Karachi News

The 42-year-old Khan took over his father’s mochi business after the latter retired four years ago. PHOTO: SARAH FAZLI Karachi is home to the most diverse of populations across Pakistan. Muslims, non-Muslims, Shia, Sunni, Muhajir, Balochi, Sindhi, Pashtun, Kashmiri, and also many other minority groups; many a people have found home here. Some of them love Karachi, others hate it. But Karachi has embraced them all – giving them the freedom to be themselves. Some folks weave dreams during the day. Some have adopted a nocturnal lifestyle and work during the night. Some read Jane Austen, while some unfalteringly quote  Faiz Ahmad Faiz . Some revere and find solace in its shrines. And yet, others destroy the very sanctity of those shrines. Some try to restore its glory, while others try to slaughter this goose to steal all its golden eggs. All of this happens at once, and this diversity is what makes Karachi both beautiful and painful. Vibrant and colourful, yet...

MS Dhoni of India hits out during the third Royal London One-Day International between England and India at Headingley on July 17, 2018 in Leeds, England. PHOTO: GETTY He came, he saw, he conquered. These words are the very least one can associate with Mahendra Singh Dhoni  for his performance thus far in international cricket. By placing the ball behind the square through to the third man boundary for a single, he recently achieved the milestone of making  10,000 ODI runs . On July 14, 2018 at Lord’s, the home of cricket, he became only the 12 th  batsman in the history of ODI cricket to achieve this rare feat. MS Dhoni plays a shot during the second ODI against England at Lords in London on July 14, 2018. Photo: Reuters As a fan, there are several memories I associate with the accomplishments of this gentleman. From his early days as a boy from a small town, the passage he passed through and the circumstances he overcame to get to this point, it all ...

Karachi has a love-hate relationship with the monsoon season. While Karachiites long for rain throughout the year, we shudder at the very thought of prolonged downpour, flooding, destruction and power outages that are inevitably associated with it. The last time this city truly got to enjoy the rainy season was during Mustafa Kamal’s tenure, when despite drains heavily clogged with rainwater – especially the Gujjar Nala and Neher-e-Khayyam – alternate drainage arrangements were made and the citizens were spared the entire rain-related trauma. Things are much, much different now. With monsoon rains that are imminent and expected any day now, infrastructure that is crumbling, a mayor in office with plenty of excuses to not do enough for the relief of Karachiites, along with a lack of ownership by the citizens, the city will surely descend into utter chaos if it rains heavily. After all, the entire country witnessed the state of developed cities like Lahore and Islamabad during ...

Merely two days after a donkey was brutally beaten up during a political rally, another tortured and severely injured donkey has been handed over to animal rescue team Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (ACF). “Another day, another story of abuse. We do not know if it was related to anything political...all we know is that it is unimaginably horrific abuse at the hands of our people,” the NGO wrote in a post on social media on Wednesday. “This donkey was reported to us from Gulshan-e-Iqbal… It appears he has been pelted and beaten on the head repeated by jagged edge objects or stones. His skull is completely visible, maggots have eaten all the flesh within it. His left eye has been gouged out,” the post read. “He was bleeding so profusely we had to let it flow into buckets. We ensured his bleeding has stopped, given pain killers, maggots removed and wound thoroughly cleaned.” The animal rescue team also shared images of the torture inflicted upon the donkey. “Whether political or ...

Over a month after landmark legislation was passed to merge the tribal districts with the settled areas, the provincial government on Thursday officially notified the administrative divisions and districts in the merged areas. A notification issued by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Board of Revenue on Thursday changed the geographic composition of Peshawar division by adding two tribal districts including Mohmand and Khyber, previously part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), along with the addition of the Frontier Region Peshawar. The Peshawar division now comprises five districts including Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mohmand and Khyber. The notification further states that the administrative divisions have been altered in pursuant to 25th Amendment Act regarding the merger of the erstwhile Fata areas in the province and in the exercise of the powers conferred as per section 6, Chapter-II of Land Revenue Act 1967. NA passes ‘historic’ Fata, K-P merge...

KARACHI:  The size of Pakistan’s economy stood at $313.13 billion at the end of June, 2018, according to provisional figures released on Thursday by the country’s central bank, as a weaker currency took toll on gross domestic product (GDP) in dollar terms. Pakistan’s GDP stood at $304.97 billion at the end of June, 2017, and the economy registered a 13-year high GDP growth rate of 5.8% in FY18. That said, the size of the economy shrunk in dollar terms as the rupee weakened against the greenback in four separate rounds since December 2017, with a 5.8% growth rate effectively reduced to 2.7%. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) used a period average month-to-month exchange rate to calculate the GDP, which according to calculations came to around Rs108to the US dollar.  With the rupee having weakened further, the size of the economy is likely to have shrunk even more in dollar terms. The currency is currently hovering around the Rs128-mark as depleting foreign exchan...

Ever since Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan announced his intention to contest elections from Karachi, there has been rigorous debate on whether this is the right decision or not, and whether he actually has a shot at winning. Only time will tell if Imran can conquer Karachi or not. Nevertheless, this decision is a strong political move for the PTI, which is why the party should try to bolster its electability in the city before the upcoming general elections. The effect of Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification has undoubtedly subsided, mainly due to our voting class suffering from short-term memory loss. In any other country, a disqualified leader like Nawaz would not even secure 100 votes from any constituency. In Pakistani politics, however, Nawaz has been successful in pitching the narrative that he is a cornered tiger who will return again to serve the people of Pakistan. Perhaps, given Pakistan’s political situation, Imran needs to build a simil...

At best, the alliance can only hope for marginal gains in the 2018 elections. After almost a decade, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), which emerged as the third-biggest political force in the 2002 general elections, is back as a five-member religio-political alliance to contest the polls in 2018, comprising the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-i- Islami (JI), Jamiat Ahle Hadith and the Islami Tehreek (IT). It was back in early 2000, after the toppling of Nawaz Sharif in October 1999, that the General Pervez Musharraf-led military government, which had vowed to never allow the return of the exiled leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), was desperate to find an alternative political force. The JI was on good terms with the military government. Then-JI chief, the late Qazi Hussain Ahmed, even went on a tour of the United States, where he spoke to think-tanks in a bid to portray his image as a mode...