Marriott, ETC: Economical Blow
The 9/20 incident Islamabad witnessed on Saturday eve was a severe blow not only for Marriott hotel and the employees working in it. The adjacent Evacuee Trust Complex aka STP2 (Software Technology Park), housing a large number of software houses and banks, faced the sudden blow head-on too. Though in news its mostly about frontier house and other ministerial buildings … media is largely neglecting the STP2 Complex. Which is going to cause much larger Economical blow than the Frontier or Baluchistan houses. They were not housing businesses. Important large businesses.
Thankfully it was a Saturday eve otherwise the causalities in ETC may have gone exponentially high. Even now … around 6-10 deaths and 20+ injured are reported in ETC. The fate is still undecided. temporarily offices are being shifted but they can’t work from home for months to come. Cold assumptions are … without regarding structural miscarriages the building authorities will give OK to move back in. A social dilemma. We condemn the sad demises later on but value them NOT when they are alive.
Here’s a pictorial overview of what Marriott and ETC has faced.
An aerial view taken from an army helicopter shows the devastated Marriott Hotel two days after a suicide truck bombing in Islamabad on September 22, 2008. Courtesy: AFP PHOTO/Aamir QURESHI
Please share your views? What steps should be taken NOW? How to fight this evil of terrorism?
Also how this continuous economical attacks can be fought? If you were a victim of this 9/20 attack, in any way, what steps your company has taken to ensure your safety?
Please refrain from personal attacks … Share the positive energy … that’s what we need right now.
More Reads and PicS:
- Another aerial view of Marriott … the double road in front of it is .. GONE !
- Assessment of battered Marriott.
- Marriott’s owner, Sadar ud Din Hashwani, has said that the hotel will be up and running in three month’s time … in the meanwhile, employees WILL get their salaries.
- For victims of terror a Citizens trust is up. Please follow the link to read more about them. You can find more on it through this Facebook group.
Incoherent and incomprehensible. Can anyone decipher it please?
Always sceptic!
Get back on track and all things will become fine !
I hope the businesses inside ETB had contingency plans to fall back to in case of a disaster. If not, then tough luck.
Until we don’t have this terrorism issue eliminated, which seems quite far off at the moment, we should have proper contingency and disaster management procedures in place. Telecommuting should be encouraged to keep human losses at minimum.
A4a if i am not wrong your office was also located at STP?
salam,
what happening regarding the investigation of this:
http://www.jang.net/urdu/details.asp?nid=305786
Apart from this particular news item .. everyone’s trying to ignore this informational piece.
Nice informational piece, A4A. Given the magnanimity of the disaster at ETB, am afraid that many business might face a closure or they will do some kind of downsizing at least. Some of them have resumed their operations though from dingy places (one office that I’ll not name is currently operating from a semi-constructed house in I-8).
If these businesses have no other choice but to slash some jobs then they should get rid of the rich kids. I have seen so many hi-fi kids doing jobs there just for a thrill. Many had full time drivers continuously waiting for them outside in fancy cars n stuff.
Here is a refreshing development, finally, somebody in the print media had the guts to say, what should have been said a long time back, normally I dont paste links, but this is a must read:
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/sep2008-daily/23-09-2008/col8.htm
One of my vendors, "Askari Information Services" have offices in ETC (3rd floor). Can anyone confirm that everything is OK with them?
As far as topic (economic blow) is concerned, I think this is just a start of what to come. these baydeen mullahs have been successful in recruiting the highly literate people among us, one example was Khalid Shaikh, who was involved in Daniel Pearl case.
After spreading chaos all over Pakistan, now they want to attack on the economy to make us more weak. By this they would fulfill the all the responsibilities entrusted in them by enemy sates of Pakistan
stop crying abt the conspiracy theories. this thing is for real.these talibans have no religion.they r just a bunch of thieves,murderers. i m saying this coz i belong to souther nwfp, which is a taliban territory now. i have seen them first hand.
all those ppl who think that these talibans are fighting for islam,then let me tell u this.these talibans (the ones i know in my village) do not pray 5 times a day.(donno wheter they have "roza" or not). they were criminals,small time thieves, etc who joined the movement bcoz they had nothing else to do.they r complete illiterate. some of them have been to madressas. but do u know what they teach them there? have u ever bothered looking at their curricula? they r only taught "firqa warriat". if u ask a talib, the translation of "namaaz", he can’t answer u. but just ask them the difference b/w deobandi and brelvi or shiaa, n he will give u an hour lecture on all the differences-complete with references to "ahadees"n "aayaats". so what do u expect from these talibs? islam?
The problem can be solved by doing two things in parallel. economic development of these backward areas so these young ppl have something positive to do plus writ of the govt should be enforced at every cost. i m sorry if i offend my tribal brothers.the only language they use n understand is "force". so the govt must talk to them in the same language. if they know that if they give shelter to terorrists,they will b hit hard, then they would stay away from this.one more thing. in tribal customs, if u make peace with someone by going to his home, then basically u have surrendered. govt must stop doing this.it only emboldens these ppl.
[...] the hideous Marriott blast, even-though the STP-1 building is nowhere in the neighborhood, the management has posted a [...]
Hows it going now? Life back to normal for ETC and STP1?
@kashif:
ETC is in no state to resume operations. offices are shifting.
While at STP 1 … even though repairs are in order .. yo must have seen the notice displayed too (posted on IMB) … but still its operable now.