Karachi

KARACHI: Drone attacks are violating Pakistan's sovereignty and the government is negotiating with the United States on the issue, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday.
Talking to reporters at the airport, he said that a covert operation had been launched against the killers involved in the Karachi killings. Malik said every murder cannot be called target killing until police confirms it as a target killing.
He said that the security had been beefed up around Sher

KARACHI: The newly appointed US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter visited the flood-hit areas of Sindh along with his wife, Marilyn Wyatt, on Saturday.
They were accompanied by US Consul General William Martin in Karachi, and a group of journalists. A plane carrying the ambassador and the rest departed from Karachi and reached Pano Akil Cantonment. Munter also visited a small village near the town, which is still surrounded by floodwater and distributed relief goods among the

KARACHI: Despite claims by the Sindh and city district governments that all basic facilities are being provided to passengers and transporters, intra-city buses and coaches functioning in Karachi are without a proper bus terminal, causing problems for both commuters and transporters, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Around 900 air-conditioned intra-city buses operate in Karachi on a daily basis without proper bus terminals. Sindh Air-Conditioned Bus Owners Association Aftab Ahmed Swati

KARACHI: The Hindus throughout Sindh have made all the preparations to celebrate the biggest Hindu festival of Diwali or Deepawali, which would be celebrated on Friday, November, 05.
Diwali, the festival of lights, is celebrated every year between mid-October and mid-November, to remember the return of Hindu god Rama to his kingdom Ayodhya from the forest, after 14 years of exile. It also celebrates Rama's success in a war against the 'devil' king of Lanka, Raavan. Hindus, Sikhs

KARACHI: The respite in sight for Karachiites from the unending routine of prolonged power outages is only after the November 4th, when the Sui Sui Southern Gas Company will restore supply of 210 mmcfd gas to Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).
But the power crisis s likely to exacerbate after the KESC shut down one of its units at Bin Qasim Power Plant (BQPP) on Friday. "We have already informed the KESC that our current shortage of 200mmcfd gas is due to annual maintenance

KARACHI: The 2008-10 Sindh government project "Promotion of Kitchen Gardening in Rural Areas", a victim of nepotism and corruption, is incomplete to date, an official asking not to be named told the Pakistan Today.
The scheme cost Rs 19.217 million and was aimed at promoting kitchen gardening amongst rural women by providing technical and financial assistance and imparting education about disease and pest control.
Six resource people were nominated from the Sindh

KARACHI
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Karachi division on Friday issued a list of party activists, who the party said were murdered in the recent wave of violence in city.
The issuance of the PPP's list coincided with Muttahida Qaumi Movement's call for an operation against criminals in Lyari, a stronghold of the PPP. According to the list, out of the 75 people killed in street shooting incidents 23 were PPP activists.
PPP's list said Noor-ul Haq Ansari, Mohammad Akbar,

KARACHI: Despite the fact that authorities at both the federal and provincial levels have time and again hinted at launching a massive campaign to make Karachi a weapon-free city, no serious efforts have been made so far to implement this step.
Illegal weapons are available in abundance and terrorists, political activists, land mafia groups and even petty criminals faced no difficulties in gaining possession of sophisticated arms. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Pakistan

KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) finance director has promoted his 'favourite employee' after giving him a waiver of four years, flouting the rule that an employee must serve for seven years before being promoted to the next grade.
Thus, Finance Director Secretariat Assistant Mohammad Shareef he has been promoted from pay group III to pay group IV after a four-year waiver. Before this promotion, he was a record assistant at the Finance Director Secretariat and

KARACHI: Gas supply to Sindh will be shut down for the maintenance of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) gas fields from October 26 to November 4, SSGC Managing Director Dr Faizullah Abbasi said on Tuesday while addressing a lunch hosted by the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI).
"The arrears on KESC have gone up to Rs 22 billion and there has been no commitment by the power utility about the clearing of the dues. We do not have any plans to cut down the gas

KARACHI: Goods worth Rs 3.5 billion, sent to Pakistan by friendly countries for the assistance of the millions of displaced flood survivors, are rotting away in the import section warehouses of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Pakistan Today has learnt.
"These goods include food and medicines from friendly nations, which wanted to show their goodwill towards Pakistan at its time of need," a source privy to the matter said. "The weather has destroyed much of the goods,

KARACHI: The Sindh government announced on Tuesday the feasibility study for Thar coal had been completed and some two billion tons of coal reserves were in block-II that would generate 5,000MW electricity for the next 50 years.
The announcement was made at a ceremony held at the chief minister's House in presence of Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, provincial ministers and advisers of the finance, planning and development departments, and officials of the Engro Coal Mines

KARACHI: Assassinations in Karachi penetrated the major commercial hubs of the financial capital of Pakistan on Tuesday.
Sher Shah, where the most tragic assassination took place, is Asia's largest market for second-hand machinery, spare parts and scrap. The killing of 12 innocent people in this market has dealt a heavy blow to business activity in the region.
All the shops were shut down soon after the killings as the shopkeepers took off to take part in the rescue work.

KARACHI: The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has increased unscheduled load shedding for the residents of the city to as much as nine hours a day, citing shortage of gas-supply to its power plants as the reason. However, the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has actually increased gas supply to KESC by 40mmcf.
The KESC has extended the duration of power shutdowns even though the electricity demand in the city has reduced. Besides the six-hour daily scheduled load shedding,

KARACHI
The Sindh government will take up the matter of financing the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) schemes worth Rs 277 billion in the upcoming meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) so that the vital projects could be completed on time, Pakistan Today learnt on Sunday.
Sources said the Centre had withheld the funding of the PSDP 2010-11 in the province citing financial problems.
The provincial government has time and again approached the Ministry

A majority of commercial and business centres in Karachi remained closed on Friday as residents mourned the loss of life in Thursday's suicide attacks on the shrine of Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi.
Various political and religious parties, including the Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ) announced mourning and appealed to the citizens to remain calm.
The city's usually jam packed roads wore a deserted look, as people remained indoors and little or no traffic plied the roads.