Karachi Voice

One day standing in my gallery, I saw a couple of guys (when I say guys I mean, two bearded men, wearing namaz cap and shalwar above their takhnay, in short "mullas") climbing a ladder up the electricity pole right in front of my house. I asked them what the hell they are doing... Yes I asked them "Abay OOOO kia kar raha hai" they looked at me as if I commuted a sin or something by asking that... they replied "masjid ke liyay hai bhai sahab". I told them that you are going to "steal" something and then provide it in the mosque!!??? They kept quiet. I told them that I'm going to complain at KESC they smiled and said namazio ke liyay kar rahay hein yea!... I thought to myself... only if anyone here had a little sense! The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has recently launched a campaign, titled “name and shame” against electricity theft, KESC CEO Naveed Ismail revealed at a press briefing on Saturday. He further said that the KESC had req...

The title is scary, I know. It is true that it seems more complicated than it really is. A few days back, I came across some of the news items in my RSS reader. Three of those are listed below. KESC Initiates Captive Power Policy The first company to join this programme is Engro Polymer & Chemical Ltd (EPCL), which signed an agreement with KESC recently to supply 18 Megawatts power supply to the KESC by mid-year 2009. This was yet another breakthrough that was carried forward by a second agreement signing between International Industries Limited (IIL) and the KESC. According to this contract, IIL will supply 4 MWs to KESC within the next two weeks. Islamabad pays Rs 31 bn KESC debt Pepco spokesmen Tahir Basharat Cheema confirmed that the government had adjusted Rs 31 billion against the main portion of loans that the Pepco had gotten from the federal government at interest rate of 18 per cent. “Due to this very step, not only the KESC has been given relief but the loans the Pepco...

In reference to my previous post , I would like to add yet another point. It is not just the media who is stupid enough to not highlight the good points of the country and city, it is everything everywhere from internet, blogs groups and what not. We are so stupid that we don't even realize that we ourselves tell the world that we are (a). stupid, (b). Illiterate (c). at fault, and living in a (d). politically and economically unstable country which is supposedly (e). hub for terrorsim!?. What is up with you people! I will try to make my point clear by using a very recent example from the website Karachi Metblogs (KMB). I, myself was once an author on KMB, but before I tell you what I am about to say, I should tell you why I joined the blog. I found so many good posts, open-minded people posting everything about Karachi, posting about events, places, and restaurant reviews etc (which were sometimes very useful too). But the reason for me to quit was that "some" of the ne...

It has been quite a while since I last wrote something about Karachi on my Blog. Maybe because I have been struggling hard to get my life back into rhythm. There are a number of issues to deal with as of today when you live in a city like Karachi and when the economy and the country itself is trembling. Besides all the development and betterment Karachi has gone through lately, there are some issues that has to be addressed and taken quite seriously now. Couple of days back, almost three nights in a row I couldn't sleep because of some weddings going on in the next street. When the loud and extremely bad quality cheap Indian music took a break after almost 4 hours, come the fireworks and the gun fires! The driving force for me to write this was a post where the same issue is faced by Faisal K and I am totally with him on this one. The winter month of december is ending in its full and nippy glory here in Karachi and the never ending series of weddings just keeps going on and on...