Mustafa Kamal keeps it rolling...

Totay I articulated an email containing news picks in my close circle on onging development in Karachi. You can have a look at the clippings on the link below:

http://www.tabraiz.net/bimages/dec_5_karachi_developments.gif

The email got interesting replies.. so posting it on the blog. If you would like to add your throughts please click on the comments and post.

Would like to clarify that I pass these email to keep posted my friends & close one's about the latest developments in the city. I am in any way not associated with any political party and my views (may be baised) but are independent.

My Other posts for Karachi:

Futuristic Karachi

Karachi Photos by Tabraiz

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Mr. Zeeshan Zaidi writes:

Any updates on the fallen bridge`s investigation and also the enquiry into the hundereds of sub standard and illegal boards that were installed all over Karachi by the local governments? :) Thanks

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Tabraiz Writes:

well sir... Northen Bypass project is a mega project and involves giants like NHA, NLC & ECIL (ECIL is one of the largest private sector consulting companies in Pakistan operating since 1959)... city district govt. had a meager role to play then the govt. itself. And for the fact the bridge didn't fall due to sub-standard material.. but due to a design flaw, even a foreign consulting firm was hired to oversee & correct the design -- don't know what happened then... may be here corruption took the charge and recommendations were neglected or not incorporated in totality or whatever, which no doubt is bad and has been a dilemma for the nation for the last 60 years. BUT this doesn't mean that it is the end of the world...

- they have given this city more than a dozen bridges & underpasses in a very short span of time (seemed impossible a few years back) so if there is a bad incident does this white washes all that has been achieved?

- my proud on this city touches heights when I see those widespread & small parks all over the city... where children can play, people can walk and talk.. and can breath in a relatively cleaner air.

- I see the improvement in drainage & sewerage system, I see the roads a whole lot improved.. and i see it all in my very own area and on the very roads that i happen to pass every morning & every night which makes a big difference for me

- I can get my problems to the area in-charge by meeting seeing him physically and if this doesn't soothe.. I can get my complains directly through... thanks to the 24/7 operating CDGK call center

- I see the difference in passport office, difference in license office and difference when I have to pay the bills

- I see my job... OHHHH working for an American company.. being paid good money Al-humdulillah, thanks to the city's growing economy that despite all the BULL-SHIT about Pakistan all over the world, people still are attracted to it.

This all is what matters most for a common man like ME... it matters not if Musharraf is doffing off his wardi or not, miyaan sahab & mohtarma playing jaloos jaloos & ehtajaj ehtajaj all over Pakistan (after having blatantly looted & plundered this country off), Mr. Altaf posing like a panjandrum scholar giving his telephonic lessons on Islam & extremism... ehhhh ..to them all I would say SHUT UP!

The problem is that we just keep on complaining.. we need to learn to see the glass half full - not half empty, give the credit right wherever needed and point out & criticize the weaknesses positively. YES there is a major room for improvement, a LOT LOT is still to be done, there are hundreds of things that need attention - and correction and I am sure its gonna get better and better as the time goes by.

May Allah bless us all

Tabraiz

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Mr. Zeeshan Zaidi writes:

So basically no news yet? ok now then... :)

I appreciate your optimism and I always have and preach them same and have quite often still fights with people here and there over the image of Pakistan and its people, but I cant take or understand the point of campaigning for Mustafa Kamal on email. Frankly its a bit amusing :). Sending the headlines around.

On one hand you care so much for your country and on the other you dont care who rules it and how. What a dichotomy ?, No offence I do feel your profound attachment to MQM and Altaf lot probably due to family backgound of migration at partition I assume which I share as well, and I respect that. I do not have any particular affection to any one of them although I have met them mostly all and havent been impressed as such.

Glass full or half empty :) .. well I would rather advocate attempts to fill the rest of the glass and over flow it for my fellow countrymen. Do not take away your or anybody else`s right to think freely please and do not stop criticism and debate because doing that will take away the very hope of any optimism in future and progress.

Working for an American company and saying AlhamdolilAllah :D ? hahaha just kidding.. I mean we victimised GEO over that recently. :)

I am glad that you see the differences, relatively do not take your eyes off the things that matter as well. criticize the weaknesses positively ? :) I didnt use a BULL-SHIT and SHUT UP in any of my statements yet. My attempts are to point to the horrors looming Pakistan and the internal problems we have usually then to go out on a superficial witch hunt. Positive :) .. ah well ok, right!!!.

I am not asking people to kill each other but to have open ears and eyes, I would rather be the voice of dissent rather then resorting to conformity and pacifism as it is in the best of our interest than to merely hope and pray.

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Imran Aleem writes:

I am on the side of tabraiz and his comments, also to add that fallen bridge was not constructed by the hands of Mustafa Kamal or MQM, it was project done by NLC. We should remember the past where our city was under darkness where there was no street lights not even on main shara-e-faisal, no proper roads and much more under other governments. We should give credit to whatever they have done good and obviously no one perfect................

Also to add that in these 5 years we have faced two natural disasters one is heavey rain which caused demage to these constructions as well as one heavey storm which also did same but still they are busy to build their city even after these two big demages and with diffrent kind of political pressures.. . . . . .. . . . . .i am also not at the side of Altaf Hussain but admire to one who does good............ rest we all know tht we are also not good ourself . . . . .. . . . . . we can't change the system untill we change ourself . . . . .. . . .

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Zeeshan Zaidi writes:

The sign boards incident by predicted by me way back because i could see the licenses being issued recklessly without any checks, infact it was a kind of favour because earning from each average sized roadside board can go in hudereds of thousands annually. And the storm that day. Same has been with the construction of bridges it has been questionable ever since but the fall of one bridge (doesnt matter the jurisdiction it was being built under) raises the concerns ten folds.

I think its my failure and nobody else`s if I fail to bring others to see my point of view from the point I see it. Perhaps I have not put enough effort depending too much on the intelligence of the reader. Clear and transparent accountability for everyone is mandatory. As you say Imran we have to change ourselves ? then how do we change ourselves buddy ? start praying stricting five times a day, not miss fajar ? don`t get me wrong but thats not exactly and only way we have to change ourselves, we have to change the point of view we have over things.

Can I point of certain fallacies we fell victim to in the recent debates ?

- Worship of hereos beyond accountability

- Justification of one wrong with another

- Ignorance (is a bliss indeed)

Side of Altaf hussain, benazir, nawaz sharif, mushy mush or kala chor whatever. When a question is raised please consider the question rather then trying take apart the motives of the person asking if he/she is a pessimist ignoring all the good and focusing on the bad. That my dear bretheren is ignorance.

I told the same to my british executive colleagues, sufi saint sitting in a cave in remote desert mountains of Pakistan, the christain priest who was trying to convert me and few of the so called luminaries and intellectuals of our time.

Pardon me for taking so much of your time but I on one hand do encourage conversation and debate over matters, so keep in touch.

thanks for the privilege of reading my words,