The service was introduced to a group of local bloggers in a session held at Telenor’s office here in Lahore.

The company aims to bring convenience and ease to the daily user experience of its subscribers. Those who are interested in Telenor’s service can either buy a new Telenor number online with ad-dons of your own choice or you can port your existing number to Telenor in a few easy steps. Make sure you have a credit card to place this order. The process is very easy and self explanatory.

I believe this initiative will invite competition in the online one stop solutions by all mobile companies; which is direly needed by a rapidly increasing community of internet users in Pakistan.

Edited (16:08 – Tuesday, August 11, 2009): Deleted official quote upon request.

Under the section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), no protest, march or gathering of people at one place would be allowed. These cities include Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Pakpattan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Gujrat.

The decision has been taken just a day before the date of proposed long march and when the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari is not in the country.

The government has been trying hard to stop the long march of lawyers and different political parties. For this reason, the government has imposed section 144 in different districts of Punjab and lists have been provided to the police officials for the instant arrest of different lawyers and political leaders.

The decision was taken after a long meeting held in office of Capital City Police Officer Lahore. The officials are denying any arrests so far whereas; the media has been reporting that many people have been arrested.

It is being considered the worst crack down so far. The government may deploy army in as many as 30 districts of Punjab province, whereas; the rangers will be deployed in 11 districts in face of lawyers and other political activists.

On other side, the politicians and the lawyers are still encouraging people to go for a peaceful long march and struggle peacefully to make this long march a success.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Mian Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday urged police and administration to defy unconstitutional orders. ‘The government could not stop the people from joining the long march. The people shall reach Islamabad at all costs’, he said.

Ali Ahmed Kurd, the president of The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) said, ’Section 144 could not stop the people from joining the long march’. ‘The lawyers are peaceful and the long march and subsequent sit-in will also be peaceful’, he added.

The decision  annoyed most of the people in the country and people in many cities came out to protest against the decision taken by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Like many others, I was also stuck in a blockade near Kalma Chowk. People burnt tyres and raised slogans against the president and the governor. They did not seem to acknowledge the verdict of the Supreme Court.

Protestors blocked Kalma Chowk on Ferozpur Road

I didn’t hear any news of any one getting injured or ny serious damages due to these protests and I hope all remain safe and calm.

Demonstrators lie on the road in protest

Protestors lying on the road while one supporter is holding a stuffed lion, the electoral symbol of PML(N), to show solidarity with the Sharif brothers.

Demonstrators burnt tyres and blocked traffic.

The writing is a slogan in Urdu which reads in English as; "Long Live Daawat-e-Tableegh, Long Live Taliban"

I still remember the day when, about a year ago, I met a guy in the university who was from North Waziristan. Hearing that he is form tribal areas; I just couldn’t stop myself asking him to sit with me for a while. Probably, it was the first time I was meeting anyone from the tribal areas.

I just wanted to ask many questions that I never planned to ask from him or from anyone. But considering the meeting an opportunity, I just uttered the questions to him.

I don’t remember exactly from where did I start but one important thing was definitely discussed. I asked him,”Who are Taliban?” He said,”We don’t know them and in fact we don’t even support them.” His answer was really astonishing to me and I uttered,”…but as the people are showed; you fight against the government and you fire at your own people.” He looked as if he wanted to explain me something. I tried my best to understand what he was trying to say and here is what he told me or what I got…

He said, “We don’t love Taliban or any other militant organization. People in tribal areas, specially in Waziristan, have put up banners at the top of there houses with slogans; We hate Taliban!, We don’t support any militant or militant activity! but no one actually want to listen to us.” He continued,”I wish you could go there and see for yourself that how we people are surviving there. The world doesn’t know the reality of the tribal areas and who ever whishes to go to learn about our area; it is for sure that the person will not come back. He/She would be killed or kidnapped and the blame will go on the tribes.”

The answer was really astonishing to me and it seemed totally unnatural. While trying to digest, whatever was heard, I asked,”What will you say about those who come up with the weapons in their hands and challenge the government and the world?”

He replied,”You are mixing up the people with the militants. We don’t know about the militants. We don’t know who they are and from where they belong. We can’t say whether they are tribes men or are agents of any other country…” He continued,”You call tribes men terrorists… tell me; what will you do when you leave your house in the morning and on returning home, after a days long work, you see that your house has been blown up by a missile; you see the dead bodies of your family members, the scattered body parts, the blood all around… what will you do? And then… some really ‘peace loving’ people come up on the screen claiming that the house was a den of terrorists… Who will not get mad at this…? And when such people have nothing to lose they, in utter distress, try to react  and the world then call them terrorist. You call it justice? Can’t you draw lines between terrorism and revenge…?”

He continued on saying many things later and I spent about two hours with him discussing all this and that. Definitely, I had no answers to his questions. But these questions led me to think that who is answerable then? I believe that being not familiar with the area; I must not comment on the situation in the tribal areas. The above mentioned discussion is not all what we discussed but the pic (above) reminded me of the talk.

I don’t support militants in any way and no one does… but the thing is that how the world and especially United States has approached the issue, I believe, it has worsen the scenario and its even getting worse day by day. If you are not willing to do good to others, you can’t expect good from others. And as far as the Taliban and other organizations are concerned, it seems that with its aggressive policies of war against terrorism, United States and its allies has earned nothing except more moral support for them (Taliban, etc).

The picture explains well.

What is the idea?

The idea is to encourage Internet users & bloggers to meet offline as well. Senior bloggers get a chance to share knowledge & experience. New wanna-be bloggers can learn from the local success stories and network with leaders & professionals in this field.

Host:

LUMS IEEE Students Chapter (in collaboration with CIO Pakistan & Google Pakistan)

Who Can Benefit From Blogging?

Students: Discover how you can earn your own pocket money.
Housewives: Learn how you can earn & support your family while staying at home.
Professionals: See how you can enjoy a second income while still doing a full-time job.

Time and Place

Date: Sunday, November 23, 2008
Time: 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
Town: DHA
City/Country: Lahore, Pakistan

Registration:

Registration is FREE but the seats are limited.

Register here: http://tinyurl.com/lahore-bloggers-meetup

Main event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=35844398187

Hope to see you there. :)

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).

We, being elders, must take responsibility.

Without going into the details I want to wish all the children of the world a happy life. I love children until they don’t cry or get rash. :-D    kidding..

I believe that children also form a bigger portion of the human rights victims in this ‘world of elders’. Children are ignored in different ways and in developing and under developed countries, the situation is even worse than just ignoring. Child labor, child abuse, camel jockeys are few examples.

Even in national and international politics, we never think that what particular impact will it make on children. I may not be wrong if I blame the Government of Pakistan for this incident due to its obsolete policies and also some really peace loving countries who are spending trillions of dollars in the name of war against terrorism. I don’t know what role is being played by this The Universal Deceleration of Human Rights and; where is the biggest human rights activist organization Amnesty International.

I wish that everyone, on this day of children, commit that one will work to make this earth a safe place for every child. Wishing all the children a happy and prosperous life.

For Lahorites:

Children Library Complex is holding a 4 days Grand Book Fair from November 20 to November 23. A nice activity for the children on their (children) day.

Event: Grand Book Fair

Timings: 11:00 am – 07:00 pm (daily)

Venue: Children Library Comples, Aiwan-e-Tijarat Road, Lahore

Stalls: Charts, Poster, Greeting Cards, CD/DVD, Food Courts, Jewelery, Face Painting, Garments, etc.

Extras:

1) Painting Exhibition at 11:00 am on November 20.

2) Puppet Show at 11:00 am on November 22 by Iranian Artists currently performing in the World Performing Arts Festival.

3) Walk of Children at 12:00 pm on November 22 from Children Library Complex to Governor House.

He was addressing a session, yesterday, on how to earn a good living by blogging. Being a Google Guy, his focus was on Google’s products like Blogger, Google Adsense and Google Analaytics but his tips were universal to all types of bloggers.

Badar Khushnood presenting "Earn a good living by blogging"

It was more like a group discussion where many people shared their experiences and asked Badar different questions regarding blogging and Google’s applications.

“For blogging, you need to know your passion. It can be your hobbies, your profession or anything you like” added Badar. He continued,” Making money by blogging is possible but there’s no shortcut. The content must be unique while, regularity and patience are must needed abilities.”

There were two case studies of earning blogs maintained by individuals. One, Sizzled Core by Haris Nadeem and second AMLaw by Tanseer.

“I used to visit forums and used to read tips. Then I thought of having my own website where I could post these tips” said Haris Nadeem, a Matric (SSC) graduate, who is earning about $600 to $700 a month without having any computer background. :-)

The session lasted for about one and half an hour. Different examples were cited and Badar cited Google Webcentral a useful source for bloggers and webmasters.

The whole session was great but I couldn’t cover the rest of the event due to shortage of time. I hope the people who visited the event must have gained a lot.

Mozang Chungi: One of the worst traffic jams I ever witnessed.

Recent torrential rains, especially the heavy rainfall on Tuesday, left the whole city paralyzed. Forecast experts considered it a record rainfall (168mm) in past 12 years. People from all walks of life were badly affected. The attendance remained short in offices and most of the businesses, especially in the lower areas, remained closed or were opened late in the evening. The water entered the houses and in the shops of the people. It was reported that even the Chief Minister’s house was drowned. It may also affect the Independence Day celebrations.

Boys pushing a broken down ambulance.

Many motorcycles and cars broke down in 3.5 to 4 feet rain water.

A section of Ferozpur Road is not able to be used due to rain water. The other lane is jam packed with vehicles.

Luckily, the rain stopped. If it had continued for a little more while, I had to help my family to wipe out the rain water from my own house. It’s still raining today. I wish it does not add to people’s problems.

It did nothing..

WASA Emergency centre: I believe they were helpless.

No other way to cross except going through it.

Lahore Bar District Association Seceretary, Latif Sirraw, protesting on Mall Road Lahore (Thursday), with the lawyers community and civil society activists, in the wake of recent clashes in Karachi, which caused the deaths of 15-17 people including the burning to death of 7 lawyers, several injuries and several other losses.

Photo Credit: Umer Sharif, Daily Pakistan

In this crucial stage of struggle for the restoration of judiciary, such irresponsible behavior can affect their efforts adversely.

What do you say?