Karachi

KARACHI: Over 1381 people, including political activists, have been killed during ten months this year in Karachi, challenging the tall claims of Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik and testing the performance of the law enforcement agencies.
Most of the criminals arrested were released because of political pressure, officials from the Police Department asking not to be named told Pakistan Today. Statistics collected by Pakistan Today revealed that from amongst those killed

KARACHI: US President Abraham Lincoln once said, "If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again."
Lincoln's words adequately sum up the state of mind that most people living in Karachi share and the agony they have to suffer every day. They are hapless souls residing in a city that is gripped by fear and taken hostage by those who possess not only arms but also the callousness to kill without any pity or remorse.
The

KARACHI: The Ministry of Ports and Shipping is patronising a gimmick of around Rs 50 million a year just by ignoring private maritime colleges providing GP3 training to students aspiring to be professional seamen.
It has been learnt that these private colleges pay commissions to their agents for enticing young students for the costly GP3 training, commonly known as seaman training, despite the fact that some 500,000 seafarers are idle and have no jobs. Every year some 1,200

KARACHI: The police on Saturday arrested National Highway Authority (NHA) Chairman Chaudhry Altaf and two other officials after West Additional District and Sessions Judge Gulshan Ara Chandio rejected their interim arraignment.
However, former NHA chairman Major Gen (r) Farrukh Javed and the project director of the ECIL Company, Mohammad Yousaf Barakzai, who passed the architectural design of the bridge, managed to flee from the court premises. The men were appearing in court in

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik said on Saturday that the government was fostering reconciliation and consensus in the national interest.
Talking to media at the Jinnah International Airport, he said that the government intended to take all coalition partners into confidence on the national issues and it was because of this trust that "the PPP and the Muttahida Quami Movement arranged a peaceful funeral for Dr Imran Farooq," he said.

KARACHI: Bhooro Menghwar, a landless peasant belonging to the Dalit caste of Hindus (so-called untouchables), sold his last pair of goats and a cow after having sold everything else in his house to save the life of his six-year-old daughter Veena, who is suffering from severe aplastic anemia.
"The cure is bone-marrow transplant," doctors told him, which he cannot afford.
"What can I do? I have sold almost everything I had," said Menghwar, adding, "I have no option left but

KARACHI: After receiving numerous sexual harassment complaints, the Sindh government has decided to remove all male teaching and non-teaching staff from girls' schools and colleges in the province.
Education Department directed all executive district officers (EDOs) to enlist all the male staff working in the province. The male officials were also asked to report to the Sindh secretariat till further notice.
"There have been many complaints against the male staff members

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a motion against Transparency International over what they said was an attempt to malign the country by releasing the "purported" ratings of Pakistan on the World Corruption Index.
PPP's Sharjeel Inam Memon moved the motion on an out-of-turn basis that was passed unanimously by the House. MQM's MPA Heer Sohu objected on moving the motion out-of-turn, but Deputy Speaker Shahla Raza rejected her complaint. Earlier SIndh Law

KARACHI: The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) managing director on Monday apologised to the people of Karachi for cut in gas supply to the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) that is causing prolonged power load shedding in the city.
"Despite the fact that the KESC owes at least Rs 22 billion to the SSGC, gas supply has been curtailed due to annual maintenance work and it has nothing to do with the payment issue," SSGC MD Dr Faizullah Abbasi told the media at the Karachi Press

KARACHI: One of the largest in the country, Baluchistan's Hingol National Park Baluchistan offers a unique and versatile habitats including the mountains, desert, flat valleys and a view of the Arabian Sea, beautiful landscapes, wonderful mountains, mud volcanoes and with variety of animals, reptiles, birds, fish, cetaceans and other protect wildlife but has been very conveniently ignored by both the provincial and the national government.
Many of the wildlife species found in

KARACHI: The Sindh government is planning to place a bounty on the heads of criminals involved in the assassinations in Karachi, Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza told the Sindh Assembly on Monday.
"There is no amnesty for the criminals who surrender," he said during the Question Hour. Mirza said that from May to October 2010, 822 kidnapping had been registered in the province and out of them, 520 had taken place in Karachi.
At least 56 honour killings occurred during the same

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah on Monday denied an opposition member's allegation that Watan cards were not being distributed properly among flood survivors.
Responding to an adjournment motion on Watan cards by the opposition's Arif Mustafa Jatoi Qaim said, "The Sindh government has allocated Rs 20 billion for Watan cards only one-fourth of flood survivors have been able to obtain the cards so far and this process will continue for four more months.
Education

KARACHI: Even though Pakistan is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and various other international protocols on environment protection e.g. UNCLOS, RAMSAR, MARPOL, the ballast water of ships, which is the main source of dispersal of different invasive marine animals around the globe, is not being monitored at the country's ports and poses a great threat to the coastal ecosystem.
Karachi port handles over 2.5 million tons of liquid and dry cargo,

KARACHI: The Supreme Court has taken suo motu action against the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), the operator of Gwadar Port, for its failure to develop the port and asked the authorities concerned to appear on November 2.
The apex court took note of an article published in a section of the press on the PSA's poor performance despite the incentives given to the operator by the Pakistan government.
The court issued a notice to the ports and shipping secretary, the Gwadar

KARACHI: The Sindh Health Department is using Rs 7.5 million from different heads of the annual budget to buy mega-unit platelet bags for dengue patients that will be handed over to health executive district officers (EDOs) throughout the province, Sindh Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed said on Sunday.
"The health department has so far conducted dengue tests on 3,371 people throughout Sindh, and 1,816 have tested positive for the disease, including 1,704 in Karachi and 112 in

KARACHI: The Sindh government has so far failed to restore several road links that connect villages and towns to major cities of the province in the aftermath of the floods, which means that many people will be unable to reach their native areas to celebrate the forthcoming Eidul Azha.
On the right of the Indus River, from Kashmore to Thatta, dozens of major towns like Khairpur Nathan Shah, Shahdadkot, Qubo Saeed Khan, Mehar, Johi, Sujawal and Sehwan as well as the suburbs of

KARACHI: A country can adopt any model having several matrixes in order to address its political and economic issues and Bangladesh will never shy away from sharing its best experiences with Pakistan, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mohammad Mijarul Quayes said on Sunday.
He made these comments while addressing a luncheon meeting organised in his honour at a hotel. "Look for models that can resolve your problems," he said. To a query, he said that there were many facets to the