“January 5, Saturday - 3:50 PM - On my way back from Sargodha to Lahore on the motorway, I saw one of the worst accidents in my life - Near Pindi Bhatian. I could see smoke on the main road from miles away on reaching the spot, there was a car burning in the middle of the road with 2 other cars crushed on the down side of the road. The car burning in the middle of the road had a burnt body besides it totally unattended - there was only a single police car on the spot with no fire-extinguishing apparatus from the scene it was looking that the car was burning for the last 5-10 minutes. The thing that was horrifying was the poor soul burning on the road was absolutely left un-attended. Question: Where was the motorway emergency team even after 10 minutes of the incident ? “

Awaam: Imran Kazmi

Update 1:00 AM

11 reported dead with almost 60 injured being treated in different hospitals

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Looks like there is no end to this now; 6 people including two children have died in a bomb blast near Quaidabad in Karachi while more than 20 injured have been shifted to different hospitals of the city.

Commercial centres in the vicinity were immediately closed in fear of street violence while emergency has been implemented at all medical centres and hospitals around the city.

Similarly, other major cities including Lahore and Islamabad have been put on red-alert.

Can there be a bigger tragedy than facing an enemy which has no face or definite origin of existence that is threatening innocent lives all around us.

May God bless the souls of the deceased. Amen!

Sad indeed!

It was the most grieving news for the people of this city; a suicide bomb attack; killing none but on-duty policemen and innocent civilians; at least 22 of them while injured more than 70.

Tragedy struck when a heavy police presence was guarding surroundings of the Lahore High Court building on Mall Road for an anti-government Lawyers’ Protest Rally scheduled to be held in the court premises this afternoon.

Just ten minutes before the black-coated men could reach the General Post Office building, right next to the courthouse; a young man arrived at the scene on a motorbike, approached the guards and blew himself up. The result, as all saw in shock, was a mind-wreaking scene of blood and dead bodies scattered on the road.

Twenty-two people, 20 of them policemen, a tonga and a rickshaw driver as well as two passengers included.

Eye-witnesses claim to have heard the blast from at least a kilometer away and that it shook office blocks, shops, GPO and the Lahore High Court building in the vicinity.

City’s emergency service, Rescue 1122, claims to have picked up 22 dead bodies while at least 70 of the critically injured have been shifted to the Mayo, Services and Ganga Ram Hospitals.

It seems like after similar incidents of terrorism in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Karachi last year, Lahore could not have avoided such an imminent threat.

It was truly a very sad day after such a horrific occurrence right in the heart of city’s commercial district.

We request our readers to please pray for these brave men, who either died or are lying injured and helpless on hospital beds, and sacrificed themselves while protecting us from the terror these inhuman creeds of fanatics pose to our lives.

We salute and pray for martyrs who became victims of this horrendous act of terrorism.

We salute our Heroes; the Policemen!

Likely to worsen, OMG! There’s more to come, Oh Lord! Because According to Daily Times, the power crises in our beloved country is likely to worsen.

Power crises for the past few weeks, accompanied by Sui-gas, flour sugar, water crises has been so severe that it suggets our impending return to a stone age way-of-life. Prices of numerous products have soared to levels never seen before. Since with no lights, emergency lights are being used so they have increased their prices from eleven hundred rupees to fifteen hundred each in days. Shopkeepers have been warned of the load-shedding from 6:30 to 8:30 in the night. In Model Town alone light goes out after every two hours for a half an hour and sometimes even more than that. There are many areas of old city which are often without any electricity, gas or water for entire day in this extremely cold weather. There have been difficult situations since the creation of Pakistan but I don’t think ever before so many crises have hit us in such quick succession.

And they are saying that this situation is likely to wosen. Man, i don’t even want to imagine it. May Allah help us resolve this issue before it worsens, ameen! So everbody take out your Aladdin’s lamp and make a wish!
It’s “the” right time.

Just another satire@emergency…..

And just when I think that our self-appointed pseudo-messiah can’t go any bonkers than he already has, he actually ends up proving me wrong - that too, by a mile! “I’m no dictator” is what he told BBC in an interview a few days back - who is he kidding?!? Every single order/amendment he has passed has been absolutely against the spirit of democracy and yet he claims to be a Champion of Democracy - talk about sordid egos!

It seems a new bad news is lined up for us everyday - what did we get yesterday? A ban on political debate in our colleges and universities! Why? Because students have been in the news a lot recently for the peaceful protests that they’ve been organizing against the martial law.
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Spread the word!

Event: Student Protest Planning Committee (Lahore Chapter) Meeting
When: 22nd November, 07:00 pm
Where: Minigolf, Gulberg
To Bring: Friends from different universities/colleges/schools who are interested in organizing.

Source: The Emergency Times

As soon as you land at Lahore’s International Airport… carrying your luggage, walking through its enormous walkways… you begin to feel mystified.

You have entered the seventh largest country of the world…

A country boosting some of the biggest metropolitan cities on earth… one of the oldest civilizations in human history… and one of the most fascinating cultures in today’s world.

You begin to wonder if you will get to unveil those legends of “mysterious east”… fully aware of the fact that you are entering a third world, developing country, boosting itself as the world’s seventh nuclear power…

Welcome to Pakistan… you have arrived at the center stage, and the forefront, of the world’s newest buzz words, “the war on terror”

But don’t panic… you will not get to “see” or even “feel” the war being fought here. You can calmly leave the airport, take a cab and drive across the city of Lahore. Chances are that you will find it more peaceful and orderly than New York, more culturally rich than Mumbai and more scenic than London.

But don’t be deceived by this either. You have entered a country at the peak of high voltage political drama… its social volatility will soon baffle your senses… the ironies, the paradoxes, the inherent conflicts and the poles-apart points of view will challenge your brain cells.

You will take some time to get accustomed to its intrinsic fiber… you will be amazed at the way the global media depicts a somber picture… you will be reminded that when this country stumbles into crisis, the world holds its breath… a slight stir in its ideological mix, and the world misses a heartbeat…

Relishing your stay in Lahore, you will start to wonder; “what crisis”… notwithstanding the fact that the country just came under an Emergency Rule. Some of your friends will call it the most dangerous place on earth. Other will call it just exciting and dynamic, with equal conviction. Some will never want to be here. Some will not want to take their eyes off it, forever.

A deeper insight will reveal the “brilliance” it carries; not through the “larger picture” or the macro economic view, rather through small yet significant occurrences, the deep rooted traditions, the mystic wavelength of its people, the volatile partiality, the folklore of passion, the innovative mindset, the innate flashes of brilliance coming out of nowhere…

You will ponder on it’s current political climate, thinking that this is exactly what the doctor did not order for this land. You will begin to wonder how things would have been had there not been all that crisis, violence, corruption and volatility.

And you will be thinking about it while driving alone in downtown Lahore late in the evening, or having a hearty traditional dinner at a small roadside restaurant well past midnight, considering it neither dangerous, nor unusual.

While going back from this land, again carrying your luggage, walking through the enormous walkways, you will begin to feel ecstatic. You will sense a strange affection for this place; the people and the things.

You will go back with a sense of belonging. You will want to tell its story to the strangers you have never met, and to the bystanders who never listen. You will joyfully cheer for its cricket team whenever you can, and you will excitedly follow the developments at its domestic front, reading between the lines from the global media.

This is when you will fully understand this place… and appreciate its splendor.

See I’m not a well informed person. Or a person with brilliant mind needed to figure out that emergency is gonna end soon. Reasons:

1 - People are being freed.
2 - Musharraf went to KSA for important talks (whatever it could be)
3 - Bush has also (in hidden words) given green signal in his last speech (which I don’t but many can relate)
4 - Finally IK is released

Why the hell (with due respect), Benazir is issuing the following statement:

Of course she wants to take full advantage of these facts in her own name and now (just before emergency could be lifted up - I wish) she is speaking out in all the Press and Media channels in rather an ORDERING tone: ‘Immediately end the emergency’.

Well, I have no conviction to run an anti-benazir campaign here. But indeed, she well knows how to play with words, media and knows well when to hit where! :)

However, IK’s (free from prison) story is down there somewhere, But BB’s demand is publishing with flying colours right on the top on Jang. Do I sound jealous!? :)

* Anyways, I hope it all ends soon. Highly improbable but I really wish to see IK win.

* My Biased opinion, not necessarily backed by Lahore Metblogs Guilders specifically.

On behalf of all its participants, the Students Movement at LUMS has clarified its position on various points:

Press Release, Tuesday 15/11/2007

“As our movement gains in strength, support, momentum and therefore, media attention, the students of the protest movement at the Lahore University of Management Sciences would like to clarify our position on a number of points.

Our movement is fundamentally a non-partisan, civil society movement which was begun by students last week as a spontaneous reaction against the imposition of a state of emergency in our country. We are united in a clear and principled commitment to the reinstatement of the judiciary and the restoration of the Constitution and of basic civil rights, the release of illegally detained prisoners and an end to preposterous curbs on the media. Our aim is to uphold and defend the autonomy of the judiciary in Pakistan. As we increase communication with students from other educational institutions in the country, we are confident and hopeful that we can all unite behind a particular principle - the critical necessity of the sovereignty of the judiciary for sustainable political and social development in Pakistan.”

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