The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) which makes tall claims about upholding building control laws and clamping down on violations in its area, does not hesitate breaking its own rules when it comes to the authority’s interests. This is evident in the case of the newly opened Floating Ship restaurant which has been allowed a parking space by blocking a service road of the Beach Avenue.
When contacted by The News, Brigadier Iftikhar Haider, Director, Special Projects, said that no law has been broken with the Floating Ship restaurant blocking off the service lane on Main Seaview Road (Beach Avenue) to make a parking area for the restaurant.
The controversial restaurant, in which DHA also has a stake, has been making the news for all the wrong reasons. In the past, there have been public protests over the manner in which the DHA has allowed the restaurant to be built on a public beach.
The “Sahil Bachao Tehreek” claimed that by allowing the restaurant to be built on a portion of the beach, the passage of beach visitors was being cut off at high tide by the restaurant that juts out onto the public beach area.
With the opening of the restaurant, the DHA has allowed a service lane of the Beach Avenue to be converted into a parking area for the restaurant. Brigadier Haider claims that the permission to build a parking area by closing off a service lane is allowed in the Master Plan approved by the DHA’s higher-ups in 2007. Read more »
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An Open Letter to The Chief Minister and Home Minister of Sindh;
After watching your numerous representatives come on television and talk about how law and order is your first priority, I would like to bring to your attention a case of police incompetence that I got to take part in last night.
I have family that lives on Khayban-e-Shujaat in Defence Karachi. In front of their home, someone parked a car (AAK 272) and left it, telling the chowkidars around the house that they had permission from the people who live there. The car has been there since 8 pm last night.
Now here is where the story gets fun. The police were called to come and remove the car, since the home owners have not given anyone permission to park there. Our Karachi Police showed up and promptly reported that the vehicle was clean, not involved in any murders nor stolen and if we wanted the car removed, we have to pay for the lifter to come and remove it.
While waiting for the police to arrive, friends at the Naval Housing Society called to let us know that there had been a major robbery in the area and the robbers were waiting inside the home for the people to come back.
At the same time, we called the Chief Minister’s House complaint line and made the same complaint, only to get no action.
This morning, the car still stands there. I have spoken to the police and Chief Minister’s house, neither willing to take any action. The last update that I got was that the police were on the scene now but had again repeated their demand for payment to remove the car.
So it is clear to us now. If we are willing to give the police “chai paani,” then our citizens will be kept secure; otherwise, we have no right to security.
Democracy at its finest.
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Editorial from The News
The only way forward out of the current crisis emanating from the suspension of the Chief Justice of Pakistan is for the government to withdraw its reference. If it cannot bring itself to do that then it needs to engage in a dialogue with the opposition, and President Musharraf needs to choose either the army chief post or stand for re-election as a civilian candidate. The way forward is not by imposing censorship on the print and electronic media, which seems to be the new government’s tactic for now. Not only are the threats and warnings to the media that it must fall in line and keep the ‘national interest’ paramount going to not work in this day and age, they will be thoroughly counter-productive and only exacerbate an already tense situation. The reason for the clampdown on the print and electronic media clearly has to do with the thinking in the circles that matter in this country that the whole crisis has been blown out of proportion by the media and hence it will be deflated once the media, especially the TV channels, are brought under the censorship leash.
But the questions that need to be asked of the government are the following:
Who was it that made the Chief Justice of Pakistan non-functional?
What was the manner in which this action against him was taken and a presidential reference filed?
Even if the charge that he was fond of extra protocol or that he asked for favors for his son is true then isn’t that also the case with many senior state functionaries?
Furthermore, who carried out the attack on the office of Geo TV and this newspaper in Islamabad?
Who threatened a journalist of this newspaper on a Voice of America radio show and then proceeded to deny it, only to eat his words when a recording of the show’s transcript was aired on Geo TV? Read more »
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