Over the period of last few months I have seen a growth in the number of luxury cars with “green number plates” cruising on the streets of the capital. You can easily find super luxury sedans (some of them cost more than 1.8 Million Pak Rupees) to luxury hatchbacks driving the “maim sahibs” to shopping markets in posh E & F sectors. You will also see drivers recklessly driving “bacha logs” of these “civil servants” to their schools in the morning and afternoon school rush hours or to KFC and Mc Donald’s for an afternoon junk bite. Their driving is anywhere close to being civilized. I would say that as Pakistan has made tremendous economic growth in the past few years, what better investment could be then to invest in super luxury Japanese cars for taking care of our dear bureaucracy who live in palatial homes in uptown sectors of Islamabad and whose families have 5-6 servants for every menial job one can imagine at home. After all, Pakistan has now become a developed country.

The beauty of all this is that all of this is coming out of tax payer’s pocket, kickbacks in “delayed” contracts or the debt money. All of it, running on expensive petrol, while the rest of nation yearns for a few pounds of CNG, in long queues outside the gas stations. While 80% children of this nation don’t have access to basic schooling, you see “mummy papa daughters and sons” of these civil servants in TCS offices tightly holding on to prospectuses of one or more of foreign universities in Australia and the US of A. When they return to their cars, the driver steps out to open the door for them, least their pretty manicured hands do not get soiled with the dirt of the Capital.
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I saw The Good Doctor yesterday.

It’s not bad, in-fact it’s quite a perfect product!

I will write a review once the play is over, but if you want some entertainment, you should go and watch it.

If you enter Islamabad through GT Road after the Airport chowk, ever since I know, there stands the famous Unity Faith Discipline write-up erected on a small hill. Whispers of challenge still haunt the ways around Quaid e Azam’s given motto.

Dawn did a very interesting background feature on it today … have a read:

It’s really shameful that even after debating for years the correct order of the motto left by Quaid-i-Azam for the nation, our Establishment remains confused in what order to place Unity, Faith and Discipline.

Some years ago Islamabad’s mandarins put up Quaid’s portrait in steel on a hillock on Islamabad Highway near the airport with the words of the motto beneath it — apparently to inspire the people than practice the Quaid’s message themselves.

But the order of the words of the motto in Urdu and English in shining stainless steel on either side of the hillock has changed a few times. The combo picture, as you can see above, shows the latest change — the Urdu and English versions present the motto in different orders. Was it a blunder on the part of the Islamabad authorities or deliberate?

Until President Gen Ziaul Haq arrived on the national scene in 1977 riding the wave of Nizam-i-Mustafa, the order used to be Unity, Faith and Discipline. But the missionary president changed it to Faith, Unity and Discipline, perhaps to rhyme with the ‘Jihad fee Sabeelillah’ that he had added to the motto of the Pakistan Army — an inspiration that served extremely well the US-backed jihad fought against communist Soviet Union in Afghanistan in 1980s.

As conservatism got well entrenched in various branches of the Establishment, someone decided that ‘Faith’ in the Quaid’s saying should get precedence over ‘Unity’. The change caused a furore that prompted several scholars of the Pakistan Movement to vent their views on the Quaid’s beliefs and the message he wished to convey in the order he placed his three points. As the changing times made the Establishment rediscover Quaid-i-Azam’s liberal ideals, the three-point motto was restored to its original form. Is it that the latest change in placing the points in different order in their English and Urdu versions also dictated by changing times? After all our role in the ‘war on terror’ requires our Establishment grounded in English to put Unity on the top while Iman (faith) is more dear to the Urdu-knowing masses.

You can see the NOW version in this post and the previous version in this post.

We don’t practice; we don’t act; we rant and fight!!

A bomb exploded at Katchehry Chowk of Rawalpindi Tuesday, killing atleast six persons and injuring several others.

The ambulances were seen rushing to the area where the blast was heard.

Security forces have cordoned off the area. Ten injured have been shifted to CMH Rawalpindi.

Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering (CASE), Islamabad is a private sector, non profit academic institute of higher learning which has been instrumental in fulfilling its social responsibilities through various ways and means.

In order to meet its societal obligations, CASE is actively involved in addressing the critical social issues coming out of information and knowledge age. Main purpose is to ease out the adverse effects by voicing the concern of less privileged/oppressed or ignored segment of society, especially in knowledge workforce/corporate business environment.
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Mobilnk Jazz has just recently introduced credit sharing facility; inviting spammers (or should i say opportunists)??

Since, Mobilink people are, luckily, not in a habit of spamming their customers with this offer and that offer messages like UFone. Many may not be knowing of this credit offer just introduced.

This morning I got a message from a UFone number (+92-330-6368507) stating;

Mobilink is celebrating his 11th birthday, get Mobilink Gift. Dialing this code *100*923076682451*66# your balance will double.

from www.mobilink.com

Exactly in the same fashion a month or so back, I got this call(telenor number) from a person speaking Punjabi-tinted Urdu. First he narrated some kahani claiming I’ve won a 100,000 Rs lottery. I just have to confirm my SIM number’s last few digits. He’ll call me again to take my whereabouts info. I gave him a cold shoulder; he never called again – the SIM number didn’t match either ;-)

Is PTA taking any steps to shun this activity?? I wonder how many follies fell prey to these gimmicks everyday??

I’d never know why are most of the Pakistani designers (not talking about Amir Adnan and his likes) are so obsessed with HEARTS :-)

See for yourself.

Image Courtesy Go2Net

Siraj market, commonly known as Covered Market, in G-6 is no more. A unique and exciting place aboding small art galleries, haven to picture framing in Islamabad, grocery shopping and a few handicraft shops. One of the oldest markets that cater to artistic minds needful is eliminated now, after much hue and cry, to build a Shopping Complex.

Covered Market Before and Now …

Though it was not as huge and classy as Oxford’s Covered Market, nevertheless islooites treasured the idea of this market. Always flooded with gorasfor a peek into paintings and sketches, largely on display, in the various art shops.

I always loved visiting it … where will I go for picture framing now :-\ I wonder if the shops are replaced at some suitable place too??

First of all, let me apologize for being out for so long. This would be my first post after a long hiatus from posting oo IMB.

We at IMB have been discussing what new topics to write about a for a while and one of the most favored topics was food and eating out. One of our readers suggested us to do a Top 3 list of eat-outs in Islamabad. One of the ideas we really liked, and we got around to writing our own mini-reviews for these restaurants. More recently Adnan Siddique, a new Islamabadi, suggested to us in a comment here to do a similar post. So here we go!

This picture on the right however is a platter of Mutton Biryani taken from Karachi Metroblogs, thanks guys.

So starting from number 3, here is my list.
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At Bahria University on Saturday, 27th Oct a Job Fair’s been arranged.

20+ universities and 30+ companies will take part in it. Get ready for it with your CV’s, on-spot interviews and tests will also be conducted.

Have a nourishing Good Experience.