Karachi Blog

KARACHI: Vice Chancellor University of Karachi Prof Pirzada Qasim has said that Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai is not only a literary genius, but he encompassed a personality that seldom comes about for centuries.

He was delivering his presidential speech at the books launching ceremony, organised by the Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Chair, University of Karachi, at a local hotel on Thursday. Prof Qasim spoke highly of the Sindhi language and literature that excelled in its sweetness and beauty of words structure, which captivates the readers.

“Bhittai’s unparalleled mastery of Sindhi language has always been recognised by the people who have good literary taste and books written on his accomplishments by authors, translators and others had contributed a precious literature to the already rich Sindhi literature,” he said.

KARACHI: Several localities of the metropolis received light drizzle on Thursday evening as the Meteorological Department has forecast chances of rain and thunderstorm in the next 24-hours.

According to a Met official the drizzle was caused by the rain system which arrived with the Westerly winds from Iran and Balochistan.

The system will cause a rainy spell in the several parts of the upcountry during the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, people visited parks, gardens, and other recreational spots in the city to enjoy the pleasant and sudden change in the weather in the evening hours.

The motorists especially riders of the two-wheelers faced difficulties while driving on the thoroughfares as roads became slippery due to the intermittent drizzling spells.

Several areas of the city including Malir, Saddar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, and localities falling

under the jurisdictions of

various cantonment boards experienced intermittent disruptions in power supply and fluctuation in voltage caused due to the rainy spell.

KARACHI: The Sindh Information Technology Advisor, Noman Saigal on Thursday said all computer training centres and IT institutions in the province would soon be registered with the Sindh IT Department.

Speaking to a delegation of students at his office, the minister said a summary of the project has been sent to the Sindh Chief Minister for approval.

He said after its approval, work for registration of computer training and IT institutes in the province would be started.

Noman Saigal said the strategy regarding registration of IT institutes would be chalked out in the meeting of the IT Board, which is scheduled for next week. Later, all qualified IT institutes would be provided legal protection by registering them with the IT department. He assured that the registration process would be transparent; adding that only those training institutes meeting the required criteria would be registered.

KARACHI: City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal laid the foundation stone for the installation of a storm water drain in Bath Island on Thursday.

The project cost is Rs90 million.

The City Nazim had announced to resolve storm water drain problem in the area on a permanent basis when the last monsoon struck and the entire locality was inundated with rainwater for weeks.

In his speech, Kamal said they had spent nights in the area during the last monsoon rains as some of the streets were inundated by rainwater but the city government staff did not leave the area from the Day One.

“We had conducted a thorough survey in the area and started this project on proper planning to remove rainwater from this area on permanent basis.

Through this storm water drainage system, the rainwater will flow into sea as the entire project will be complete within three months”, he said.

He added that they had started work on the laying of a new sewerage line as previous pipeline line was laid some 55-years ago and before it they had also initiated new water pipeline project in front of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre.

He said the present city government had taken storm water drain issue of this area very seriously and initiated work which would resolve the problem for the next 50-100 years.

KARACHI: The Sindh Education Department has announced that no examination for class IX would be held this year in the province.

A press release issued by the Sindh Education Department said it was decided in the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers’ Meeting in 2005, that from 2006 all the provinces would shift to composite examination system at matriculation level as a part of ‘Education Sector Reforms Package’. It said under this system, the students are to be examined at the end of their two-year studies i.e. after class ten.

This was approved by the President of Pakistan as part of Education Sector Reforms Programme. All provinces and the federal government agreed that there would be no examination of class IX in 2006 and students shall appear in composite examination in 2007.

The press release further stated that as a result of this policy there was no class IX examination in 2006 in Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan, adding however, Sindh sought a waiver for one year in the implementation of this new system from the President, which was graciously granted.

As this waiver was granted by the President just for one year, Sindh has to adopt the composite examination system at matriculation level from this year, which means that there would be no examination of IX class this year and students of matric shall be examined next year. Any change in the composite examination system lies with the President, the press release concluded.

KARACHI: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), on Monday announced power shutdown schedule for Feb 6 (today) for the purpose of system overhauling in some city areas from 9:00am to 6:00pm.

These areas include Clifton Block-4 and 8, Bath Island, Zamzama Street, Defence Khayaban-e-Shaheen, Khayaban-e-Shujaat, Khayaban-e-Tauheed, North Nazimabad Block G and H, Pirabad, Baldia Town, New Saeedabad, Machahar Colony, Lyari, North Karachi Sector 6-B,12-D, PECHS Block-3 and 6, Bahadurabad, Natha Khan Goth, Awami Colony, Korangi Sector 9, 8, 8-D, 19 and 6-F, Marton Quarters, Azeem Pura, Millat Town Malir, KDA Scheme-33, KW&SB Filter Plant and Residential Colony Super Highway.

While power supply to Sohrab Goth, Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block-4 and 6, Metrovill-III, Hadidabad Society, North Karachi Sector 5-G, 5-F, 6-B,11-H, Federal B Block 22, Kiran Hospital, Rizvia Society, Nazimabad 5-A area, Ziauddin Hospital PMT, Firdous Colony, Gulbahar, Ibrahim Ganj and Gulistan-e-Jauhar Block-9 and portion of SITE and Korangi Industrial areas, would also remain suspended in the prescribed hours.

KARACHI: City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal on returning from The World Economic Forum in Davos once again promised to the citizens that Karachi chosen out of twelve international cities will soon get 8,000 CNG buses.

In the developed cities of the world citizens and tourists are provided comfortable and cheap transport, but transport for the citizens of Karachi is an uphill task. In the absence of Karachi Circular Railway, and unplanned public transport, every morning citizens feel their life is in danger, as every day buses and minibuses create huge traffic inconveniences.

The Nazim made these promises since he took office in 2005, but Karachiites still pass their life miserably in the worst metropolitan infrastructure. City Nazim has conceded to citizens several times that buses plying on roads in the city are outdated and spread pollution, but seems helpless in practically solving the issue.

Time and again at various press conferences the Nazim talk on various civic issues but this vital issue is always neglected. Karachi in the next few years will have five and seven star hotels, but without a proper transport system, tourism and development works in the city it will be a futile exercise. Nazim has to apprise the citizens in a clear manner, however little is known about when these buses would be imported or the hurdles involved in importing these buses would be removed? The green buses are already out of operation, and during rush hours poor citizens travel on bus rooftops endangering their lives.

The Hamara Karachi festival ended with celebrations, but poor and middle class citizens were unable to enjoy the festival, as they could not reach far flung areas of the city just because there was no transport available for them.

City naib Nazim should have had arranged transport for the poor citizens, as she is fully aware that this over populated city has very little transport, and most of the out dated and obsolete buses either remain at workshops.

It is also a very pathetic situation for the citizens that most of the transporters decrease the strength of the buses after 8 pm, which causes commuters serious hardships and they have no choice left but to sit on the rooftops.

KARACHI: City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal on Thursday said the model status assumed by Karachi during the last one year with reference to international challenges of urbanisation and the start of fast-track development process had not only been liked world over but also there was emphasis today on its adoption as a model in developing cities.

“The participation in the World Economic Forum has given us a realisation that the policy adopted by the present government for the development of Karachi, investment and other related matters is in the right direction and our goal is nearer now,” said the city nazim.

Addressing a press conference at the Civic Center here on Thursday, Mustafa Kamal said the delegates at the WEF greatly appreciated our private-public partnership policy and described it advantageous to development of cities and challenges of urbanisation.

He pointed out that the WEF was a major world forum where heads of various countries, economists, experts, delegates of big cities of world countries and heads of multi-national companies were present and participated in talks, seminars and workshops on urbanisation challenges and took stock of as to which were the cities where governments were working to meet the challenges of urbanisation.

“I congratulate the people of Pakistan and specially of Karachi and it is a good omen for his party that he represented his country and city on this forum and had the opportunity of marketing Karachi nullifying the negative impression about Pakistan and specially this city at the international level.”

At that forum, he said, he had meetings with decision-makers who framed policies and ponder over from this point of view for development and to face challenges in that context and had the opportunity of removing the negative impression about Pakistan and Karachi.

Mustafa Kamal pointed out that when the present city government embarked upon its mission, he had stated that Karachi could not be compared with any other city of Pakistan because it was an international city and we should work to bring it at international level and market it as a regional hub.

“We are now developing Karachi as a major trade and economic centre on the world map and we have taken up this city as a regional city”.

The city nazim said that the development projects had been initiated to develop Karachi as a regional hub and they had cast a positive impact.—APP

KARACHI: Teaching at nine departments of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology could not be initiated on Thursday due to the institution’s new admission policy.

Sources said that the varsity was without a vice-chancellor for the past nine months and the varsity affairs were being run in an unorganised manner. They said that a new admission policy was devised by chairman of the admission committee, dean of Science faculty, also the acting vice-chancellor.

Under the new policy, students having cleared their intermediate/degree exams more than two years back are not eligible. Only one list has been displayed so far after the submission of 1,800 admission forms.

Second and third list may not be displayed before a fresh review of the applications and, as such, many seats are lying vacant in various departments though the admission seekers are being made to wait for a decision on their applications. The policy also prohibits commencement of the session in a department having less than 15 admissions.

Sources said that due to defective admission policy, teaching at Sindhi, Social Work, Psychology, Arabic, Urdu, General History, Political Science and Islamic History had not begun as yet.

KARACHI: The enrolment section of the University of Karachi on Thursday notified that enrolment forms and fees of MBBS and BDS would be accepted without late fee from February 7 to 21.

According to a KU notification issued here, enrolment forms with a fee of Rs700 (for public sector) and Rs4,000 (for private sector) could be submitted till February 21. Forms with late fee of Rs1,000 would be accepted till February 28.

Pharm-D: The University of Karachi also notified that enrolment forms and fee for (Pharm-D) Jinnah Medical and Dental College for the year 2007 would be accepted from February 10 to 24.

The enrolment forms with normal fee of Rs4,000 would be accepted till February 24. Forms with late fee of Rs1,000 would be accepted till February 28.—PPI