuries of schooling. Stories of discrimination were also related as to how difficult it was get a job when you were from a stateless camp.
Arif, a rickshaw-puller, narrated the woes of getting registered as a rickshaw-wallah without an identity card. He had bribed his way through and somehow used the black economy to remain employed. His wife, Nazia, a cheerful and attractive woman, insisted that I should have tea. I stayed longer. The family watched a lot of TV, especially the Indian soaps as they were in Hindi/Urdu and thus accessible. In fact, most homes had TV sets fixed on the walls – the fruits of globalisation quite evident and pluck-able.
I was concerned about Ronny, my companion, who stayed with me throughout. He later confessed that he did not approve of such treatment of the Biharis and in fact many people of his generation were appalled at this. Ronny also made his fondness for the Pakistani cricket team and beautiful girls quite clear, relating how he had a little internet romance with a girl in Karachi. But she was married before he could muster the finances and courage to actually visit Pakistan. Now he was married to another Bangladeshi-Kuwaiti girl whom he also met on the internet after the stymied Pakistan love-chapter.
Ronny’s banter lightened my inner turmoil. Another dose of escapism was offered by the tender and delicious kebabs that we devoured at the end of the camp visit. And I can say for sure that these were the best Bihari kebabs I had tasted. As we finished our late dinner, I noted how a newly constructed glitzy apartment tower overlooked us and the Geneva camp.
There is a Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee, the courts have issued rulings and the politicians in Pakistan religiously issue statements each year bemoaning the plight of the stranded Pakistanis. True, many Biharis would not return but those who want to might just die dreaming of a homeland that never will be. In South Asia we have made a royal mess of things – first the Partiton, the violence against Bangaldeshis and our refusal to admit that we were wrong; and then such insensitivity to those who are trapped between conflicting histories and ideologies.
Raza Rumi is a writer. He blogs at www.razarumi.com and edits a cyber magazine, Pak Tea House, and the Lahore Nama blog-zine.
Men At Their Best - Eid Millan
Men At Their Best (55 PMA Lahore Chapter) and their families are meeting once again on Sep 11, 2008 in an exclusive club. ZK, an untiring 'socialite and a spirit'- is making it possible to have our traditional Eid Millan. It seems the Lahore Men at their best cant have enough of each other. (Photo from File)
Phone Number Reporting
Phone calls from unknown number can be at least annoying and at worst threatening. Best is to know which number is any call coming from. Thanks to Phone Number Reporting that they have made it possible to find about the owner of a phone number the call is coming from. Explore the site and see what they are offering and how. Better still; use their services when you need.
Karez
West of Indus Plains and out of monsoon zone is Balochistan – the largest landmass in Pakistan with an area of 343, 000 square kilometres.
Balochistan is scarcely populated, mainly due to its daunting arid geography. It includes the mountainous country separated by intervening valleys. Balochistan receives very low rainfall annually. But innumerable natural springs known as "Karez" and streams are found in most of the areas.
Balochistan is scarcely populated, mainly due to its daunting arid geography. It includes the mountainous country separated by intervening valleys. Balochistan receives very low rainfall annually. But innumerable natural springs known as "Karez" and streams are found in most of the areas.
The ancient Karez system is comprised of a series of wells and linking underground channels that uses gravity to bring ground water to the surface, usually far from the source. Originally ancient towns used to depend on the streams and rivers nearby into which glaciers in far-off mountains used to feed. As the time passed the glaciers gradually shrank over the centuries, the streams they fed likewise diminished, resulting in less water flowing downwards. Then people ingeniously created the Karez to draw the underground water to irrigate the farmland. Wells begin at the base of the mountains along the contours of the hillside. To keep the underground channels unclogged, two men and a draught animal work as a team - one man is lowed down to clear the tunnel and buckets of mud are hoisted to the surface by the animal. The tunnels slope less than the contours of the geographical depression, so that the water reaches close to ground level. The water in Karez will not evaporate in large.
This technology that originated in the Chinese deserts west of the Himalayas is also commonly used in the highlands of Balochistan, although with some minor modifications. Though it is not known how it reached here. Small water channel that are built along the hill gradient for maintaining the proper gravity flow of water are found in Balochistan in many places.
The Karez irrigation systems rely on gravitational pull and are comprised of simply a water source, underground tunnels, and vertical shafts that feed the water scarce areas. These irrigation systems are owned and operated wholly by the community. Some work is being planned on to re establish the Karez irrigation system at the sub-tehsil level.
The ancient and social water supply system can be reactivated for obvious reason: To improve the socio-economic status of the people of Balochistan, by helping them realize the importance of the Karez system and facilitate self-help activities for rehabilitation of the same; to identify and understand ground water irrigation system deficiencies and the causes for its abandonment by the community; to re-instil a sense of confidence in the Karez system among local communities; to protect, excavate and extend the Karez system in the other areas; to incorporate a delay action mechanism in the Karez system and to check the dam for efficient groundwater recharge; to train community leaders in the efficient operation and management of Karez.
Cleaning of Karez is considered collective social responsibility and people work for it on self-help basis (like bhall Safai in Punjab). Once there existed a large network of these Karez's in the province. The system has very low operational cast, it not only fulfils daily need of usage of water but also irrigates orchards and supply water for cultivation. We should try to keep the system alive. These are social streams as well.
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Zardari's Visit to USA
Anwar Syed
Asif Ali Zardari was in America a week or so ago. I happened to watch a television talk show in which the host asked several prominent Pakistani observers how they assessed the significance of his visit.
They wanted to emphasise that this was not an official visit to the United States, and that he had come to address the United Nations General Assembly. I have no idea what he would have done during an ‘official’ visit that he did not do this time.
The participants in this TV show thought his address to the General Assembly, one of 32 delivered by visiting heads of government that day, did not go well. He mentioned Pakistan’s major problems only in passing. He wanted to talk mainly of himself and his family. He placed a large picture of Benazir Bhutto on the rostrum where all could see it, spoke of his abiding love for her and his dedication to her legacy. He announced, to the puzzlement of his listeners, that only the ‘Benazir doctrine’ (of which they had never heard) could solve the world’s problems in the 21st century. He said he had come to the United Nations looking for justice which must be done by the appointment of a commission to investigate Ms Bhutto’s assassination. This was a bad speech, unbecoming of a president, and one that did nothing for his country.
During this visit to the UN and other places, Mr Zardari took on the mission of introducing himself to world leaders who happened to be present. Second, he wanted them to know that democracy had arrived in Pakistan, that the country now had a democratic government, that the transition to democracy had been completed with his own election as president, and that all of this should be good news to the world. The interviewees on the talk show thought he should also tell his audiences about Pakistan’s central role in the war against terror, and the fact that its economy was close to collapse, and that the world must come to its assistance.
There is no convincing explanation of why Mr Zardari came to address the General Assembly. As far as I can tell, presidents who are heads of the executive back home came but those who are heads of state did not. Manmohan Singh came as prime minister, not president, of India. Many other prime ministers were present, and in some cases lesser officials represented their countries.
That Mr Zardari got to shake hands with a certain number of foreign dignitaries may have made him feel good but it cannot be said to have brought any gains to Pakistan. Government officials as well as the people of important western and Asian countries may have some interest in Pakistan, but it is unlikely that they want to know Mr Zardari (unless his lavish praise of Gov Sarah Palin’s beauty and his offer to embrace her tickled their fancy). Note also that several of our heads of state (Nazimuddin, Ghulam Mohammad, Iskander Mirza, Chaudhry Fazal Ilahi, Farooq Leghari and Rafiq Tarar) were little known outside Pakistan and no harm resulted to the country from that fact.
Democracy has come to Pakistan primarily because the generality of its people, print and electronic media, lawyers and judges, and other organs of civil society wanted it. Mr Zardari has had nothing to do with its arrival. Pakistan has done itself good by readmitting democracy, but in doing so it has not done the world a favour over which it should rejoice.
Mr Zardari does not have the credentials to present himself as a champion of democracy. He makes all of the important decisions for the PPP, and the party notables do his bidding. He advocates the supremacy of the constitution and sovereignty of parliament. In a parliamentary system the prime minister and his cabinet propose policies to parliament and manage the government’s day-to-day business. But Mr Zardari directs this country’s governance in violation of its constitution. If he is a democrat, he is one in some weird sense of the term unknown to most of us.
Mr Zardari asks the world to help Pakistan in its fight against terrorism. The world knows that terrorism poses horrendous threats to this country’s peace and security. The government has a very tough time combating it. American incursions into Pakistan’s tribal territory to hit the Taliban’s hiding places are condemned as violations of its sovereignty. The government and people of Pakistan want these American moves to stop. America should leave it to the Pakistani security forces to eradicate the militants operating in its territory. This sounds reasonable. If American intelligence agencies have information about the militants’ location on Pakistani territory, they could share it with their Pakistani counterparts, who would then go and hit these hideouts. American officials are reluctant to go this way because, as some of them have said publicly more than once, they suspect that there are pro-Taliban elements in the Pakistani intelligence agencies that will pass on this information to the militants. The latter will then move away to other places.
The presence of pro-Taliban elements in the ‘agencies’ is something to which Pakistani newspaper commentaries have also periodically referred. Mr Zardari should determine the truth of this matter. If pro-Taliban elements do exist but cannot be thrown out, the position being taken with the Americans should perhaps be reconsidered. Alternatively, Mr Zardari’s government may want to re-evaluate its modes of participation in the war against terror. These aspects of the situation should frankly and truthfully be placed before the parliament and the people. Will Mr Zardari do it?
The world is being asked to pull Pakistan out of its currently disastrous economic situation. Its spokesmen say it needs an immediate infusion of $10 to15bn, and that is to start with. The country is incurring huge budget and trade deficits. Mr Zardari has no expertise in economic management that would enable him to identify the follies that have brought the country to the brink of a ‘meltdown’. Nor does he know specifically what his government must do to help the nation’s economy recover beyond any help that the outside world may give.
His recent visit to America, with an entourage of some 60 persons, must have cost millions. It would help if he cancelled all planned foreign trips. The hazards to the country they carry would reduce if he just stayed home.
The writer is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts.
Asif Ali Zardari was in America a week or so ago. I happened to watch a television talk show in which the host asked several prominent Pakistani observers how they assessed the significance of his visit.
They wanted to emphasise that this was not an official visit to the United States, and that he had come to address the United Nations General Assembly. I have no idea what he would have done during an ‘official’ visit that he did not do this time.
The participants in this TV show thought his address to the General Assembly, one of 32 delivered by visiting heads of government that day, did not go well. He mentioned Pakistan’s major problems only in passing. He wanted to talk mainly of himself and his family. He placed a large picture of Benazir Bhutto on the rostrum where all could see it, spoke of his abiding love for her and his dedication to her legacy. He announced, to the puzzlement of his listeners, that only the ‘Benazir doctrine’ (of which they had never heard) could solve the world’s problems in the 21st century. He said he had come to the United Nations looking for justice which must be done by the appointment of a commission to investigate Ms Bhutto’s assassination. This was a bad speech, unbecoming of a president, and one that did nothing for his country.
During this visit to the UN and other places, Mr Zardari took on the mission of introducing himself to world leaders who happened to be present. Second, he wanted them to know that democracy had arrived in Pakistan, that the country now had a democratic government, that the transition to democracy had been completed with his own election as president, and that all of this should be good news to the world. The interviewees on the talk show thought he should also tell his audiences about Pakistan’s central role in the war against terror, and the fact that its economy was close to collapse, and that the world must come to its assistance.
There is no convincing explanation of why Mr Zardari came to address the General Assembly. As far as I can tell, presidents who are heads of the executive back home came but those who are heads of state did not. Manmohan Singh came as prime minister, not president, of India. Many other prime ministers were present, and in some cases lesser officials represented their countries.
That Mr Zardari got to shake hands with a certain number of foreign dignitaries may have made him feel good but it cannot be said to have brought any gains to Pakistan. Government officials as well as the people of important western and Asian countries may have some interest in Pakistan, but it is unlikely that they want to know Mr Zardari (unless his lavish praise of Gov Sarah Palin’s beauty and his offer to embrace her tickled their fancy). Note also that several of our heads of state (Nazimuddin, Ghulam Mohammad, Iskander Mirza, Chaudhry Fazal Ilahi, Farooq Leghari and Rafiq Tarar) were little known outside Pakistan and no harm resulted to the country from that fact.
Democracy has come to Pakistan primarily because the generality of its people, print and electronic media, lawyers and judges, and other organs of civil society wanted it. Mr Zardari has had nothing to do with its arrival. Pakistan has done itself good by readmitting democracy, but in doing so it has not done the world a favour over which it should rejoice.
Mr Zardari does not have the credentials to present himself as a champion of democracy. He makes all of the important decisions for the PPP, and the party notables do his bidding. He advocates the supremacy of the constitution and sovereignty of parliament. In a parliamentary system the prime minister and his cabinet propose policies to parliament and manage the government’s day-to-day business. But Mr Zardari directs this country’s governance in violation of its constitution. If he is a democrat, he is one in some weird sense of the term unknown to most of us.
Mr Zardari asks the world to help Pakistan in its fight against terrorism. The world knows that terrorism poses horrendous threats to this country’s peace and security. The government has a very tough time combating it. American incursions into Pakistan’s tribal territory to hit the Taliban’s hiding places are condemned as violations of its sovereignty. The government and people of Pakistan want these American moves to stop. America should leave it to the Pakistani security forces to eradicate the militants operating in its territory. This sounds reasonable. If American intelligence agencies have information about the militants’ location on Pakistani territory, they could share it with their Pakistani counterparts, who would then go and hit these hideouts. American officials are reluctant to go this way because, as some of them have said publicly more than once, they suspect that there are pro-Taliban elements in the Pakistani intelligence agencies that will pass on this information to the militants. The latter will then move away to other places.
The presence of pro-Taliban elements in the ‘agencies’ is something to which Pakistani newspaper commentaries have also periodically referred. Mr Zardari should determine the truth of this matter. If pro-Taliban elements do exist but cannot be thrown out, the position being taken with the Americans should perhaps be reconsidered. Alternatively, Mr Zardari’s government may want to re-evaluate its modes of participation in the war against terror. These aspects of the situation should frankly and truthfully be placed before the parliament and the people. Will Mr Zardari do it?
The world is being asked to pull Pakistan out of its currently disastrous economic situation. Its spokesmen say it needs an immediate infusion of $10 to15bn, and that is to start with. The country is incurring huge budget and trade deficits. Mr Zardari has no expertise in economic management that would enable him to identify the follies that have brought the country to the brink of a ‘meltdown’. Nor does he know specifically what his government must do to help the nation’s economy recover beyond any help that the outside world may give.
His recent visit to America, with an entourage of some 60 persons, must have cost millions. It would help if he cancelled all planned foreign trips. The hazards to the country they carry would reduce if he just stayed home.
The writer is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts.
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Bloggers’ Meet
Let me be ethnocentric here, bloggers are better humans. I discovered this once again when I had a chance to meet Muhammad Yaqoob (NY Mafia fame). Very articulate personality and having lot of aces up his sleeves, he is new to blogsphere but I can see him going places already. He has many advantages over many of us; he is tech savvy, he has already integrated Internet into his life, he know art of marketing and is a reputed trainer. See his profile here. What else, he is nice to talk to.What we talked? Of course blogging, what else. And I am glad.
The Most Difficult Job in the World, Give Me $100 Billion
From The Wall Street Journal, THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW Asif Ali Zardari
By BRET STEPHENS
Asif Ali Zardari used to sport a full moustache, jet black and rakish in the style of the avid polo player he once was. But sometime in the past year he trimmed it short and let its salt-and-pepper colors show. It befits the sober role he has now assumed, at 53, as the president of Pakistan, probably the world’s most difficult — and dangerous — political job. Read Here
By BRET STEPHENS
Asif Ali Zardari used to sport a full moustache, jet black and rakish in the style of the avid polo player he once was. But sometime in the past year he trimmed it short and let its salt-and-pepper colors show. It befits the sober role he has now assumed, at 53, as the president of Pakistan, probably the world’s most difficult — and dangerous — political job. Read Here
Karachi Circular Railway: Revival Gets 1-Step Closer?
Owais Mughal
The ‘Good’:
A small news item appeared recently in Dawn which captured the imagination of quite a few people. The Central Development Working Party (CDWP), a constituent of Government of Pakistan, on September 17, 2008, approved 51 development projects and among them was also included the approval for Karachi Circular Railway.
The ‘Bad’:
On September 23, 2008 another news made it to Dawn that put reality back to the forefront that project still needs approval of Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) and so far it is not even on their agenda to discuss.
Despite this hurdle, I am still staying positive because this project was all but dead since 2006. Atleast we have now moved a step forward.
and The ‘Ugly’:
Many of our readers may know the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) had been in operation since 1969 and got closed down in 1999 after running into huge losses. Numerous paper and political statements have been made since then for the revival of this project but to no avail.
The downfall of KCR had started in 1980s and by late 1980s only token trains were running. So much so that by early 1990s Railways started to run up-country express trains on KCR loop just to keep its infrstructure from getting scavanged. Chenab Express was run for a while from Manghopir Station and Tezrao from Gilani Station.
The experiment of running of Express Trains on KCR loop failed. The reason was lack of patronage as well as there were no washing lines or security facilities at KCR loop stations. After these trains ran their daily run, they were taken to Karachi City station for washing and security reasons.
The Garbage Train on KCR Loop: In mid 1990s, another novel experiment was done on KCR loop. Karachi’s Metropolitan Corporation started using KCR’s loop track to collect trash from the whole city. It was called ‘kooRa’ (Garbage) train and it consisted of flat freight cars. Solid Waste Collecting trucks used to bring city trash to KCR stations, where it was loaded on to ‘kooRa’ train and then taken to solid waste dumping areas near Pakistan Steel Mills. This project also got stalled after dumping of city trash in rural areas became a political issue.
Partial Revival of KCR in 2005: After 6 years of closure, KCR was partially revived. On March 8, 2005 it restarted its operation on a limited scale. 5 up and 5 down trains were started on main line with the longest route between Karachi City and Landhi Jn. The loop track remains closed to this date.
21 bogies to comprise 3 rakes of KCR were refurbished at Moghalpura Workshops in Lahore and sent to Karachi to restart the service.
Following nine photos were taken at Karachi City Station on March 8, 2005 - the day of partial revival of KCR by one of my good friends Syed Mazhar Hassan whose company provided the automated/mobile ticket dispenser units for the service.
The Locomotive of KCR: One locomotive #4483 was also rehabilitated and painted anew for the revival. Pakistani designation of this loco is ARU20, which means this is an ALCO rehabilitated 2000 hp model. ALCO stands for American Locomotive Company. Over the years, KCR trains have been pulled by all sorts of locomotives but ALCO’s ARU20 series has known to become the KCR engines.
The Capacity of Proposed KCR Network: The 50 km railway project will have 19 underpasses, 3 overhead bridges and 23 stations in the city. The Circular Railway would carry 689,000 passengers daily through 246 trains. On average 22 Up and Down trains will be operated every hour. The frequency of trains at terminal stations in proposed to approximately one train every 3 minutes. The trains will be operated at 6 minutes interval in either direction at a speed of 100 Km/hour. Every train will have a capacity of 1,276 passengers.
The above photo is courtesy of Adnan Zafar. It shows two KCR trains at Wazir Mansion Station in 2007. Flood Light towers of Peoples Stadium in Lyari are also visible in the photo.
The project envisages dualization of abondoned KCR loop (30 Km) with modern signalling system and grade separation, provision of two dedicated tracks along the main line from Karachi city to Drigh Road Station (14.5 Km) and Link to Airport’s Jinnah Terminal (6 Km).
The Fare: The fare for the system has been proposed as 85 paisas per kilometer.
How Much Will it cost? The CDWP approval amount for the project is Rs 52.372 billion which also includes foreign funding in the amount of Rs 39.257 billion. The Government of Japan would provide a soft loan of to cover the foreign funding amount at 0.2% interest which would be payable in 40 years.
The photo to the right shows track rehabilitation work going on between Wazir Mansion station and Port Trust Station in 2008.
What About those 26 Level Crossings? One major hurdle in the revival of KCR has been the presence of 26 level crossings where the KCR tracks cross major city roads.
I took the photo shown to the right in June 2005. It shows KCR level crossing in Gharibabad just west of Liaqatabad Railway Station.
Since the track is also circular it cleanly cuts through the major commercial areas of the city. This was probably ok for the traffic loads of 1980s and also when train frequency was 1 per two hours. But to sustain a frequency of one train per 6 minute in each direction would have kept each of these level crossings closed for most part of the day. This would have sent the city into riots the next day as nobody can imagine road traffic in Karachi stopped at choke points for a long duration.
According to proposed plan 22 out of these 26 level crossings will now get underpasses or overpasses built on them. Therefore I persam very glad to note the current plan calls for building 3 overhead bridgesand 19 underpasses where the track crosses the roads.
So Will KCR Revival Help Karachi’s Mass Transit? May be not in its present proposal form BUT it is a step in the right direction so I am happy to see it move forward. Here is why I doubt the vitality of the project. If you just look at the map of KCR Loop below (the lines in blue color), it will become obvious that a circular mass transit only helps people move in circles. A circle doesn’t give you the shortest route from point A to point B. It seems to avoid the main business centers of the city which are located on Sohrab-Goth to Merewether Tower alignement.
The map above is courtesy of Sridhar Narayanan. As far as I know he is the first person to digitally map KCR network (2003). His map has been widely copied. Click on the map to get a larger and much better readable view.
Therefore in my humble opinion, reviving the loop may be first step but then new spurs have to be created to make it really useful.
How Did Karachi Mass Transit Plan (KMTP) Envisage KCR? Karachi had a famous mass transit plan abbreviated as KMTP which nobody talks about anymore. I don’t know what happened to it. KMTP called for an elevated light rail/mono rail on Karimabad to Merewether Tower, 14 km long Corridor I. This is indeed the corridor which sees most of the rush traffic. However building a light rail here will have downsides too. It will be an expensive and ugly solution because there is not much room on M.A. Jinnah road to put an elevated train track. It will also destroy facade of many historical buildings located on this road plus the noise pollution.
The above photo is courtesy of Adnan Zafar. It shows a KCR train at Karachi City station in 2006.
I’ve read people proposing to take the track underground from ‘teen-hatti bridge to Merewether tower’ because the road width is narrower on this section. That will be an even more expensive solution.
The Engineering Consultants International (ECIL) Plan for KCR: Few years ago, a private firm Engineering Consultants International (ECIL) was hired by Government of Sindh and they proposed a three phase plan of providing rail and road based Mass Transit for Karachi.
Phase-1: consists of the rehabilitation of the KCR which includes the doubling of tracks between Karachi Cantt Station and Landhi Jn so that the KCR can have its own tracks and as such be completely independent of Pakistan Railways.
This phase also envisages the shifting of railway stations to under flyovers bridges at the intersections of major roads with the circular railway. This will facilitate interchange of transport modes and will firmly link the railway system with the road network.
Phase-2: of the master plan envisages the building of a loop from the Nazimabad Station through the Nazimabad Town, New Karachi Town and Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town to Depot Hill near the Drive-in Cinema.
The above photos are courtesy of Adnan Zafar. KCR Trains at Karachi City Station in 2007.
The Phase 2 plan also includes the building of a spur to Orangi Town and the completion of a loop from Baloch Colony to Korangi and Landhi. A connection with the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport has also been planned.
Phase-3: of the master plan envisages a loop through Keamari Town and an extension of the Korangi line into Defence Society and its link up with the Shireen Jinnah Colony and the beach.
Looks like what we are getting with current project is a mixture of ECIL phase I and phase II (6 km airport link).
Stake Holders: There are 9 stakeholders of the KCR. Among them, the Sindh chief secretary and the transport secretary represent the Sindh government; the Karachi nazim and his one nominee represent the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), four officials represent the Pakistan Railways and one nominee represents the private sector.
Pakistan Railways will be owner of the KCR with 60% shares while the Sindh government has 25% shares and the CDGK is a 15% shareholder.
After completion, the system will be handed over to some internationally reputed firm (unknown to me at this time) which will operate the system and also bear the responsibility of KCR operation and maintenance.
Encroachments on the KCR Land: One of the biggest hurdle that stake holders will face in the revival of KCR is going to be removing of encroachments from the track. On the map Pakistan Railways owns 260 feet wide land corridor all along the KCR track but over the years not only the land mafia has grabbed railway land and build homes closer and closer to the track. Some of these structures consist of Reinforced Concrete (RCC). The track itself has been dilapidated at places, stolen to be sold as scrap, covered by shrubs and waste refuse has been dumped onto it from the nearby homes. The bridges of KCR are now used as pedestrain bridges by people to cross a number of nullahs and sewage streams that criss cross the city. Some bridges are also used for pleasure diving into raw sewage as seen in one of the photos below:
What Happened to The Anti Encroachment Drive of 2005? A partial anti-encroachment operation was carried out on April 28, 2005 to remove encroachments from the KCR track but it was soon stopped due to political pressures, even though the directive to revive KCR had come directly from the then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
At that time Government tried to vacate 140 ft wide corridor along the track (70 ft each side) and from 70 ft to 130 ft width on each side, it tried to regularize the structures if they paid the penalty at the rate of Rs 3000 per square yard. Some people did get their illegal structures legalized that way but I am not sure what happened further. I know the KCR track is still heavily encroached upon.
Look at the photos below which show some of the encroachments around KCR track. Look at the bottom left photo. Track is almost completely covered by wild shrubs and garbage. Photo at bottom left is from the partial anti-encroachment drive of 2005 with a stall called ‘Owais Paan shop’ getting moved too.
Trivia about KCR
(1) Gilani Railway Station:
Some of our readers may know that during PPP’s first government in 1975, Gilani Station in Gulshan-e-Iqbal was proposed to be developed as the Central Rail Terminus of Karachi. That plan never materialized.
(2) Governer of Sindh’s VIP Train at KCR Loop:
In 2005 Governer of Sindh also tried to visit the KCR loop in a special train but even this VIP train couldn’t complete the loop as encroachments came too close to the track.
Following is a list of 38 stations currently located in jurisdiction of Karachi city and which have been fed by Karachi Circular Railway at some point in time.
Main Line:
1. Kiamari 0 km
2. Karachi City 5 km
3. D.C.O.S (Halt)
4. Karachi Cant 9 km
5. Chanesar (Halt)
6. Departure Yard
7. Karsaz (Halt)
8. Air Force (Halt)
9. Drigh Road Jn 19 km
10. Drigh Colony Jn 21 km
11. Malir Colony Jn 24 km
12. Airport 25 km
13. Malir (Halt) 26 km
14. Landhi Jn 29 km
15. Jumma Goth 35 km
16. Bin Qasim 43 km
17. Badal Nala
18. Marshalling Yard Pipri
19. Gaddar
20. Dabheji 61 km
The Loop:
2. Karachi City
21. Port Trust (Halt)
22. Wazir Mansion
23. Lyari
24. Baldia
25. Shah Abdul Latif
26. S.I.T.E
27. Manghopir
28. Orangi
29. North Nazimabad
30. Liaqatabad
31. Gilani
32. Urdu College (Halt) - now Urdu University
33. Karachi University
34. Depot Hill Jn
9/10. Drigh Road Jn / Drigh Colony Jn
Malir Colony Jn -Malir Cant Branch:
11. Malir Colony Jn
35. Matapan (now called Mehran)
36. Model Colony
37. Malir Cantt
Landhi Jn - Korangi Branch:
14. Landhi Jn
38. Korangi
Chronology of Karachi Circular Railway: 1964: Work started on building first phase of KCR. In the first phase of construction, the circular railway track was initiated from the Drigh Road Railway Station, located on the main railway line, routed through the urban localities of Liaquatabad, Nazimabad and concluded at the Wazir Mansion Railway Station at Lyari.
1968-1969: The second phase of KCR was started. The track was extended from the Wazir Mansion and connected with the Karachi City Railway Station
1969: Karachi Circular Railway was opened for public.
1972: A proposal was submitted to the governement for building an underground train network from Merewether Tower to Jahangir Road. This proposal never saw light of the day.
1977: A plan was made for Karachi Mass Transit system that envisaged the development of a circular railway with branch lines into the suburbs like a system of arteries. In addition, there was to be a part-subterranean, part-elevated spine that bisected the circle. This way, Saddar and other residential areas would have been linked to the commercial centers. This plan was later shelved.
December 15, 1999: After serving the city populace for 30 years, Karachi Circular Railway got closed down.
March 18, 2003: Government of Sindh sets up a committee to look into the revival of KCR.
March 8, 2005: Karachi Circular Railway restarts its operation on a limited scale. 5 up and 5 down trains are started on main line with the longest route between Karachi City and Landhi Jn.
April 28, 2005: An operation was started to remove encroachments from the KCR Track land.
May 19, 2005: Karachi Circular Railway service extended to Wazir Mansion station. The service now runs between Wazir Mansion and Dabheji stations.
September 17, 2008: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) an entitiy of Government of Pakistan approves Rs 52.372 billion for the revival of KCR.
References:
1. KCR Revival Awaitng ECNEC Approval: Dawn, September 23, 2008
2. Karachi Railway Among 51 Projects Approved: Dawn, September 18, 2008
3. Operation to Clear KCR Land Launched: Dawn, April 29, 2005
4. Karachi’s Mass Transit System by Anwar Mooraj, March 24, 2003
5. 2004 to 2007 Updates on KCR revival by Adnan Zafar
6. Revival of Karachi Circular Railway: analysis by Arif Hasan. Dawn, January 1, 2002.
Pakistan Railway Discussion Group:
If you want to learn more about Pakistan Railways, then feel free to join the Pakistan Railway (PR) discussion group. Everything and anything related to PR is discussed here e.g. preserving of Pakistan’s rail heritage, steam locomotives, sharing of photos and news, time tables etc. You can join the discussion group here.
Despite this hurdle, I am still staying positive because this project was all but dead since 2006. Atleast we have now moved a step forward.
and The ‘Ugly’:
Many of our readers may know the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) had been in operation since 1969 and got closed down in 1999 after running into huge losses. Numerous paper and political statements have been made since then for the revival of this project but to no avail.
The downfall of KCR had started in 1980s and by late 1980s only token trains were running. So much so that by early 1990s Railways started to run up-country express trains on KCR loop just to keep its infrstructure from getting scavanged. Chenab Express was run for a while from Manghopir Station and Tezrao from Gilani Station.
The experiment of running of Express Trains on KCR loop failed. The reason was lack of patronage as well as there were no washing lines or security facilities at KCR loop stations. After these trains ran their daily run, they were taken to Karachi City station for washing and security reasons.
The Garbage Train on KCR Loop: In mid 1990s, another novel experiment was done on KCR loop. Karachi’s Metropolitan Corporation started using KCR’s loop track to collect trash from the whole city. It was called ‘kooRa’ (Garbage) train and it consisted of flat freight cars. Solid Waste Collecting trucks used to bring city trash to KCR stations, where it was loaded on to ‘kooRa’ train and then taken to solid waste dumping areas near Pakistan Steel Mills. This project also got stalled after dumping of city trash in rural areas became a political issue.
Partial Revival of KCR in 2005: After 6 years of closure, KCR was partially revived. On March 8, 2005 it restarted its operation on a limited scale. 5 up and 5 down trains were started on main line with the longest route between Karachi City and Landhi Jn. The loop track remains closed to this date.
21 bogies to comprise 3 rakes of KCR were refurbished at Moghalpura Workshops in Lahore and sent to Karachi to restart the service.
Following nine photos were taken at Karachi City Station on March 8, 2005 - the day of partial revival of KCR by one of my good friends Syed Mazhar Hassan whose company provided the automated/mobile ticket dispenser units for the service.
The Locomotive of KCR: One locomotive #4483 was also rehabilitated and painted anew for the revival. Pakistani designation of this loco is ARU20, which means this is an ALCO rehabilitated 2000 hp model. ALCO stands for American Locomotive Company. Over the years, KCR trains have been pulled by all sorts of locomotives but ALCO’s ARU20 series has known to become the KCR engines.
The Capacity of Proposed KCR Network: The 50 km railway project will have 19 underpasses, 3 overhead bridges and 23 stations in the city. The Circular Railway would carry 689,000 passengers daily through 246 trains. On average 22 Up and Down trains will be operated every hour. The frequency of trains at terminal stations in proposed to approximately one train every 3 minutes. The trains will be operated at 6 minutes interval in either direction at a speed of 100 Km/hour. Every train will have a capacity of 1,276 passengers.
The above photo is courtesy of Adnan Zafar. It shows two KCR trains at Wazir Mansion Station in 2007. Flood Light towers of Peoples Stadium in Lyari are also visible in the photo.
The project envisages dualization of abondoned KCR loop (30 Km) with modern signalling system and grade separation, provision of two dedicated tracks along the main line from Karachi city to Drigh Road Station (14.5 Km) and Link to Airport’s Jinnah Terminal (6 Km).
The Fare: The fare for the system has been proposed as 85 paisas per kilometer.
How Much Will it cost? The CDWP approval amount for the project is Rs 52.372 billion which also includes foreign funding in the amount of Rs 39.257 billion. The Government of Japan would provide a soft loan of to cover the foreign funding amount at 0.2% interest which would be payable in 40 years.
The photo to the right shows track rehabilitation work going on between Wazir Mansion station and Port Trust Station in 2008.
What About those 26 Level Crossings? One major hurdle in the revival of KCR has been the presence of 26 level crossings where the KCR tracks cross major city roads.
I took the photo shown to the right in June 2005. It shows KCR level crossing in Gharibabad just west of Liaqatabad Railway Station.
Since the track is also circular it cleanly cuts through the major commercial areas of the city. This was probably ok for the traffic loads of 1980s and also when train frequency was 1 per two hours. But to sustain a frequency of one train per 6 minute in each direction would have kept each of these level crossings closed for most part of the day. This would have sent the city into riots the next day as nobody can imagine road traffic in Karachi stopped at choke points for a long duration.
According to proposed plan 22 out of these 26 level crossings will now get underpasses or overpasses built on them. Therefore I persam very glad to note the current plan calls for building 3 overhead bridgesand 19 underpasses where the track crosses the roads.
So Will KCR Revival Help Karachi’s Mass Transit? May be not in its present proposal form BUT it is a step in the right direction so I am happy to see it move forward. Here is why I doubt the vitality of the project. If you just look at the map of KCR Loop below (the lines in blue color), it will become obvious that a circular mass transit only helps people move in circles. A circle doesn’t give you the shortest route from point A to point B. It seems to avoid the main business centers of the city which are located on Sohrab-Goth to Merewether Tower alignement.
The map above is courtesy of Sridhar Narayanan. As far as I know he is the first person to digitally map KCR network (2003). His map has been widely copied. Click on the map to get a larger and much better readable view.
Therefore in my humble opinion, reviving the loop may be first step but then new spurs have to be created to make it really useful.
How Did Karachi Mass Transit Plan (KMTP) Envisage KCR? Karachi had a famous mass transit plan abbreviated as KMTP which nobody talks about anymore. I don’t know what happened to it. KMTP called for an elevated light rail/mono rail on Karimabad to Merewether Tower, 14 km long Corridor I. This is indeed the corridor which sees most of the rush traffic. However building a light rail here will have downsides too. It will be an expensive and ugly solution because there is not much room on M.A. Jinnah road to put an elevated train track. It will also destroy facade of many historical buildings located on this road plus the noise pollution.
The above photo is courtesy of Adnan Zafar. It shows a KCR train at Karachi City station in 2006.
I’ve read people proposing to take the track underground from ‘teen-hatti bridge to Merewether tower’ because the road width is narrower on this section. That will be an even more expensive solution.
The Engineering Consultants International (ECIL) Plan for KCR: Few years ago, a private firm Engineering Consultants International (ECIL) was hired by Government of Sindh and they proposed a three phase plan of providing rail and road based Mass Transit for Karachi.
Phase-1: consists of the rehabilitation of the KCR which includes the doubling of tracks between Karachi Cantt Station and Landhi Jn so that the KCR can have its own tracks and as such be completely independent of Pakistan Railways.
This phase also envisages the shifting of railway stations to under flyovers bridges at the intersections of major roads with the circular railway. This will facilitate interchange of transport modes and will firmly link the railway system with the road network.
Phase-2: of the master plan envisages the building of a loop from the Nazimabad Station through the Nazimabad Town, New Karachi Town and Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town to Depot Hill near the Drive-in Cinema.
The above photos are courtesy of Adnan Zafar. KCR Trains at Karachi City Station in 2007.
The Phase 2 plan also includes the building of a spur to Orangi Town and the completion of a loop from Baloch Colony to Korangi and Landhi. A connection with the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport has also been planned.
Phase-3: of the master plan envisages a loop through Keamari Town and an extension of the Korangi line into Defence Society and its link up with the Shireen Jinnah Colony and the beach.
Looks like what we are getting with current project is a mixture of ECIL phase I and phase II (6 km airport link).
Stake Holders: There are 9 stakeholders of the KCR. Among them, the Sindh chief secretary and the transport secretary represent the Sindh government; the Karachi nazim and his one nominee represent the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), four officials represent the Pakistan Railways and one nominee represents the private sector.
Pakistan Railways will be owner of the KCR with 60% shares while the Sindh government has 25% shares and the CDGK is a 15% shareholder.
After completion, the system will be handed over to some internationally reputed firm (unknown to me at this time) which will operate the system and also bear the responsibility of KCR operation and maintenance.
Encroachments on the KCR Land: One of the biggest hurdle that stake holders will face in the revival of KCR is going to be removing of encroachments from the track. On the map Pakistan Railways owns 260 feet wide land corridor all along the KCR track but over the years not only the land mafia has grabbed railway land and build homes closer and closer to the track. Some of these structures consist of Reinforced Concrete (RCC). The track itself has been dilapidated at places, stolen to be sold as scrap, covered by shrubs and waste refuse has been dumped onto it from the nearby homes. The bridges of KCR are now used as pedestrain bridges by people to cross a number of nullahs and sewage streams that criss cross the city. Some bridges are also used for pleasure diving into raw sewage as seen in one of the photos below:
What Happened to The Anti Encroachment Drive of 2005? A partial anti-encroachment operation was carried out on April 28, 2005 to remove encroachments from the KCR track but it was soon stopped due to political pressures, even though the directive to revive KCR had come directly from the then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
At that time Government tried to vacate 140 ft wide corridor along the track (70 ft each side) and from 70 ft to 130 ft width on each side, it tried to regularize the structures if they paid the penalty at the rate of Rs 3000 per square yard. Some people did get their illegal structures legalized that way but I am not sure what happened further. I know the KCR track is still heavily encroached upon.
Look at the photos below which show some of the encroachments around KCR track. Look at the bottom left photo. Track is almost completely covered by wild shrubs and garbage. Photo at bottom left is from the partial anti-encroachment drive of 2005 with a stall called ‘Owais Paan shop’ getting moved too.
Trivia about KCR
(1) Gilani Railway Station:
Some of our readers may know that during PPP’s first government in 1975, Gilani Station in Gulshan-e-Iqbal was proposed to be developed as the Central Rail Terminus of Karachi. That plan never materialized.
(2) Governer of Sindh’s VIP Train at KCR Loop:
In 2005 Governer of Sindh also tried to visit the KCR loop in a special train but even this VIP train couldn’t complete the loop as encroachments came too close to the track.
Following is a list of 38 stations currently located in jurisdiction of Karachi city and which have been fed by Karachi Circular Railway at some point in time.
Main Line:
1. Kiamari 0 km
2. Karachi City 5 km
3. D.C.O.S (Halt)
4. Karachi Cant 9 km
5. Chanesar (Halt)
6. Departure Yard
7. Karsaz (Halt)
8. Air Force (Halt)
9. Drigh Road Jn 19 km
10. Drigh Colony Jn 21 km
11. Malir Colony Jn 24 km
12. Airport 25 km
13. Malir (Halt) 26 km
14. Landhi Jn 29 km
15. Jumma Goth 35 km
16. Bin Qasim 43 km
17. Badal Nala
18. Marshalling Yard Pipri
19. Gaddar
20. Dabheji 61 km
The Loop:
2. Karachi City
21. Port Trust (Halt)
22. Wazir Mansion
23. Lyari
24. Baldia
25. Shah Abdul Latif
26. S.I.T.E
27. Manghopir
28. Orangi
29. North Nazimabad
30. Liaqatabad
31. Gilani
32. Urdu College (Halt) - now Urdu University
33. Karachi University
34. Depot Hill Jn
9/10. Drigh Road Jn / Drigh Colony Jn
Malir Colony Jn -Malir Cant Branch:
11. Malir Colony Jn
35. Matapan (now called Mehran)
36. Model Colony
37. Malir Cantt
Landhi Jn - Korangi Branch:
14. Landhi Jn
38. Korangi
Chronology of Karachi Circular Railway: 1964: Work started on building first phase of KCR. In the first phase of construction, the circular railway track was initiated from the Drigh Road Railway Station, located on the main railway line, routed through the urban localities of Liaquatabad, Nazimabad and concluded at the Wazir Mansion Railway Station at Lyari.
1968-1969: The second phase of KCR was started. The track was extended from the Wazir Mansion and connected with the Karachi City Railway Station
1969: Karachi Circular Railway was opened for public.
1972: A proposal was submitted to the governement for building an underground train network from Merewether Tower to Jahangir Road. This proposal never saw light of the day.
1977: A plan was made for Karachi Mass Transit system that envisaged the development of a circular railway with branch lines into the suburbs like a system of arteries. In addition, there was to be a part-subterranean, part-elevated spine that bisected the circle. This way, Saddar and other residential areas would have been linked to the commercial centers. This plan was later shelved.
December 15, 1999: After serving the city populace for 30 years, Karachi Circular Railway got closed down.
March 18, 2003: Government of Sindh sets up a committee to look into the revival of KCR.
March 8, 2005: Karachi Circular Railway restarts its operation on a limited scale. 5 up and 5 down trains are started on main line with the longest route between Karachi City and Landhi Jn.
April 28, 2005: An operation was started to remove encroachments from the KCR Track land.
May 19, 2005: Karachi Circular Railway service extended to Wazir Mansion station. The service now runs between Wazir Mansion and Dabheji stations.
September 17, 2008: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) an entitiy of Government of Pakistan approves Rs 52.372 billion for the revival of KCR.
References:
1. KCR Revival Awaitng ECNEC Approval: Dawn, September 23, 2008
2. Karachi Railway Among 51 Projects Approved: Dawn, September 18, 2008
3. Operation to Clear KCR Land Launched: Dawn, April 29, 2005
4. Karachi’s Mass Transit System by Anwar Mooraj, March 24, 2003
5. 2004 to 2007 Updates on KCR revival by Adnan Zafar
6. Revival of Karachi Circular Railway: analysis by Arif Hasan. Dawn, January 1, 2002.
Pakistan Railway Discussion Group:
If you want to learn more about Pakistan Railways, then feel free to join the Pakistan Railway (PR) discussion group. Everything and anything related to PR is discussed here e.g. preserving of Pakistan’s rail heritage, steam locomotives, sharing of photos and news, time tables etc. You can join the discussion group here.
Phone Book Database Online
Given the nature of my work, I have two landlines and two cell phones. It is some time really difficult to handle all the calls coming on those phone numbers. That is when I need Reverse Phone Search so that I can sift which phone call to take and which one to avoid. USAPhoneLookups.com is a very useful services that give an access to expanded people search databases and background information about the phone owners. Approach them and try their database search.
Phone Number Investigator
Thanks to www.phonenumberinvestigator.com - new phone lookup service that they have made it possible to investigate which number phone calls are coming from. This information is vital for those who want to avoid those unwanted and annoying calls that keep coming and wasting time to say the least. Now users can just enter the phone number in their search box and search their huge and continuously updated record. Have a look.
US Phone Book
In the age when every thing is on computers, It is easy to have online Phone Book. As compared to hard copies, not only is convenient to keep but Phone Book Lookup is also easy and efficient. You may need information about any phone number in USA, you can have from here. Try them
Phone Lookup Investigator
Thanks to Phone Lookup Investigator that they are offering solution to problem related to unknown phone numners. Have a look at Phone Lookup Investigator, type in a phone number and see if there are comments. Also you can add information about a phone number, whether telemarketers, debt collectors, pranks or harassing phone call. Information you provide will improve the Report Who Called You and help stop unwanted phone calls.
New Kind of Plague
Pornography on the Internet is a new kind of plague that has spread all over the world. It is seamlessly tearing apart the fabrics of societies, visibly corrupting the public morals and damaging the institution of family. It is also here in our society and every Web user is aware of its presence. More than 60 percent of the country's Internet users are visiting porn sites, BBC reported quoting Pakistani telecoms officials. But many local users are still unaware of its impact and hence are indifferent about the need to combat this threat; some has simply chosen to ignore its presence. Even talking about pornography on any forum is considered a taboo.
Like it or hate it, explicit images of naked flash on the Internet are popular. Free and easy access to naked flash engaged in various acts is extremely popular. Let me hurry to add a disclaimer that the Internet cannot be blamed for this because it is merely a tool; neutral. Restricting access to the Internet is also not a solution. Similarly, Playboy, Penthouse, or Hustler cultures overseas cannot be held responsible for exporting the trend here. Dr. Irfan Mahmud Chaudhry, a psychotherapist in Lahore says, Viewing nudity is a personal penchant that may lead to addiction and many other negative behavioural changes.
Pornography began spreading with the advent of the Internet as a new medium of communications in the middle 1990s. Earlier, like the video cassette recorders and even earlier like printed material, the Internet has been effective because it allows viewing pornography anonymously in an absolute privacy, without fear of being pointed out as a sex starved or a perverted psychopath. And, now cyber space is littered with porno websites for any one with a computer and a modem to access. Experts predict that tech advancements like use of cable modems and DSL connections will fuel even more growth in the trend. No wonder some people in the world have not only accepted porno but playfully heap it with high brow attention and defend it?
The technology allows access to and distribution of pornographic material -- explicit graphics as well as textual -- primarily via websites, peer-to-peer software, IRC, Usenet, blogs and now through Webcams to large audience beyond geographical boundaries without meaningful restrains. Some of the programs even work independently of Web browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, and can bypass many filters designed to block pornography and other objectionable material.
Content developer, distributors and all other who are involved in this evil activity are morally insensitive and enslaved by greed. They know the instinctive lure of human being and are capitalizing on it in a big way. NetRatings has estimated 34 million visits to porn sites in only one month. All this browsing has caused number of pornography Web pages to mushroom up to millions during the past few years.
Cyber porno has already become an industry and is in rapid expansion mode with huge sums involved in the field. Subscription services have come up, charging a fee to deliver access to large sites along with hundreds of small affiliate sites, generating a lot of revenues. Free contents are posted frequently in an effort to entice surfers to visit repeatedly, to sign up and gain instant access. Contents are generated and distributed elsewhere but empirical evidence is that the users market is rapidly growing here in our society.
The happening is not new, of course. It has been there in some form or the other. But what is unprecedented in the age of personal computers and the Internet is this: the mass consumption of cyber porno moving way beyond the pathetic stereotypes into the potent mainstream, the use of the Internet to rummage the smut, assault of covert and overt signals from different web sources and exposure to inappropriate sexual themes.
With some odd exceptions, the viewing of naked images is sinful in most religions. Different schools of thoughts and cultures also consider it at least objectionable, an idea of the Internet as a tool of free speech and issues of civil rights and liberties notwithstanding. Besides being degrading to humanity, the act (of viewing porno) is harmful physically as well as mentally, says Dr. Irfan Chaudhry.
One aspect that caught the world attention first is that children, who cannot distinguish what is right from what is wrong, might fall easy prey, hence they should be protected. It is one of the few areas which have been subject to law enforcement activities in many countries. There have been measures aimed to restrict this happening, but the material remains widely available, much of it for free. That led to increasing demand for software products by concerned parents who are in the know of the matter, which could filter Web pages. A number of software developers have made big profits by selling filtering programs though nothing seems to be working. Web filtering software is far from perfect. Some block many innocent sites along with the objectionable sites rendering the Internet experience as discouraging. There is no demand for porno blocking software, says an IT graduate and software vendor Azmat Hayat in Lahore. Another reason that efforts at restricting the viewing of pornography over the Internet have been largely ineffective is because of the high demand, which make restricting very difficult if not impossible.
Viewing pornography is a clear violation of the divine directives and suggested way of life in the first place. It reinforces sinful feelings. Scientific research even in more liberal societies has shown the profound effects pornography can have on human behaviour: thoughts, speech, desires, expectations, actions, habits, and lifestyle. It has been established beyond doubt that looking at pornography causes one to lust and leads to a desire to commit adultery. Continuous viewing of pornography over period leads to destructive addiction with seismic results. Even basically innocent users can have profound effects when by chance come to know of the seedier side of the Internet. The dangerous effects of porno plague are not just for children. They are on victims of all ages.
So what should be done? First, every one must teach himself to live within the limits set by Allah the exalted. Parents (and elders) should set a positive personal example for the younger generation and guide them through the new experiences in life. The subject should be discussed deliberately and thoroughly. The awareness should be raised at homes, in schools, in mosques and at all other places of learning with the logic and reasoning in step with technology and the information age. Those peculiar net cafes should be regulated making them useful public places to view information restricting their ability to sit behind partitions and look for obscene material.
Pornography as it exists on the Internet and its proliferation is a global problem and should be taken as a global challenge. It is not an easy task. Nations of the world should join hands to combat it. Every one from major Internet providers and industry giants to local Internet services providers and net café owners should take steps to fight the dilemma. Search engines should exclude the pages containing explicit material from their databases making it difficult for surfers to find them. Intellectuals, scholars, and writers should endeavour to shape the public opinion of all segments of society and shield people from the copious amount of explicit material flying freely in the cyber space. I am decidedly anti any type of sensor in any form whatsoever but the governments should enact strict laws against creation, hoisting and distributing the contents that are immoral and harmful for the humanity. To me it is not a sensor. It is effort to make the Internet a safer place for users by balancing the rights of the individuals against the rights and needs of society as a whole. Nothing should be left undone to do that.
Like it or hate it, explicit images of naked flash on the Internet are popular. Free and easy access to naked flash engaged in various acts is extremely popular. Let me hurry to add a disclaimer that the Internet cannot be blamed for this because it is merely a tool; neutral. Restricting access to the Internet is also not a solution. Similarly, Playboy, Penthouse, or Hustler cultures overseas cannot be held responsible for exporting the trend here. Dr. Irfan Mahmud Chaudhry, a psychotherapist in Lahore says, Viewing nudity is a personal penchant that may lead to addiction and many other negative behavioural changes.
Pornography began spreading with the advent of the Internet as a new medium of communications in the middle 1990s. Earlier, like the video cassette recorders and even earlier like printed material, the Internet has been effective because it allows viewing pornography anonymously in an absolute privacy, without fear of being pointed out as a sex starved or a perverted psychopath. And, now cyber space is littered with porno websites for any one with a computer and a modem to access. Experts predict that tech advancements like use of cable modems and DSL connections will fuel even more growth in the trend. No wonder some people in the world have not only accepted porno but playfully heap it with high brow attention and defend it?
The technology allows access to and distribution of pornographic material -- explicit graphics as well as textual -- primarily via websites, peer-to-peer software, IRC, Usenet, blogs and now through Webcams to large audience beyond geographical boundaries without meaningful restrains. Some of the programs even work independently of Web browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, and can bypass many filters designed to block pornography and other objectionable material.
Content developer, distributors and all other who are involved in this evil activity are morally insensitive and enslaved by greed. They know the instinctive lure of human being and are capitalizing on it in a big way. NetRatings has estimated 34 million visits to porn sites in only one month. All this browsing has caused number of pornography Web pages to mushroom up to millions during the past few years.
Cyber porno has already become an industry and is in rapid expansion mode with huge sums involved in the field. Subscription services have come up, charging a fee to deliver access to large sites along with hundreds of small affiliate sites, generating a lot of revenues. Free contents are posted frequently in an effort to entice surfers to visit repeatedly, to sign up and gain instant access. Contents are generated and distributed elsewhere but empirical evidence is that the users market is rapidly growing here in our society.
The happening is not new, of course. It has been there in some form or the other. But what is unprecedented in the age of personal computers and the Internet is this: the mass consumption of cyber porno moving way beyond the pathetic stereotypes into the potent mainstream, the use of the Internet to rummage the smut, assault of covert and overt signals from different web sources and exposure to inappropriate sexual themes.
With some odd exceptions, the viewing of naked images is sinful in most religions. Different schools of thoughts and cultures also consider it at least objectionable, an idea of the Internet as a tool of free speech and issues of civil rights and liberties notwithstanding. Besides being degrading to humanity, the act (of viewing porno) is harmful physically as well as mentally, says Dr. Irfan Chaudhry.
One aspect that caught the world attention first is that children, who cannot distinguish what is right from what is wrong, might fall easy prey, hence they should be protected. It is one of the few areas which have been subject to law enforcement activities in many countries. There have been measures aimed to restrict this happening, but the material remains widely available, much of it for free. That led to increasing demand for software products by concerned parents who are in the know of the matter, which could filter Web pages. A number of software developers have made big profits by selling filtering programs though nothing seems to be working. Web filtering software is far from perfect. Some block many innocent sites along with the objectionable sites rendering the Internet experience as discouraging. There is no demand for porno blocking software, says an IT graduate and software vendor Azmat Hayat in Lahore. Another reason that efforts at restricting the viewing of pornography over the Internet have been largely ineffective is because of the high demand, which make restricting very difficult if not impossible.
Viewing pornography is a clear violation of the divine directives and suggested way of life in the first place. It reinforces sinful feelings. Scientific research even in more liberal societies has shown the profound effects pornography can have on human behaviour: thoughts, speech, desires, expectations, actions, habits, and lifestyle. It has been established beyond doubt that looking at pornography causes one to lust and leads to a desire to commit adultery. Continuous viewing of pornography over period leads to destructive addiction with seismic results. Even basically innocent users can have profound effects when by chance come to know of the seedier side of the Internet. The dangerous effects of porno plague are not just for children. They are on victims of all ages.
So what should be done? First, every one must teach himself to live within the limits set by Allah the exalted. Parents (and elders) should set a positive personal example for the younger generation and guide them through the new experiences in life. The subject should be discussed deliberately and thoroughly. The awareness should be raised at homes, in schools, in mosques and at all other places of learning with the logic and reasoning in step with technology and the information age. Those peculiar net cafes should be regulated making them useful public places to view information restricting their ability to sit behind partitions and look for obscene material.
Pornography as it exists on the Internet and its proliferation is a global problem and should be taken as a global challenge. It is not an easy task. Nations of the world should join hands to combat it. Every one from major Internet providers and industry giants to local Internet services providers and net café owners should take steps to fight the dilemma. Search engines should exclude the pages containing explicit material from their databases making it difficult for surfers to find them. Intellectuals, scholars, and writers should endeavour to shape the public opinion of all segments of society and shield people from the copious amount of explicit material flying freely in the cyber space. I am decidedly anti any type of sensor in any form whatsoever but the governments should enact strict laws against creation, hoisting and distributing the contents that are immoral and harmful for the humanity. To me it is not a sensor. It is effort to make the Internet a safer place for users by balancing the rights of the individuals against the rights and needs of society as a whole. Nothing should be left undone to do that.
New Frames At Zenni Optical
You might have already seen some positive reports about Zenni - an online store for prescription eyeglasses - on Fox Newx TV, or heard about them on the radio. Recommendation of a popular U.S. talk radio host of the nationally syndicated consumer program like The Clark Howard Show means a lot to general consumers.
At Zenni, users can choose from a wide range of prescription eyeglasses including stylish new frames. Choose your frame colors, lens, tinted sunglasses lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens and other add-ons by using the pull-down menu in each option before placing your order.
The best thing is Zenni’s low prices. They start from as low as $ 8. The secret to Zenni’s low prices is that they sell only their own manufactured frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget. Using the latest modern materials, manufacturing and marketing systems, Zenni brings the best products direct from their factories to market.
That is why I recommend Zenni. If you are using eyeglasses, you should start at Zenni Optical. Go to the the neatly laid out and users’ friendly site and see what they are offering and how. Better still; try them. They are the best.
At Zenni, users can choose from a wide range of prescription eyeglasses including stylish new frames. Choose your frame colors, lens, tinted sunglasses lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens and other add-ons by using the pull-down menu in each option before placing your order.
The best thing is Zenni’s low prices. They start from as low as $ 8. The secret to Zenni’s low prices is that they sell only their own manufactured frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget. Using the latest modern materials, manufacturing and marketing systems, Zenni brings the best products direct from their factories to market.
That is why I recommend Zenni. If you are using eyeglasses, you should start at Zenni Optical. Go to the the neatly laid out and users’ friendly site and see what they are offering and how. Better still; try them. They are the best.
Phone Book
Have a look at 50 State Phone Book and see what they are offering at one place.
This is a website where you can find people by reverse phone lookup. If you have a phone number, enter in the Phone Book and 50 State Phone Book will give you the first and last name, street address, city, and state of the owner of the phone number.
This is a website where you can find people by reverse phone lookup. If you have a phone number, enter in the Phone Book and 50 State Phone Book will give you the first and last name, street address, city, and state of the owner of the phone number.
Pests
Pests of all kinds can attack homes at almost any time of the year. Generally, when temperatures rise, most of the pests perk up. As the weather changes and it becomes warmer, pests’ metabolism increases and they are more active.
Pests that are found in and around houses can be divided in different categories: wood destroying pests (like termites), food, fabric, and nuisance pests (ants, flies), food storage pests (fungus), pests that sting, bite, or injure (bees, mosquitoes), vertebrate pests (house mouse, lizards) and many more. All of them create problems.
Worst of all house pests, termites are temperature dependent. Termites initially are just a mild nuisance, but if they are not controlled at early stage they can be destructive. Of about 2000 known species of termite, most commonly found in this part of the world are known as white ants that damage wooden items such as furniture or house structures.
In summers, termites can wreak havoc in homes. Termite can start their damaging activities in warmer parts of the houses even in winters as well. And here is the rub: They are hard to find even when they are digesting sub flooring or tunneling through walls of any home. And when the columns of tiny ants are seen marching across walls, the damage might have already been done.
How to find these home wreckers? Walk your home's perimeter regularly, and look for hanging zigzag mud tunnels on the walls. Termites build these for covert, humid access to wood. Also look for broken off wings and sandy, wood colored termite droppings.
Once termite colony (yes they live in their own colonies) is suspected, it is better to get help for professional termite extermination. But there are so many simple things that can be done by owners to prevent termites or at least lessen the possibility of getting termites. Preventative measures include making sure the wooden parts of houses have no direct contact with the ground. This means keeping walls free of dirt piles, not letting trellises or plants grow from the ground to the siding, and not stacking wood against the house. Even thick wood mulch can provide cover for termites. Also keeping moisture away from the foundation and immediately repairing all types of leaks around structural wood is useful. Paying particular attention to wooden decks and stairs, and areas where the structure rests on the foundation walls, and especially in crawl spaces or any area with an earthen floor also helps detect the attack.
Earlier, building owners and construction people concerned about termite control should start at the planning stage. The first thing to consider is the type of foundation a building is going to stand on or will be resting on - some of the foundation types have more potential for termite problems than others. Other factors to consider are timing of treatment (pre-construction or post-construction), type of treatment (liquid or feeding stations) and good building management practices.
Beside termites, cockroaches are the hardiest (and for some the scariest) of all the house summer pests. Cockroaches are active in the night mostly. If one spots any in the daytime in kitchen or bathrooms, it means the house is infested with cockroaches.
Cockroaches damage the health of the family member by spreading microorganisms. Cleanliness and good sanitation in homes can reduce their menace. To prevent cockroaches from entering the house, seal all the gaps that can allow them access to your home from outside. Do not leave anything that it can feed on in the open. This is a difficult task as they eat almost anything and everything.
Black ants that commonly infest the houses are the smaller variety often called sugar ants. These ants eat sweets and oil and normally infest the kitchen. To prevent them from attacking your kitchen keep all the food in containers, clean the counter tops at regular intervals and empty the garbage cans frequently. The best way to eliminate these ants is to eliminate any source of their food.
Bees (yellow or black locally called demoon) are also common in summers. These flying insects have a nasty sting that causes swelling and pain and even can land anyone in hospital if attacked by more bees.
House flies and mosquitoes are also damaging and swarm more in summers. House flies not only rate high as a nuisance, but are a constant threat to health by carrying disease organisms from filthy habitats to contaminate food. Flies may carry bacteria on their bodies which can then be transferred to food. They breed in garbage, grass clippings and in other decomposing plant and animal matter. Maintain trash containers with tight-fitting lids and regularly clean up dog feces in the yard. Keep doors and windows closed unless equipped with tight-fitting screens. Different repellent and electric mosquito and housefly terminators are also available in market.
All season pests like rats and cecak (wall lizards locally known as chapkalli) scuttle about in dirty places and can track filth in if you do not block their access into your living environment. Rats not only spread disease, but are also a nuisance as they like to chew through doors, window screens, cables on appliances and computers, electric cables in your attic and even cars where the seats become their nest. Cecak are actually quite helpful creatures as they consume mosquitoes, house flies and some other pests that live in homes but most people do not like them scurrying about the walls and ceilings of their home.
People use different types of chemical substances or mixture of substances to destroy, repel and mitigate the house pests. Indiscriminate use of chemical substances can also be an environmental problem or out rightly dangerous for children (remember incidents when kids have been reported to eat up poisonous pills kept for killing house rates (chohe mar golian). Therefore, utmost care has to be exercised while using any chemical substance at home.
All the home pest insects cause damage in one form or the other in every season. There presence is a nuisance at best and destructive for material and unhealthy for human at worst. They look ugly and make the environment is homes unhygienic and unaesthetic. Inspecting house carefully and looking for telltale signs of infestation at all times and terminating them before any damage is the best strategy. Precautionary measures should be taken anyway. If there is an infestation that can not be dealt with personally, one should never take it lightly and professional pest controller help should be sought immediately.
And there are other type of ‘pests’ that can not be controlled what to talk of termination. Unwelcome guests and or in-laws can come in home anytime with full clams. What to do when these pests invade your home? Over to you. Tell me?
Pests that are found in and around houses can be divided in different categories: wood destroying pests (like termites), food, fabric, and nuisance pests (ants, flies), food storage pests (fungus), pests that sting, bite, or injure (bees, mosquitoes), vertebrate pests (house mouse, lizards) and many more. All of them create problems.
Worst of all house pests, termites are temperature dependent. Termites initially are just a mild nuisance, but if they are not controlled at early stage they can be destructive. Of about 2000 known species of termite, most commonly found in this part of the world are known as white ants that damage wooden items such as furniture or house structures.
In summers, termites can wreak havoc in homes. Termite can start their damaging activities in warmer parts of the houses even in winters as well. And here is the rub: They are hard to find even when they are digesting sub flooring or tunneling through walls of any home. And when the columns of tiny ants are seen marching across walls, the damage might have already been done.
How to find these home wreckers? Walk your home's perimeter regularly, and look for hanging zigzag mud tunnels on the walls. Termites build these for covert, humid access to wood. Also look for broken off wings and sandy, wood colored termite droppings.
Once termite colony (yes they live in their own colonies) is suspected, it is better to get help for professional termite extermination. But there are so many simple things that can be done by owners to prevent termites or at least lessen the possibility of getting termites. Preventative measures include making sure the wooden parts of houses have no direct contact with the ground. This means keeping walls free of dirt piles, not letting trellises or plants grow from the ground to the siding, and not stacking wood against the house. Even thick wood mulch can provide cover for termites. Also keeping moisture away from the foundation and immediately repairing all types of leaks around structural wood is useful. Paying particular attention to wooden decks and stairs, and areas where the structure rests on the foundation walls, and especially in crawl spaces or any area with an earthen floor also helps detect the attack.
Earlier, building owners and construction people concerned about termite control should start at the planning stage. The first thing to consider is the type of foundation a building is going to stand on or will be resting on - some of the foundation types have more potential for termite problems than others. Other factors to consider are timing of treatment (pre-construction or post-construction), type of treatment (liquid or feeding stations) and good building management practices.
Beside termites, cockroaches are the hardiest (and for some the scariest) of all the house summer pests. Cockroaches are active in the night mostly. If one spots any in the daytime in kitchen or bathrooms, it means the house is infested with cockroaches.
Cockroaches damage the health of the family member by spreading microorganisms. Cleanliness and good sanitation in homes can reduce their menace. To prevent cockroaches from entering the house, seal all the gaps that can allow them access to your home from outside. Do not leave anything that it can feed on in the open. This is a difficult task as they eat almost anything and everything.
Black ants that commonly infest the houses are the smaller variety often called sugar ants. These ants eat sweets and oil and normally infest the kitchen. To prevent them from attacking your kitchen keep all the food in containers, clean the counter tops at regular intervals and empty the garbage cans frequently. The best way to eliminate these ants is to eliminate any source of their food.
Bees (yellow or black locally called demoon) are also common in summers. These flying insects have a nasty sting that causes swelling and pain and even can land anyone in hospital if attacked by more bees.
House flies and mosquitoes are also damaging and swarm more in summers. House flies not only rate high as a nuisance, but are a constant threat to health by carrying disease organisms from filthy habitats to contaminate food. Flies may carry bacteria on their bodies which can then be transferred to food. They breed in garbage, grass clippings and in other decomposing plant and animal matter. Maintain trash containers with tight-fitting lids and regularly clean up dog feces in the yard. Keep doors and windows closed unless equipped with tight-fitting screens. Different repellent and electric mosquito and housefly terminators are also available in market.
All season pests like rats and cecak (wall lizards locally known as chapkalli) scuttle about in dirty places and can track filth in if you do not block their access into your living environment. Rats not only spread disease, but are also a nuisance as they like to chew through doors, window screens, cables on appliances and computers, electric cables in your attic and even cars where the seats become their nest. Cecak are actually quite helpful creatures as they consume mosquitoes, house flies and some other pests that live in homes but most people do not like them scurrying about the walls and ceilings of their home.
People use different types of chemical substances or mixture of substances to destroy, repel and mitigate the house pests. Indiscriminate use of chemical substances can also be an environmental problem or out rightly dangerous for children (remember incidents when kids have been reported to eat up poisonous pills kept for killing house rates (chohe mar golian). Therefore, utmost care has to be exercised while using any chemical substance at home.
All the home pest insects cause damage in one form or the other in every season. There presence is a nuisance at best and destructive for material and unhealthy for human at worst. They look ugly and make the environment is homes unhygienic and unaesthetic. Inspecting house carefully and looking for telltale signs of infestation at all times and terminating them before any damage is the best strategy. Precautionary measures should be taken anyway. If there is an infestation that can not be dealt with personally, one should never take it lightly and professional pest controller help should be sought immediately.
And there are other type of ‘pests’ that can not be controlled what to talk of termination. Unwelcome guests and or in-laws can come in home anytime with full clams. What to do when these pests invade your home? Over to you. Tell me?
