The Indian media did not waste much time to start pointing fingers at Pakistan for the recent attacks in Mumbai, India. My heart goes out to all the families who lost the loved ones, but I am just sick of this ‘typical’ blame game.

Taj Burning

Times of India is already reporting that Pakistani militants have been captured and that this whole incident could not have happened without support from across the border. Now I am sure that similar to 2001 Indian Parliament Attack, NADRA issued ID cards will be found in possession of all these terrorists and then it will be no brainer! The western media also jumping on the bandwagon is trying its best to portray this as another al-qaeda attack.

Maybe we should also borrow a page from our neighbor’s book and God forbid, next time when we have a terrorist attack in Pakistan, simply blame it on RAW and get on with our lives. In fact a lot of analysts believe that foreign elements have played part in the recent attacks in Pakistan, but unlike the Indian government, our government doesn’t have the balls to blame any external element.

It’s about that the Indian media stop its propaganda and do some soul searching as to the actual reasons behind these attacks. A good starting point maybe, the state of Muslims in India.

One sleepy Sunday afternoon in late November (23rd to be more precise) gathered all post dot com breed of citizen journalists (lately to be labelled as Bloggers) to discuss what is so special about what they do.

Audience at the Lahore Bloggers Meet-up

Google Pakistan and CIO Magazine hosted a meet-up of Lahori Bloggers and wanna-bees to discuss everything related to the phenomenon of ‘Blogging’ in Pakistan. LUMS proved to be an excellent venue (Internet connection apart) for the event providing all of us with the space and opportunity to interact, network and personally meet people that we usually know only through their blogs. Suprisingly, more than a hundred people turned up without any formal invitation still the response and the attendence was impressive.

Badar Khushnood, Country Consultant, Google Pakistan

The three-hour session started at 3:00 pm with Badar Khushnood, Country Consultant for Google in Pakistan as well as the main host of the afternoon, talked about Blog basics and provided a beginner’s guide to effective and profitable ways to share your mind through Blogosphere.

Saad Hamid (Sizlopedia) sharing his success story

It was followed by Saad Hamid (Sizlopedia) and Maryam Nasim (Pinkwool) taking the stage sharing their personal success stories in this field. Maryam, although does not calls herself a blogger, provided an excellent insight into the wonders networking through Internet can bring in terms of work-from-home kind of profitable business models. A dedicated housewife, she designs electronic greeting cards and free printable graphics to sell through her website while earning very lucrative returns in the process. The person that we really missed was Haris Nadeem (Sizzledcore), a very young and dedicated tech. blogger who actually couldn’t attend because of his exams.

The Professionals

DHA Cinema has been playing the latest 007 flick, Quantum of Solace, since 14th of November with only a few cinegoers buying a seat at the cinemas. Today, I finally got a chance of rushing to catch a show before it is taken down under other Bollywood heavy weight releases this winter.

Quantum of Solace at DHA Cinema

Well, QoS has everything a Bond movie should have in addition to the increasingly human element and emotional aspect that Daniel Craig brought back to the agent’s character earlier with Casino Royale and now in QoS. There is a deadly car chase right in the beginning, hard hitting fight scenes, killings, Bond’s revenge of his dead love, a Bolivian co-agent and stunning international locales.

So before the corporates decide to stop sponsoring the 3/4 empty house shows; do not listen to any negative reviews, just go and watch it with your family and friends. Believe me, on the big screen, you won’t be disappointed with Daniel Craig as Bond at all.

Upcoming releases

Other movies ’now being shown’ include Abhishek, John Abraham, Priyanka Chopra starrer, Dostana and Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor’s fun-flick Golmaal Returns while the new ones lined up for releasees include Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Hellboy’s latest sequel and Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif starrer Yuvraaj.

The screen is set on fire for the winter!

*ahem*

The Piaf-Founders Alliance swept the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) polls 2008-2009, by winning all the 30 seats of Corporate and Associate class.

The ruling Piaf-Founders Alliance was challenged by The Founders-Azad Alliance which took part in chamber elections after 2 years.

The elections for 15 seats of Corporate class were held on November 18 whereas the elections for 15 seats of Associate Class were held on November 19.

Votes are being counted in the conference hall of LCCI, whereas; the candidates and members of both parties are present.

For Corporate class, there were total 30 candidates who were contesting for 15 seats. Total 1105 votes were polled out of which the candidates of Piaf-Founders Alliance Mian Muzaffar Ali got 769, Tahir Javed Malik 737, Mohammad Imran Khan 702, Haroon Shafiq Chaudhry 726, Syed Mohammad Umair 695, Mirza Javed Iqbal 736, Kashif Younas Mehr 714, Syed Mehmood Ghaznavi 687, Shahzad Azam Khan 719, Munir Ahmad Bhatti 689, Kh. Imtiaz Ahmad 708, Arshad Baig 619, Siddiq-ur-Rehman Rana 645, Shakeel Mehmood 579 and Tariq Mehmood got 617 votes.

Whereas; the candidates of Founders-Azad Group Munir Ahmad Khan got 416, Tahir Manzoor Ch 360, Asif Rehan Dar 378, Mohammad Hashim 339, Abdul Sami 416, Aizaz Mansoor Sheikh 394, Kamran Khan 441, Kh. Ahmad Usman 441, Salim Ullah Ghauri 390, Mian Asad Hameed 354, Khalid Naeem 353, Bakhtiar H. Wain 325, Mian Sultan Mahmood 303, M. Imran Aslam 260 and Tariq Fiazi got 263 votes.

For Associate Class, total 1424 votes were polled out of total 3545 votes and the voters turnout was about 40.16%. The PIAF-Founder Alliance got 833 panel votes while, the rivals, The Founders-Azad Alliance secured only 225 panel votes.

The candidates of Piaf-Founders Alliance Irfan Iqbal Sheikh got 1005, Hassan Amjad 1003, Sheikh Mohammad Irfan 1030, Nasir Saeed 1016, Usman Ghani 1017, Faisal Iqbal Sheikh 1030, Malik Ikhlaq Ahmad 1011, Mohammad Yousaf Shah 1011, Mudassar Masood 1022, Mohammad Usman 1037, Khalid Pervaiz 1027, Mohammad Ashraf Bhatti 1037, Faheem Ur Rehman 1005, Sohail Shamshair Ali 1002 and Anwar A. Sheikh got 968 votes.

Whereas; the candidates of The Founders/Azad Group Mohammad Asif got 369, Mohammad Rizwan Akhtar Shamsi 349, Mazhar Iqbal Hai Butt 353, Usman Masoud 331, S.M. Arshad 346, Mohammad Yaseen 348, Qadeer Saigol 325, Khalid Mahmood 319, Tahir Mahmood But 314, Ayyaz Ahmad 322, Mohammad Raheel Arif 308, Mohammad Shahid 313, Mohammad Ashfaq Sethi 286, Mian Shabbir Ahmad 286 and Raja Hassan Akhtar got 266 votes.

Group photo of Piaf-Founders Alliance after the victory.

In Associate Class, four independent candidates Mohammad Ilyas got 17, Zafar Ahmad Kamal got 19, Syed Abdul Mujtaba Sherazi 26 and Chaudhry Zahid Bashir got 90 votes.

Soon after the results, in the first phase, the newly elected Executive Committee also elected Ms Nabeela Intisar and Asia Sial Khan on two reserved seats for women. In the second phase President, Senior Vice President and Vice president would be elected on November 24, whereas; the Annual General Meeting would be held on November 27.

Presiding Officer Sheikh Salim Ali made formal announcement of the results of the elections 2008-2009.

The LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian, Senior Vice President Mian Muzaffar Ali and Vice President Shafqat Saeed Piracha thanked the voters for showing confidence in PIAF-Founders Alliance.

No untoward incident occurred in two day whereas; The Founders-Azad Alliance alleged that Piaf-Founder Alliance was involved in poll rigging and instigating the voters to stamp on their names and demanded to halt the election procedure but the election commissioner rejected the claims. The Founders-Azad Alliance has the option to move its application to Director General Trade Organization (DGTO).

Apparently, the Punjab government is considering spending more than Rs200 million of tax payers money on Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s security. The budgeted amount will be spend on obtaining high tech gadgets, sniff dogs, bla bla, so the provincial government could safeguard our ‘national’ asset.

What say you guys? I say if Mian shab doesn’t feel safe in the current environment then maybe he should let someone else take over his position. We are begging IMF for loan these days and so its mind boggling that provincial govt. is considering spending this hefty sum on security of one (or few) individuals. Common Mian shab, we know you are better than this!!!

At the occasion of the World Usability Day, the Interaction Design Center has organized an event at the UMT Campus on Thursday, November 13th. The event will consist of a series of talks, case studies, and a documentary screening. Every year the event has a theme and this year’s theme is transportation.

Three reasons you should attend:

• Lahore is home to a lot of “interesting” means of transportation not found anywhere else in the world
• “Helvetica” is a great documentary
• Registration for the event is free

So if you have some time to spare this Thursday, and are intersted in “Usability” either as a user or a creator, head over to the registration page and let IXDC know.

Charity well spent speaks for itself and Imran Khan’s Shaukat Khannum Memorial Cancer Hospital is one place where you get to experience this at its best. There have been several instances where one has had a chance of interacting with people who paid only for the transporation from their native town or village to the hospital and rest of the expenses are being taken care of by the hospital management.

Only a few days back I had an opportunity of visiting their laboratory for some regular tests. There I met this charming young boy of not more than 12 years of age who was preparing for his surgery the very next day. Of what small chat we had, he appeared to be more worried about my blood tests instead of his own procedure. I sincerely hope and pray for his treatment being successful…

I wish I had known his name…

Another evidence that we are living in strange times. Barack Hussain Obama has become the first American President who’s skin is not white. Obama made a clean sweep by taking 338 against McCain’s 159 electoral votes.

McCain conceded defeat and Obama delivered his acceptance speech. Whole world watched as the man spoke to a crowd of one million. It was almost mass hysteria, a very emotionally charged scene, people crying, having trouble finishing their sentences. It was indeed a moment that America should be proud about. It is something they can cherish.

Where else  can an immigrant family can rise to such riches… A true personification of “American Dream”. As I watched the speach, I was trying to find similarities and differences between Pakistan and America.

The way Obama Interacted with the crowed reminded me of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Only one leader in know history of pakistan had such a charisma… Also I do see some sparks of such charisma in Lawyers Moment.

““If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,”” Obama said.

Los Angles Times Reports

“Barack Obama, the son of a father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, was elected the nation’s 44th president Tuesday, breaking the ultimate racial barrier to become the first African American to claim the country’s highest office.

A nation founded by slave owners and seared by civil war and generations of racial strife delivered a smashing electoral college victory to the 47-year-old first-term senator from Illinois, who forged a broad, multiracial, multiethnic coalition. His victory was a leap in the march toward equality: When Obama was born, people with his skin color could not even vote in parts of America, and many were killed for trying.”

What This will mean for Pakistan

Obama winning election is not seen as good omen for Pakistan.  India being a bigger and better democracy, Democrats Govt. tend to have more inclination toward india.

It also means and end of what is called an American love affair with Pakistan. American Dollars that poured over the countries elite will stop. Pakistan might face sanctions of economic nature.

Theater of “War or Terror” will most likely to be shifted from Iraq and Afghanistan to Our North Western Province and some parts of Baluchistan.

Zardari might get a call from Obama in middle of night informing that US will pursue terrorists in setteled areas of Pakistan.

The Gujranwala Connection

Obama’s mother is reported to have lived in Pakistan for 5 years in Gujranwala.  Little is know about how Obama Spent his 3 weeks in pakistan when he visited her mother here.. May be he came to lahore too..

More here