Pakistan Views

Karachi dairy farmer Association announced strike against the city government as a reaction to the raids on dairy farms.The chairman of Karachi Dairy Association Haji Akhtar told Aaj news that due to the actions taken by the city district government dairy farmers faced loss of millions of rupees in three days. He said that the team has taken 25 to 30 trucks of dairy farmers under their custody. He added different teams of the city government are urging the dairy farmers of different areas to sell milk on cheap price. In past few days many dairy farmers have issued chalaans and sent to jail, he added.He further said that if government will not show flexibility then they will call strike for many days.

Public transport kept off the road to protest against exorbitant increase in the prices of petroleum products and years-long freeze in transport fare on Tuesday.
The impact of the strike, called on the initiatives of Karachi Transport Ittehad, could be felt across the city, as traffic remained thin throughout the day and too many passengers, chasing too few motorcycle rickshaws and taxis in the morning to reach their places of work. The non-availability of transport affected movement of the people, who could not reach their offices. Industrial units ran below capacity; business centres, and main markets were without much business activities and attendance in offices was thin.The strike also affected movement of goods from New Sabzi Mandi. Vegetable markets were short of supply and those, who had some old stock, sold it on higher prices. There were stranded commuters on the main Super Highway and near Sohrab Goth, who were seen asking for lift from private cars. People were reluctant to accede to the requests of unknown people. The rickshaw and taxi drivers took full advantage of the situation and fleeced helpless people as much as they could.
Taxis charged Rs 100 for a distance of four kilometres, whereas the motorcycle rickshaw charges ranged between Rs 75 and Rs 80. For fear of acts of violence and vandalism, private car owners preferred to remain indoors or hired rickshaws to go out of their offices and homes. Many parents did not allow their children to go to schools. In the meantime, murder of Dilber Rehmani, a Jeay Sindh Mahaz leader, in the suburb of Karachi, sparked tension among people of different ethnic background. People resorted to firing in the air, erected barricades and played hide and seek with the police throughout the day.
The murder and the protest strike of transporters forced all shops selling daily use articles to close down. People neither moved out from their homes nor could sit idle inside at the cost of their daily wages. The transporters have said that they may extend strike if no favourable statement comes from the government.

The tip-off relating to the planting of a bomb in a private school near ‘Do Talwar’ at Clifton area here proved to be a hoax.
Clifton SP, Asif Aijaz Sheikh said that an anonymous telephone call passed on the bomb planting information to Index School near ‘Do Talwar’ Clifton led the School management calling for the police and bomb disposal squad, who got the building vacated. The bomb disposal squad after a thorough search declared the tip-off a hoax.

Power has been restored in some areas of Karachi after a major power outage on Thursday when Wapda cut the supply because the city’s power company had not paid its bills, an official said. “At around 8 a.m. (0300 GMT) Wapda cut its 300 MW supplies to us and as a result the entire system tripped,” said Syed Sultan Hasan, spokesman for the Karachi Electric Supply Co, which supplies power to Karachi. The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), is Pakistan’s main state power utility. A spokesman for the Pakistan Electric Power Co., which manages Wapda’s power wing, said supplies were cut because dues had not been paid. “KESC owes 34.80 billion rupees ($554 million) to us and we have been writing to them every week to make at least some payments,” said the spokesman, Tahir Basharat Cheema.”But let alone making payments, they’re not even replying to our letters,” he said.
KESC’s Hasan said the company was in contact with Wapda to ensure restoration of supplies. “They have restored partial supplies, and after that we have also started restoring electricity,” he said. “But it will take time before the complete system is back on track.” Officials said while port and industrial operations were normal, a prolonged breakdown could cause major disruptions. Many factories and offices have their own generators.
THEFT
Pakistan has been suffering acute power shortages because of inadequate generating capacity and hefty losses and theft of electricity from power lines.
Many people cited power cuts, along with rising prices and food shortages, when complaining about the government in the run-up to elections last month. Opposition parties won the most seats in the vote while the former ruling party lost badly.
But Karachi has been worst hit because of chronic infrastructure and management problems. Power theft in the city takes place through illegal connections, and meters made to go slowly, often arranged through bribes.
Frequent and prolonged power cuts often lead to protests, with people burning tyres and blocking roads, and at times clashing with police.
The KESC was privatised in 2005, and a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s al-Jomaih group and Kuwait’s National Industries Holding are the majority stakeholders.
But that has not solved the problems. KESC officials complain about factories as well as government offices not paying their bills. They say it would take up to five years to overhaul the grid and meet the city’s growing power demands.

Eight people drowned and one is missing as a launch carrying 28 people capsized in the open sea in Ibrahim Haidery here on Monday.
According to sources two crewmen and 26 people from at least two families, who were out to celebrate a picnic party, were on their way back home on Sunday evening at around 7:00 pm when their launch drowned in the jurisdiction of Docks Police Station.
The sources said eight people had drowned while twenty including the launch crew were saved by another launch, which was crossing by the drowning boat.
PAF base Korangi Creek Base Commander Air Commodore Khalid Farooq Chishti told media in a briefing that at the time of the incident rescuers from Pakistan Navy were busy in their training. They recovered corpses of Salim, Noor-un-Nisa, Bushra, Irshman and Sanjida Khalil. Twelve year old Maha from Muhammad Salim family is the only survivor.
Sources said that the unfortunate families belonged to the Dredging Manager of Port Qasim Authority (PQA) Ishrat Hussain, who is one of the survivors. The picnickers had hired the boat, which drowned for unknown reason, from Marina Club.

Police fired tear gas and charged about 100 lawyers protesting on Thursday here to have judges reinstated after they were deposed last year by President Pervez Musharraf, police said. Six people, including lawyers, were arrested outside the Sindh High Court SHC.
“We have arrested a few people and police had to use tear gas to disperse lawyers who were trying to hold a rally,” senior police official Tahir Naved told AFP.
Lawyers around the country have held regular demonstrations since the judges’ dismissal, and have threatened a large-scale march on Islamabad next month if all the jurists are not reinstated. In a telephone address on Thursday to the Sindh High Court bar association, former CJP Justice Chaudhry said there were no constitutional hurdles to returning the judges to their posts. “I was deposed by an executive order and I can be restored by an executive order. There is no need of two-thirds majority of the parliament,” Justice Chaudhry said. Pakistan Peoples Party along with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz emerged as winners after Monday’s parliamentary elections.
They have been considering a coalition, and PML-N chief Sharif has said his first act in a new government would be to get Justice Chaudhry back in his job.
“People have given their verdict which shows that they have rejected the policies of the government,” Justice Chaudhry said from his home in Islamabad, where he has is still under detention.

Polling material being transferred on Sunday at the polling station established at city courts Karachi. The polling material being handed over to the presiding officers of Karachi’s national assembly constituencies NA-248, 249, 250 and 251 and related provincial constituencies.

The material included ballot papers and other polling items, which are being shifted to the polling station under strict police security.
The ballot boxes will be distributed in the evening.

Two shops, several huts and a mini bus burnt in various incidents of fire in Karachi.
A timber shop caught fire in Bangali Para in Korangi Sau Quarters Saturday morning at 5:30 am. The fire spread rapidly in the area killing a donkey and burnt 10 huts, Fire Brigade sources said.
The cause of the fire has not been known.
In other fire incidents a minibus of W-11 route was burnt near Sindhi Hotel in New Karachi, while an under construction jewelry shop damaged in Babar Market of Landhi.

Three minor girls have been killed and their mother wounded when a fire erupted in a shantytown in Soharab Goth area of Karachi on Wednesday.

According to fire brigade, a fire broke out suddenly in shantytown in Jahan Gul Town in Sohrab Goth area on Wednesday morning. Ten huts were gutted whereas fire brigade saved rest. The fire killed Zarina, Fazeela and Ajiza aged between three to ten years.

The mother of girls seriously wounded and shifted to Abbasi Shaheed hospital.

The unwarranted conduct of the policemen at Al Falah area caused a weird pre-natal death of a pregnant woman’s child here, while the authorities realizing the sensitiveness, immediately registered a case against the ASI and one policeman involved in the incident. Muhammad Jahangir, a resident of Al Falah, told that he was looking for a taxi for carrying his wife Naila, 35 suffering from labour pain to the hospital, when the Al Falah police station patrol party detaining him asked for calling his wife, whose arrival at the place was arranged by him sending a taxi, but the inordinate delay in this process deteriorated the condition of his wife, which caused pre-natal death of her child. The infuriated neighbours reaching Al Falah police station staged a strong protest against the highhandedness of the police. Al Falah PS SHO, Inspector Wasim told Geo News that the policemen involved in the incident have been called at the PS. Meanwhile, DSP Al Falah, Chaudhry Sohail Faiz, reaching the scene and after giving a hearing to both the sides, suspended the ASI Manzoor Unar and policeman, Shakil involved in the incident besides a case under Police Order 2002 was registered against them.