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Businessmen without foresight

Large businesses are run by the state. Smaller ones are privately owned. The privately owned have problems in their way conducting their affairs. Shopkeepers for instance will not have ready change, they will not have all the items one requires so customers have to go from one shop after another to purchase the things they need, instead of being able to buy everything they need from the one shop. Particularly in the case of general stores, the one which is successful is the one which is well supplied, provides discounts - particularly to regular customers and always has the right change. This ensures customer loyalty. A number of mobile service companies have opened in the past number of years - it has taken them some time to improve their standard of service. But even the improvement is still below international standards. For instance if someone is regular subscriber and has always paid his bills over several years - that subscriber is treated in the same way as someone who i

No sex please we are Pakistani

There is an organisation the initials of which are WAR - it stands of War Against Rape. Lots of people condemned the name of the organisation and said it should be seen, because it is shameful. The purpose of that organisation was as stated, it was to help women who have been victims and want justice. A great deal of coverage has been given to several women. The twisted values is that a woman deserves to be raped if she dares to be intimate with someone or if she has offended some influential men. An entire category of people who are abo ve the law and they rape with impunity, they cannot be stopped. This being said, the media is supposed to portray an asexual society which knows nothing about sex, detests sex or anything related to it. The anti-AIDS campaign is a complete failure because there is hardly any mention of sex - because of the fear of offending anyone. Sex is like something which the rich and powerful can talk about out loud, while the weak and impoverished have to

Karachi sinks

What happened in Karachi was not a natural disaster, it was a man made one. The city sank and no one is taking responsibility for it because there are bureaucrats and military officials everywhere - none of them are prepared to take the blame for their incompetence. Everyone knows that the military namely its Frontier Works Organisation was responsible for rebuilding the Clifton road and took over a year to do so because every military officer wanted his share in the kickbacks for building the road. Neither the Karachi government nor the Karachi Port Trust are to blame, the fault is with Frontier Works Organisation which built the Clifton Underpass which got flooded there was not drainage system - the reason why there was no drainage system is that Frontier Works Organisation will start rebuilding the Clifton roads again with a drainage system. But that will not do, because is greed is a disaease. The drainage system which is going to be built is going to so defective that it wil

Arrogance

The countries which had been occupied, enslaved and exploited to extreme poverty - by Europe are called Third World Countries. The occupiers are unrepentant and call themselves First World Countries. The wealth that Europe has today is all stolen. Now that the 'Third World' countries because of the terrible condition want to settle in Europe. But the Europeans and other 'First World' countries do not want them. The 'First Worlders' do not want to be reminded of the atrocities they committed, the looting and the pillaging which they carried out on a mass scale. When they save their loot in banks it was alright, today it is called 'money laundering'. 'Third Worlders' are always considered a threat, the truth is that 'First Worlders' are guilty and are afraid of reprisals. Extensive visa restrictions are imposed on 'Third Worlders' because once more of them enter 'First World' countries they would take away a large

Tax on talk

Talking is one means of communicating there are others - but list is too long - anyway the junta has to decided to tax it anyway. Such idiocy can only expected from a military regime. What has the army done for us. In the past 59 years it has lost two wars still it receives 95% of the budget money. Not to make the country stronger but to make the generals richer. The military is the biggest racketeer in the land.

PIA fares out of control

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) another corruption riven and extremely loss making organisation has in the past two months increased its international fares by 240% of all its destinations. It does not matter to the military regimes toadies those who run PIA and others, travel everywhere free - so it does not matter to them. If PIA thinks by increasing fares to this level will make it profitable it is seriously mistaken. People will be forced to travel by other means and if possible use other airlines. Whatever stupid reaspmPIA has to increase its fares by 240% is inexusable. The objective should be to make money by having more passengers not reducing the number of passengers. No one flies by PIA because its management is filled with blithering idiots who make tall claims of being profitable when in realithy they are losing money on every route. There cheaper airlines for every route. Besides the military regime has turned PIA into its personal carrier. When the absolu

Fighting cyber-crime

The Federal Investigation Agency have been given the responsibility to fight cyber-crime. To carry out such an endeavour requires tremendous resources and funds, which do not exist. The FIA does not have the resources to combat ordinary crime - the new responsibility would require divereting scarce resources to a sort of crimw which needs lots of manpower and lots of money. The maximum this FIA would probably do is keep a track of people who have write blogs and send emails condemning the military regime.

Birth control conspiracy

There is conspiracy story making the rounds and could very well be true. Married women are in greater numbers becoming increasingly frigid. They have lost their sexual drive I believe it is called libido. The sperm count in men has fallen too. Whatever chemical is being put in the food and water is resulting in this drop in fertility. Since wives do not have any sexual desire their husbands cannot go to them. Even if some women manage to retain their libido, their husband's sperm would not result in the birth of a child. Families do not extend beyond one or two children, not because they do not want to have more children, it is because of some kind chemicals have been inroduced either in the environment or in the food or water that most married couples lead absolute sexless lives. The chemical's effect is so great that women have a growing aversion to anything pertaining to sex. While the husbands have the sexual drive but are not in a position to father children even if

Durrani worse than Sheikh Rashid?

Sheikh Rashid (shitbrain) as long he remained Minister of Information - he banned all TV channels and clamped down on a large number of websites - he did not do this for the greater good of anyone except himself. He had the power allow those cable operators who paid him enough in bribes. The ISPs who knew that their subscribers access to specific websites, they would have to bribe him to allow those ISPs provide access to the desired websites, its just a money, nothing to do with money. If Durranni the new Information Minister does the same thing as shitbrain then Durrani would be the second shitbrain. Durrani should show his honesty by allowing all the cable operators to show whichever channel they please and let the ISPs get along with their job and there should be no bar on websites. B ut will any of these bastards listen?

Another website blocked

A website which provided information on a variety of things - its name is Wikipedia, known as the online encyclpaedia - has been blocked. Is there no end to this insanity? It goes without saying that the military regime is filled with absolute idiots. In what way will blocking this website in Pakistan affect the Pakistanis abroad. They will have access to it and will know what is in it. The blogs I publish I cannot see them. But the people living outside Pakistan can read them, because the stupid laws controlling the Internet in Pakistan do not apply beyond Pakistan's borders. People read all the 'salacious' and 'scandalous' news and comments about all the people who are msruling the country. Such stories the dams are being built because that the military regime wants to make lots of money from the contracts they handout, the kickbacks will go to all the ranking officers. Of course such stuff cannot be seen here but because my page is cannot be seen, but Pak

Monsters in the cabinet

The Federal Minister for Information (read propaganda) Sheikh Rashid, who had been for several years had been taking bribes from the newspaper and publication owners - for ensuring that the 7th Wage Award for the newspaper employees should not be implemented– has been replaced by a senator the new Information Minister is called Durrani. Durrani was expected to tell the owners of newspapers and publications to pay the 7th Wage Award – instead he announced to the journalists in Peshawar about the setting up of Media Cities – a frivolous idea. Durrani has shown without a doubt that if he is not just as corrupt and crooked as his predecessor he aps many times more. Durrani is going to demand huge bribes so that he does not make the payment of the 7th Wage Award obligatory. How strange the owners of newspapers and publications can afford to pay large bribes for preventing a law from being enforced, but do not have the money to pay freelance journalists a decent amount of mone

No money in writing

I tried to start out as a free-lance journalist and found out that the owners of newspapers (and publications) are prepared to publish, but they are not willing pay anything for any article. The situation is just as bad if one is working in newspapers - the employees of newspapers are underpaid and their effort is never appreciated. The fact that someone who can write is never paid explains why there no Pakistani novelists. Creativity is being killed. First the cinema was destroyed and now the publication industry will disappear. In local advertising agencies, copywriters are considered the most worthless of all the employees. The publication industry is resorting outright plagiarism and with the Internet it has become easier to copy entire articles and columns. So the value of someone who wants to make a living out of writing simply does not exist, because nearly all the publishing houses would print things for free - so they do not need people who want to be paid for their articl

Press barons on the loose

There can one of the two possibilities - either the government is league with the All Pakistan Newspapers Society so that the people working in newspapers should not get the 7th Wage Award, which has been pending for five years now or the other is that government is too terrified of the newspaper barons that they do not have the courage to defy them. Or the government is too inept to deal with such matters. The APNS is becoming increasingly daring and making statements that it wants the laws meant for the newspaper employees removed. Its like saying that law against murder should be removed because, it inconveniences the murderers and they should have the freedom to kill anyone they like and it should not be considered a crime, once it is not considered a crime, the police will never arrest them, they will never appear in court. Since it is not a crime they will never be imprisoned. They can just go on killing without any remorse or pity. The present government is adopting ultra-rig

Blogs timed out

Amazing I cannot view my blog page - I continuously receive 110 timed out error message. This happens when the ISPs have been ordered not let anyone in Pakistan see what I have been writing. Oh well so much for freedom of expression. The idiocy of all this is simply that everyone living abroad - particularly Pakistanis will be able to access my blog. It does not matter if my blogs are blocked over here, readers abroad will see them. There are a number of foreign based online newspapers covering events in Pakistan. Those websites are blocked. But people send the contents of those newspapers by sending them via e-mail. There are so many ways to subvert ridiculous restrictions which have been imposed. Censorship weakens governments - the reason is simple - the government does not know what the public opinion is. A classic example how dictators falls is the case of the former Romanian dictator Caucescu - in order to ensure that no one should spread things against him - had photocopyi

In The News no more

For 16 years I worked in The News – I was expecting to continue to work in it till I eventually retired. But that was not to be. I was unceremoniously fired on absolutely flimsy grounds. Another journalist who contested his termination from Business Record - Mr Baloch - contested his case for several years, he won in every single court. The owners of Business Recorder refused to concede defeat every time, they took the matter to the Supreme Court of Pakistan – even there they lost. Despite the rulings in favour of Mr Baloch in every court of the country, the owners of Business Recorder have refused to rehire him even then. The members of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society have marked as a trouble maker and have unanimously decided not to publish anything he submits, his career as a journalist is as good as dead. Somehow the Supreme Court of Pakistan is not able to make anyone follow its decisions. Business Recorder is also part of the all powerful crime syndicate the All Pakistan N

Even when the APNS loses, it still wins

The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) the association of all the newspaper and publication owners in the country – is the most powerful organisation after the government Although it keeps losing cases in almost every court even up to the level of the Supreme Court of Pakistan - irrespective of the rulings, even of that of the apex court against them, the APNS stands defiant. It refuses acknowledge those decisions, with utter disdain. As if they are not legally oblighed to do anything at all. A number of people have contested cases of being fired illegally, the newspaper owners have prolonged such cases to the point that it has reached the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The poor people who win suchcases, even then do not get their jobs back, in fact the APNS gangs up against working journalists in particular – ensuring that they can never find a job in any publication, none of their reports and articles are ever published. thus their careers are permanentlty destroyed. The APNS is liv

Remembering Josh

Josh Mali Abadi a prominent poet - wrote a verse which angered the British authorities in India so much that he was detained him for a couple of days. The British Empire was crumbling because of World War II. As the saying goes the enemy of my enemy is my friend - hence Germany which was attacking Britain, was considered a friend. Hitler was greatly admired and Josh wrote his verse translated to "Oh great Hitler, drop a bomb in our name". The British authorities were were so upset that they arrested the poet. The slightest amount of dissent was not tolerated by the British rulers (despite their claims to be great upholders of democracy and human rights). During theri stay here, they had their clubs signs 'Dogs and Indians not allowed" When ''World War II' was going on another man set up an army to defeat the British in India. He allied himself with Germans and the Japanese - to end British oppression. But war took its toll on 'Great' Britain T

Pakistan is collateral damage

US forces bombed a village in Pakistan - believing terrorists were there. What they ended up doing is killing innocent Pakistanis in the name of 'War on Terrorism'. Yesterday it was a village, the next time around it could very well be a towns and then cities. US officials say 'Although the incident was regretable but the USA will be hit any place suspected to have terrorists'. Which only can mean one thing - the USA is prepared to destroy Pakistan in order to make the USA safer and perhaps the rest of the world. Are Pakistanis cattle? Is Pakistan the next Cambodia? The reason why I am mentioning Cambodia is because that country was bombed during the time when USA was fighting a war in Vietnam. Cambodia was suspected to enable Vietnamese forces from its northern part to attack the southern. Countless innocent Cambodians lost their lives as a result of massive and merciless bombing campaign carried out by the USA. Cambodia was devastated by the bombing campaign,

Karachi - a city without water

The previous military dictator – General Zia-ul-Haq introduced water supply racketeering. The water pipelines blocked or removed and water is supplied via tankers. The tankers were owned by military officers who earned a lot of money by supplying water all over the city. This racketeering continues to this day with General Musharraf’s blessings. All the military officers have a complete control over the water supply system. Instead of people receiving directly into their homes, they are forced to rely on water tankers, for which they have to pay for. To add insult to injury – an annual water supply bill is sent to the people living in any part of Karachi – although water is not being supplied. The most common question is ‘If water can be supplied via a water tanker, why cannot the same amount of water not be supplied directly through the pipeline?’. This racketeering is unlikely to be stopped as long as the military remains in power. Although a normal supply of water is possibl

Another New Year's eve ruined

Again all the restaurants, hotels were shut down. The way to the beach blocked. There is no specific law but officials make every attempt is made to stop merry making of any kind. This has been going for years. The mad Mullahs speak up against New Year's eve celebrations. As if enjoying oneself is some kind of terrible sin. There is no point on delving in this - it has become s pattern of our existence the people want to enjoy themselves - they will do everything in their power to circumvent the power of the officials and of the mad Mullahs. The more the military regime wants to quash merry making the more resistance they face. It may not be long when they people practically revolt and overthrow oppression of any kind.