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Benazir's death a massive tragedy?

The violence which ensued after Benazir Bhutto's assassination was far worse than her death. The rioting and violence which ensued immediately appeared too staged to be genuine many people died and select areas were damaged, cars were destroyed. Tactics normally employed by the MQM. Coming back to the matter of Benazir Bhutto, she got herself elected life chair-person of the PPP, turning it a one person party, no democratic process within the political party, which meant no one else would have the opportunity to lead the party. Benazir's father ZA Bhutto won the election in West Pakistan, was not because of who he was, rather what he stood for. It was his socialist stand and improving the conditions of ordinary people - the destitute and poor were made aware of their rights. The PPP won in West Pakistan, thrashing all the political parties peddling religion. The PPP party slogan was 'roti, kapra aur makan" meaning bread, clothing and shelter for all. This was th

Sui Southern Gas Company information village mentality

Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) is distributing to its customers information update forms. There are a number of problems related to this updating of information. Karachi is a cosmopolitan city, it is not some sleepy village where people who never look for any other place stay. Karachi is in perpetual state of flux and it is practically impossible keep up with such constant changes: The information once updated by SSGC becomes out of date, as soon as it has been submitted People are constantly changing their premises, they may give information of where they were once living in, but the owners or tenants will make changes in those premises, so that information becomes out of date. The former owners are living elsewhere and have nothing to with the those premises. The people who have shifted to new premises cannot be expected to provide requisite details, because they have yet to know the place they are living in. There can never give an accurate a

Worsening conditions of banks

After the local banks were denationalised - things have become worse - both for those who were employed in them and for those who have their accounts in them. Many bank employees were fired without thinking twice about the consequences - one of the many factors which have led the major disturbances in the country. The account holders are treated with absolute indifference. If their checque book has finished and have applied for a new one, if the new one is not collected within 60 days then the new checque book is destroyed - conveniently forgetting that the checque book belongs to the account holder and the bank has no business destroying it. It should keep it in trust so that the account holder can collect at has own convenience. An organisation called NIFT and the State Bank of Pakistan has prevented the banks from keep new checque books for more than 60 days and are required to destroy them. Whosoever invented this rule is a blithering idiot. Banks encourage people save money in

Conspiracy conspiracy

There are several websites entirely devoted to all kinds of conspiracy theories. Those theories may or may not be true - but then one can never certain what is reported in several respected media sources. My experience as a journalist has taught me that no one should believe everything what they read, hear or see even from some of the trusted media sources. Because many times they get the facts absolutely wrong. Almost all the time the news is given an angle and the common spin and plausible deniability The real story is buried inside a large amount of text and once that particular news item is heavily edited the facts emerge and quite possibility seriously embarrass a lot of people. One of problems with conspiracy websites is that none of them have any email addresses - or any other forwarding address. there is really no way to contact them. Even if there are email addresses most of the time they turn out to be fake - so it makes all those conspiracy theories sound like monologues an

No one can topple Musharraf?

The BBC did an assessment about as to who are the likely candidates within the military and intelligence services who if they could they would be able get rid (president) General Musharraf - the BBC's analysis concluded that there really was no one. Despite the second martial law (so called emergency) by this bastard General Musharraf - disturbances in the country and he is completely unable to do anything about them; the local media however shut down does not mean the reports of events are not being reported - the shortest route for the world to know what is happening in Pakistan is through India and everyone then the entire world finds out. The general has made a mess of practically everything. He does not know what he should do about the myriad problems which exist, because he never really intended to govern the country, he never had an agenda as to how to make things happen. All his time has been spent enjoying himself and granting favours to his cronies. He resorted to

What is education?

The answer the purpose of education is to EDUCATE. Education is not about examinations, homework or classwork periods and class (grade) system. It is about providing students - knowledge, understanding and to indulge their deep curiosity of so many subjects and that there are in the world. Besides introducing them the enormous variety of subjects which exist in the world. Understanding by accessing to a great deal of sources of information. Many which may contradict one another. Provide proof fill in gaps in data. Education is about ideas and their orgins, it is information and its origins. The more we know the better we understand – but in the given circumstances, students are never encouraged to do this. Education is about the letting students know about the vast number of subjects which exist give them an idea is what can be learnt at least have an idea as to what kind knowledge exists in the world. None of this has anyting to do with thoroughly memorising a handfu

A general running for elections?

How idiotic can things be that a military officer, who is still in service and continues to remain in service is going to contest elections this year!? General Musharraf has refused to step down as the commander-in-chief of the army and the other ridiculous military titles which he continues to hold. Suddenly he believes in democracy. In that case every military officer should be promoted by the soldiers only vote for them - there should be absolute democracy in the army. But that does not happen because - officers are promoted by some stupid committee. The same which made promoted Musharraf to the rank of general. General Musharraf is a usurper and a traitor - he has no right to contest any election. An official from the USA has asked the general to resign from the armed forces and contest elections - but will General Musharraf heed this advice? The general knows resigning from the armed forces is no an option because he would have to explain - how he got power and what gives him t