Karachiites breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that a rain system over Madhya Pradesh was heading towards the city of Karachi and heavy rains were expected for the next couple of days. Now call it more of a norm in Pakistan, that the predictions put out by the institutions is hardly believed by most of today's people, because what ever they say, something totally opposite to it happens. I for one, had no belief that such a thing was about to happen.



As I was in Lahore, I got a text from a friend stating the bad weather situation looming ahead and was advised to cut my trip short and return before the sky burst open. I returned and found the following next day to be as hot as it would have normally been in Karachi. This confirmed my presumption that all this talk was nothing more than just B.S.



How ever, I found out that I had been completely wrong; an unexpected change in weather caught me off guard when I woke up the next day late in the afternoon. The sky was covered with black clouds and the sun was no where to be seen. The menacing roar of the clouds threatened that it would be raining cats and dogs in just a couple of moments.



And so it did, starting off with a nice pleasant drizzle, one that provokes people to head out of their homes to enjoy the pleasant weather, not knowing that Mother Nature has bigger and better things in store for them. Soon after that drizzle, it literally rained like all hell had broken loose. Still people were out on the streets, enjoying the rain, as thirst from their fast had broken them down, and the rain seemed to have rejuvenated everyone, even those who kept to the comfort of their beds and laptops.



Almost a month has passed since there was rain in the city of Karachi, so this was certainly one such thing that the people of Karachi were wishing for. I remember last time when it rained, I wrote a blog titled "Be Careful What You Wish For" In it, I wrote about the painstaking endurance of days long power cuts, wading through waist deep water on streets and every other possible havoc that the rain could have wreaked.



Yesterday's rain gives no other scenario. Every thing was the same, the same power cuts, the same puddles (rather rivers) of water on the streets, the impotent "state of the art" drainage system in D.H.A, the fragile and crippled power management system of the K.E.S.C, the hour long traffic jams, the submerged underpasses and what not.



I would like to attach some images for a detailed perspective.

Source of Image 1 , 2 &3

 To be honest, this is just a little teaser of the ordeals faced by the people of Karachi when it rains. No I am not saying that it should not rain so as to keep the people of Karachi safe from different kinds of problems, I mean to criticize the poor and under development of the projects, like drainage, sewerage, electricity, telephones and the major roads of the city.



Pick up a newspaper after the day it has rained, the top headlines that meet your eyes will be "Most parts of the city without electricity for past 24 hours because of rain" "Rain cripples the fragile electricity distribution network of the K.E.S.C" or maybe this "3 people electrocuted after a mains line snapped" and definitely this "Major roads of the city totally submerged under water, residents leave their cars and walk home". Hold me accountable if one of these doesn't make it to the headlines in today's paper.

City of my dreams

My message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation."

(Quaid e Azam)

Its true and we can not deny it, the night life here in our beloved city Karachi, and in almost all parts of Pakistan, is kind of becoming the more appreciable way of living one's life and earning status in the high class fraternity.

 

Now what exactly do I mean by night life?

 

Yes it's the party lifestyle, the dance floors, the tequila shots, the whores and hookers, the infamous sex, drugs and booze is all that's "In" these days.

 

Normally you wouldn't see a normal upper middle class person indulging himself into these acts of fun, as some might term them to be. Its this money laden lobby of people who have no fear of the Almighty whatsoever. Every body these days gets all excited these days when word spreads of any activity of this sort, be it underage teenagers or men who might just have to take a pill just to keep up with all the excitement.

 

In Karachi, activities of this sort are becoming normal, many late night parties are arranged with couples only rules, with the most famous places being huts at Hawksbay, some empty big ass bungalow in Defence, or rented floors or basements of lounges or bars. They include the usual DJ with the dance floor, with tequila being one of the major attractions of the party. A party here without tequila is not considered a party at all.

 

Recently a rung mela was held at a very renowned hotel at seaview, where the couples sort of played HOLI (a sort of Indian tradition of throwing colors at each other), point less as it is, people where present there in a large number, and of course the artificial rainfall after that got everyone present there in a wet and wild mood and it all gets pretty simple to understand after that.

 

I Strongly criticize these types of events, what ever happens there is not allowed whether legally or religiously as some of the biggest sins are committed under the umbrella of having fun.

I hope that the people who are indulged into these types of things, come to their senses soon.

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to issue a final notice to the management of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) against its repeated failure to improve performance.

Talking to reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy Crises here on Saturday, Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said the ministry was waiting for the KESC response to a Nepra show-cause notice and if there was an unsatisfactory reply and the company failed to improve its generation and distribution network the government would be compelled to take harsh measures

We cannot nationalise the KESC, but the government has majority stakes in it and can appoint a new management, he said.

Mr Ashraf said it was the responsibility of the utility to ensure regular supply of electricity to consumers.

Such prolonged outages are severely disturbing the civic life and losses to business and industrial activities have been enormous.

He said his scheduled visit to Karachi had been postponed because of a cabinet meeting on Monday and the new date would be finalised soon.

The meeting was informed that an energy efficiency fund was being set up with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank to enhance generation and distribution capacity of the energy sector.

A national energy strategy is also being formulated to utilise bio-mass and waste of energy resources and to increase the overall generation capacity.

The minister said that 1,200MW would be added to the national grid this month to ease the overstretched distribution system.

Sources said that power generation units had complained that PSO was not cooperating with them and supplies of furnace oil were not regular.

Pepco and Genco officials informed the meeting that under-repair plants were being brought online and 3,600MW would be available from newly-commissioned plants by the end of this year.

They said that Pepco was trying to enhance generation capacity through multi-dimensional generation strategy and conventional hydel and thermal sources.

Other alternative energy options were also being tapped to optimise electricity generation, they added.

The meeting was informed that many countries, including France and China, had shown interest in energy sector projects.

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | KESC warned of ‘harsh measures’

Every Pakistani is accustomed to the loadshedding phenomena, but i will keep Karachi, a mega metropolis bustling with industrial activities in context. People here have faced every hurdle that the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation has hurled out to the Karachiites. May it be the June 17th blackout or the current blackouts which occurred after the recent rainfalls in karachi. Apart from these black outs, people in karachi have gone through agonizing loadshedding sessions for upto 8 hours continuous. This ultimately provokes the people to start vandalizing government and private property, resulting in losses amounting upto milions of ruppees. The official statements that are issued by the KESC say that they are facing a shortfall of so and so megawatts and there is literally nothing that can be done to put an end to it. Now the question that irks me is that when elections were in progress, February 18th was the big day, and there was no loadshedding in karachi, not for a single minute. Then recently, during the final of the T20 worldcup, there was no loadshedding. The question that pops in my mind in that from where does electricity come from on those days? does it magically start generating in the turbines? I think that production is being kept slow, so as to save as much fuel possible to increase profits. It is acknowledged that since KESC went private, the power situation in the city has worsened. What might be good for the karachiites in the future is that the KESC is nationalized again and the government has full control over the functions of the said department. The workers have an excuse of saying that the KESC is now privatized and they cannot help it if the authorities fail to provide electricity or rectify cable faults in due time. I have heard KESC workers say that when people asked them why there was no electricity in our area for Four days straight.
Nationalization is the way to go for KESC and for providing relief to the people of karachi.

Farooqu|

*The above photos shows the crowd around a kesc truck which came to the locality after 3 days of consistent power breakdown in the Badar and Shahbaz areas.
Thanks to Ijaz for the images.


On Friday evening, Karachi witnessed a cloudy day, with black clouds looming in the skies above threatening to rain, was only just what people had wished for. I took my usual drive down the infamous "Do Darya" (a remote point of the seaside) or better known to the people as DP. As the weather was pleasant with the much longed for chilly breeze blowing, there was a huge crowd there, everyone from families with 12 children to high school children on their make believe dates with their alleged "soul mates". Then came Friday night or Saturday morning, with the city getting rain in the wee hours of the night marking the start of the so called monsoon season for Karachi. I am damn sure that many people had wished for this rain to be majestically bestowed upon the karachiites. One thing is for certain that we, the more sensible of all karachiites, think of the mess and (honestly speaking) the sh*t we get into whenever it rains in Karachi. Whoever thinks that knee deep water, submerged houses, back flowing drains, water filled underpasses are a blessing in disguise, needs a reality check and a kick on the as* from my side. I have seen my fair share of rain and snow in Murree, believe me I have been caned on the as* with an iron rod in negative thirteen degree centigrade (-13°C) while it was raining with hail, and whatever you think you have done is painful you are probably just another F*ing retard. So wishing for rain here in Karachi just isn’t my piece of cake. Is it just me or whenever all hell breaks loose over the city, I am left alone to deal with the troubled times. Take July 17, 2009 for example, the day when all of Karachi was left without electricity for about 12 to 16 hours and I had to spend the whole night on top a ledge protruding from a overhead water storage tank, having to bear the lovey dovey talk of a friend with his girlfriend. I had surely wished to die there and then. The same thing happened this Saturday with everyone leaving for the village to witness the extraction of a new born child from within the depths of one family friend’s daughter. (And yes what you just read was sarcasm). I willingly excused my self from the little trip, hoping to get some free time to kill with some friends with out the tension of reporting back after every call. So Saturday was mostly a day spent outside of the house, with me having no intentions of getting wet in the rain, I called a close friend, took the wheel of his car, thought the most slow car I have driven till now, and drove through the whole morning and afternoon. What surprised my friend was my occasional hitting of his car’s steering wheel and yelling of “bhaag paro bhaag” whenever I thought that the car was dropping speed, this continued until I got a smack on the head telling me that paro was the long lost love of devdas, while this was the car bought from the hard earned money of his father, so I should respect that or step out of the car immediately. Seeing my options closed, I chose to turn up the volume and drive on, while an unusual smirk on my face bothered my dear friend very much!. All was well till that moment, I went back home, picked up my own car, picked up some friends of mine, headed to a usual hangout, ordered the usual things and watched the rain, which had picked up much speed by then. As fate would have it, my phone was dead, by dead I mean literally dead, it wouldn’t start or anything, so I was basically out of the house and incommunicado. For those of you who know me, might just know what I might get into even though no one was in Karachi. I, trusting my instincts, knew that I should head home because I knew my landline would be ringing off the hook and I would be in deep sh*t if it was not answered within the three call limit!. So this naturally meant that I would have to run through the rain, as taking my car was not an option because the roads were flooded with water and I couldn’t risk my engine getting stalled. Leaving it parked there, I vaguely remember picking up my jeans and running mad all the way in knee deep water from Saba Avenue all the way to Shahbaz with rain coming down as fast as it could. Though i thought that the new wallet I had bought was too over priced and I had been ripped off, but it held up pretty well in the rain and I actually found out that it was indeed original leather :D. I reached home, soaking head to foot, I was pretty surprised to see that we still had electricity. After a little while, there was a big bang in the transformer across the road and there went my electricity for four, yes FOUR! Whole days. As fate would have it, my generator literally fried it self, I mean I could see yellow flames from inside the generator after what seemed to be half an hour from the transformer blast. I knew I had no luck because it was night, and the next day was Sunday. So then began my agonizing wait for the electricity, I was getting rumors about cable faults along the entire Shahbaz region, which made it even worse. Monday came with me calling the repair guy like a million times until I lost it and told him to go screw himself, then I knew that I was not getting electricity any time soon. Somebody tipped me off that they were going to vandalize the kesc office at badar, I went along, threw some stones, said some pretty bad words at the top of our voices but still Monday went with no electricity. That was the limit, I found out that tyres were being arranged and a full scale riot was being planned behind kfc, what better did I have to do ? Though i avoided driving down that locality later the same night concerning fears of my car being stoned and burnt, after all it is the second love of my life :p I confirmed my presence with the people, burnt tyres along the roads, blocking the whole of the 26th street at around 1 am in the night. The best part was the chanting of slogans, the most hilarious of those I heard were “kesc ki maa ka p*****!” and ”maa c***** bijli waloun ki!” with the occasional chorus of “bijli doh! Bijli doh!” it was really worth it as electricity to the area was restored at around 6 in morning. I woke up at 7 and am still typing this blog post. Rest assured, if I hear anyone telling me that we need more rain, he is going to have his head up his own as*!
Peace everyone! 