Today in a forwarded e-mail, I got an interesting letter written by an affectees of post-budget like you and me to the ruling bodies.

Sharing with my readers.

Prime Minister of Pakistan
President Of Pakistan
Co-Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party
Federal Finance Minister

Dear Sirs

Thank you so much for increasing the prices of petroleum products, after the shortage of edible commodities this
increase is like a cold breeze in hot summer, specially your new gift to the nation at the start of the fiscal year 2008-09 by increasing the CNG prices to 31%, we as a nation sincerely appreciate your efforts to support us.

Dear Sirs, we further suggest the following measures to be taken in the broader interest of the nation as soon as possible, the way the nation is enjoying the following benefits, is not the right of this nation and it also hurt your efforts for the stability of economy.
Your kind attention to the following will help to strengthen the economy of the country;

• Breathing - The tax may please be imposed on breathing.
• Eating - The tax may please be imposed on the eating 2 meals a day, (Because of the strong economy now the nation do not afford to eat 3 meals).
• Drinking of Water - The tax may please be imposed on drinking more than 2 glasses daily, additionally taking bath more than once a month should be Taxed.
• Clothing – Wearing Cloths may please be taxable and additional tax on changing the suits/shirts on daily basis.
• Traveling - Journey through the public transport should be allowed once a day, means if someone comes to work by bus/rail he should not be allowed to use the same for going back, when the nation will start to walk back to homes it will help to keep them healthy.
• Birth – Tax may please be imposed on the birth of every child, the tax should be the 10% of the monthly wage rate of the father and if the mother is a working woman, she will also have to pay 10% of her wage, it is also suggested that this tax should be increased 20% to 30% on every additional birth.
• Death – A death tax may please be imposed on every person who dies, an additional tax is also suggested to the suicidal or accidental death.

There are so many other items that are still identifiable and we will try to let you know as soon as we realize the taxability of those.
Now at the end we recommend to award “Nishan-e-Haider”, “Tamgha-e-Khidmat” to the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Shaukat Aziz and his team for the efforts they made to revive the dying economy of Pakistan.
An increase of 100% in the packages of Members of Assemblies / Ministers and other officials is also suggested, it will help them to serve the nation better, after all we have to take care of the interests of the nation.
Thanking you in advance
Pakistani Nation
Courtesy: M.Arshad Minhas (his name was on the letter I received ~ so probably written by him)

Spotted at blue area, just outside BankAl- Islami.

Every shopping area and road in Islamabad is crutinzed by a car lifter (exact term, anyone?) these days … so if you care to double park, think again =))

Picture/Post Courtesy: Mansoor (ex-IMB/KMB author)

Shah Sharabeel hits the city again, this time with a musical tale to tell. The city has seen Phantom of the Opera, Moulin Rouge, You only Merry Twice , and Bombay dreams.

The group on Facebook reveals:

A love story which will sweep you of your feet… you will remember it not for days, weeks or months you will remember it for ages.. A grand Musical directed by SHAH SHARAHBEEL.

A musical you must not miss, It will lift the art of Entertainment to new Heights.

So if you feel you can act, dance, choreograph, design sets, costumes, direct … probably you can jump in to Islamabad Club at 1600 on May 11 for auditions.

More Info.

For Auditions call Tepu: 0345 589 6070

ps: Nay I wasnt paid for this post =\  If you are thinking about that … see if shah sharabeel is reading :~)

Yesterday was 10th April. 20 Years down the Ojri Camp incident. And I’m so tempted to re-post this post here :)  Previously it was posted in Dec’ 05

Life is full of events … tragic … happy … alarming …. monumental …. all sorts of … in different phases and times …!

OK … wait a minute … I was about to write some flashback moments here … Let’s have a small quiz first … Can you tell me what is this thing … any idea into its history ????

Ciao …!

Update [7th Dec 06 - 11:15 PM]

So some of you were quite correct - some funnier :-)

It’s a small-sized Rocket’s propeller (see the fan like thing on which it is standing) - it had a shell on it with gunpowder - the cylindrical shape also contains gunpowder (to the best of my knowledge) …!

A little history of this Rocket now … but first the INCIDENT … It dates back to 10th April 1988 … another day (apart from 8-10-2005) when Islamabad and Rawalpindi were almost shook by rockets and missiles flying in the air … falling here and there … rumors in the air that Islamabad is invaded by India (and even some said Russia) … it was all due to Ojri Camp incident.

Ojri Camp was basically army depot with ammunition (I’m not sure … anyone??? I guess it was abandoned by 1988 and people didn’t even knew that it do have LIVE AMMUNITION) … and then something (what?? Ummm I don’t remember … don’t BLAME me … I was just 4 then) happened and taraah … the rumors outside Pindi-Islamabad is all finished … it’s no more … since telephone lines also suffered … few rockets hit the exchange too … !

My father incidentally went to work on (my beloved) Vespa and not on car … so while coming from Pindi to Islamabad at around 11 … (this incident happened between 10-11) … he had 2-3 rockets with him :D as “his collection” … hence a Live Masterpiece no Re-Collection from POF or anywhere … we only painted it golden laters… En route he narrates that there were missiles of lamp post size and man they were real huge … the incident was tragic with lots and lots of stories to tell …!

One of our acquaintances had a missile hit their home in satellite town such that it perfectly drilled on wall, ten next room and perfect drilling of wall … such wise it drilled 3 walls perfectly and then hit off 4th wall … that brought all energy game to an end …!

I vaguely (READ it CLEARLY … because Even Now I seem to have it in my memory) remember when rockets were really flying off in air, with everyone worried about their kids and men out on work … everyone praying and talking if it is an invasion or Allah’s wrath ..!

So it was kind of brief flashback from Islamabad’s life … with this rocket memoir … by the way the other two bigger (and my mom told us that the shell was much beautiful :>) rockets we gave back since the chances of it be LIVE were always there … !

In late June ‘07, I made a post on Islamabad Metblogs about a seemingly-suspicious club in F-10/3. Some real interesting comments came up on the post … and woohoo my suspicions were right.

Interestingly the club originated during the same period when Lal Masjid students raided an acupuncture clinic and kidnapped 9 people: 5 Chinese included.

When police raided the said club, almost 53 people were taken into custody including 19 men and 34 women. They were sent to jails under court bound … excluding obviously the ex-MNA and his friends.

ps: So the investigative report was not so bad, huh!

News Sources:

The News

Daily Times

Big Wigs … Part of the club

I am the man who walks alone…

Ok, my post isn’t about this song.

I did a post on Cinepax some time ago.

Yesterday night, I was getting bored and wanted to go see a movie in cinepax, but didn’t really go. Because one of the fear in my mind was what if some suicide attack takes place since it’s close to the residence of many Army men and lately there have been many such attacks on Armed forces personnels. The latest one was this one in Lahore.

Ok, suddenly I was taken back about fifteen to twenty years in the Islamabad of my childhood when we used to stay inside our houses at night but back then we had no place to go at nights to hang out. That was not an option because of unavailability of places, these days it’s because of fear.

It’s a shame, God help Islamabad.

God, help Pakistan.

Peace on you, Peace on me…Peace on Humanity…

P.S. I like the new look and feel of Islamabad metblogs. :D

As mansoor already announced about the New Look. I’d like to mention a few more things here :-)

1. You need to log in to comment. So hurry up make an account with us. This account will be valid to comment on all metroblogging sites.

2. Plz report any bugs you encounter. Share user experience in this post.

3. Links in old posts are currently broken. Its a known issue and we are working on it :-)

About the new look, LA says.

ps: Due to DNS propagation, you may have difficulties in seeing updated MBs of some cities.

Ok, I was having a post-lunch, lonesome walk outside my office yesterday when I spotted this accident.

I asked the people around, why don’t you guys shift the cab somewhere else so that further accidents can be avoided
since it’s a busy intersection of roads and things might turn from bad to worse and it will be bad to get out of frying pan into the fire.

But no one listened, and everyone started rumbling and so I had to leave…

But the question still remains, how long will we cause pains and horrifying bumps in others ways just for the heck of making an impression or something…

Had hai yar, what shit…

WHAT SHIT!!!

Backpacker informed about Startup Insiders Session # 5 coming to Islamabad for the second time last week. Mansoor’s review about the last session was equally enthralling.

Resultant: I ended up at Planet X on 23rd february. Whoa! there were definitely 100+ people sitting in the huge studio-like auditorium. An advertisemnet from Apple’s starting years was screening at that time. And then onwards, many other videos were shown alongwith a heated up (and at times cooled) discussion on Innovation and Creation. Agenda of the day circled around:

- Do I really need a killer product or service idea to be an entrepreneur?
- What is Innovation? Is innovation necessary for building a successful business?
– How do I think about building my product? How do I innovate in my business?

Having missed the previous session, I felt alientated towards a few things and terms (marketing and advertising centric). The only concept thoroughly liked and felt well-presented was the one by Faisal Qurishi. (In my personal opinion, why can’t we give due regard to our language, FQ did that in diamond cut :-))

I’m all for the promotion of such an excellent idea (not to forget the hard work done to do so in the background). But
what I felt missing from the session was:

a) Recap of key entrepreneurial queries.
b) Defining the boundaries of event & session strictly. Avoidance of patchyness at all costs.

Reviews from Organizers and Panelists after the jump :-)
Read more

I suggest:

** Shauq da koi mol nayin **

** Yah Aalam Shauq Ka … **

What comes to your mind?

As Shahab mentioned in his post: “Not everyone can be crooks” … I was amazed to see teh spirit of this old lady … Bravo :)

Image Courtesy: Hanif Khattak - He has a lot more to offer from the election day happenings.
_{Click on pic to go to original source}