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)

In Islamabad a shopkeeper has unique way to shun borrowers off … we all don’t see restoration of judiciary any time soon. The crisis is still on =\

Image Courtesy: Khabrain

Or just forget it.

In what looks like Time Magazine’s attempt at mimicking reality TV shows like American Idol or those talent shows, they invite readers and users to vote amongst 200 candidates that should make it into the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Pakistan had/has four candidates. Three of them live inside or in the vicinity of Islamabad. They are Pervez Musharraf, PM Gilani, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, and Bilawal Bhutto (Bilawal beats Bush?). Motivated by the recent acclaim received by a Lahori born photographer, I thought this too would be a fun way of doing some national international PR. Sadly, the real goings on are much more grim and need taken care of immediately.

The poll results are based on two values. One being the average rating, and the other just being a simple vote count. Both of these combined form the real ranking value of the candidate. A little fudged, as some would say, but our PM sahib Mr. Yusuf Raza Gilani has the second lowest votes but a much higher ranking due to a higher average ranking he received. And obviously, the higher the number of voters, the more converged (stable) the ranking of the candidate will be.

I don’t really know if the polling is still open or closed, but I have this gut feeling that with in a few years we will have candidates doing their gigs on stand and Simon Cowell taking a piss at them. Now that would be entertainment!

BTW, just so know, Stephen Colbert wins (or is winning) the poll, lol.

[Image Courtesy: ShowBizSpy]

Ok, for those of you who have been a fan of Heroes series.

Syler has been cited here…

Go to Amir Adnan’s outlet in Jinnah Super and you’ll know what I mean.

Ha ha.

Ok, you’ve heard about the blast, right?

I went to Military Hospital in Rawalpindi yesterday to condole with the family of a relative who lost an eye and an ear in the blast.

It was a sad feeling meeting his family even-though I have never met him in person.

When returning home from the hospital, I tried driving with one eye [no, not admiring Pirates of the Caribbean] but the feeling was rather weird. Although I could drive for sometime, but the feeling was rather very discomforting for a while before I said, “Enough Talha … open up the eye. You maybe blind within, but this ain’t for you to experience, yet”

Reminded me of one of my favorite verses from Quran that says : “And which of your Lord’s bleSSings shall you deny”.

I also had different thoughts about completeness, as to what makes a person complete, if it ain’t the body or body parts.

I am not making much sense, yeah … it’s that time of life again in which you lose your rationality [which I never really had in actuality].

But still, I hope and pray that we have a peaceful and trouble-free life and the after-life [even if you don’t believe in one]!

Cheers, or at-least try to.

Thanks for reading!

im pretty sure this is NOT what the ramp is for :S

added: can you guess which sector this is?

Guns ‘n’ roses “Civil War”:-

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.
Some men you just can’t reach…
So, you get what we had here last week,
which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
N’ I don’t like it any more than you men.” *

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they’ve always done before

Look at the hate we’re breeding
Look at the fear we’re feeding
Look at the lives we’re leading
The way we’ve always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can’t deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D’you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said “Peace could last forever”
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can’t trust freedom
When it’s not in your hands
When everybody’s fightin’
For their promised land

And
I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
I don’t need your civil war

Look at the shoes your filling
Look at the blood we’re spilling
Look at the world we’re killing
The way we’ve always done before
Look in the doubt we’ve wallowed
Look at the leaders we’ve followed
Look at the lies we’ve swallowed
And I don’t want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I’ve seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
‘Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

“We practice selective annihilation of mayors
And government officials
For example to create a vacuum
Then we fill that vacuum
As popular war advances
Peace is closer” **

I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
And I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need one more war

I don’t need one more war
Whaz so civil ’bout war anyway

For all those who have been hunting for bridal wears for any of their family members in Islamabad/Pindi, you would know Mohsin Sons, Popular, Fashion ka Ghar et al.

You would also know how rushy an area that is. The following is a picture just outside Mohsin Sons.

The hole would be at-least 15 feet deep.

It’s a pity!!!

Yesterday, President Musharraf addressed first News Conference after Emergency’s imposition. Of a few things he was asked, ousting of three foreign journalists from Pakistan within 72 hours notice was the most interesting.

Two days back, I initially heard in PTV news that three journalists (read goray) were asked to leave Pakistan within 72 hours time, due to lingual profanity used for president Musharaf in an article “Bankrupt Relationship” published in Daily Telegraph (UK). When I read through the article, I myself felt offended, let’s quote the profane part here (should I??):

In the old parlance, General Pervez Musharraf is “our sonofabitch”. He has failed to stamp out extremist groups and close the madrassas that inspire them. He has allowed the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to fall into the hands of assorted jihadis. And he has sacked independent-minded judges for fear that the Supreme Court declare illegal his re-election as president last month.

When Musharraf was asked regarding the deportation of three foreign journalists, he said:

In fact I expect an apology from them.

Also he mentioned that what they had written and the way their newspapers had commented about him were highly objectionable and could not be tolerated in any civilized society, and asked what would be their reaction if any Pakistani reporter used such a language against their president.

After reading the article, I was disgusted too. I feel the depature of trio was well justified. Reporters can be sans borders but the ethics should never leave Journalism. When it comes to country concerns, should we not discourage such foreign outbursts??

Quoting from a blog, wecite, I end the post but the question remains.

NO ONE has the right to use such foul language against our leaders. Granted Pakistan is going through enough turmoil lately but that is our INTERNAL affair! We do not give the right to ANY one in the world to downgrade us and our leaders!

Are you Offended by this event??

News in media: BBC, Telegraph

I was at a colleague’s wedding today noon, when I learned that Baraat, coming from Lahore, has been stopped from entering the city at G.T. Road by the security officials. As per the live update coming from different cell phones connected with individuals present on the spot, the guys with the guns were in no mood to listen to anything. They were not even interested in checking the cars, only to learn that this was merely a baraat, and that the baraatis have not even any remote plans to join BB’s protest. The groom returned back and tried to enter from motorway, going all the way to Chakwal, Balkasar and Chakri only to meet the same fate again. At this moment, they talked to bride’s father, who happens to be a guy with a crescent and few stars on his shoulders in Armed Forces of Pakistan, and asked him to find some solution to the, one of its kind, problem. I got busy with something and missed the transmission for a while. When I joined back, by then, the groom was able to enter from Chakri interchange. I dont know if it was the bride to make this happen or the groom managed the security-guys on his own, but they eventually made it to the marriage hall.

BB says that she is proud of today’s outcome: one call for protest has jammed half of the country, and that she will continue with such calls.

Alarm bells for all the brides whose baraats are planned to come from outside the city in the weeks to come. Make sure your day doesn’t collide with BB’s, as the vice-versa doesn’t seem to be practical. And the grooms too, who plan to bring the brides from other cities, your bride may be denied the entry on the way back home :)

PS: At the wedding more than one versions of the story were available, all claiming to be live :)