Rangers Kill Unarmed Boy, Karachi Pakistan

On 9th June 2011 a young boy attempts a robbery at boat basin Karachi (Well known as the Karachi food street in Clifton area) unfortunately(for the boy) the boy got caught during the act. And in a Pakistan with so many frustrated people, no electricity, not petrol, no CNG, prices going high, unemployment and much more, people take out their frustration where ever they can.  I feel they did the right thing they handed over the boy to people who are responsible to take care of law and order situation.

So this is what happened
1. The boy attempts a robbery

2. He gets caught

3. The public beats him up but lets him live in fact they were nice to him and let the authorities take care of it.

4. A person with a camera some how finds out about what is happening and was able to reach the spot on time ( HE is the most important person in this story)

5. The boys face is shown to the camera and the film is rolling.

6. The boy is handed over to the Rangers who i believe were near the Benazir park in Clifton, remember this place is less than a kilo meter away from where MR Zardari lives.

7. Immediately a Gun is pointer on his head by one of the Ranger, the boy says it was a fake gun, and I did what i did because of compulsion.

8. But they did not listen to him and he was shot twice in the leg. All on VIDEO all being recorded and the rangers knowing that everything is being recorded but still they did this.

9. The boy was loosing blood fast and was pleading for help but no one took him to the hospital. Even tyeing a belt around his leg would have helped buy more time but no one stepped up.

10. First of all the person who fired and then everything single person who saw this happened or were able to see what happened with in the next 30 min are responsible for MURDERING this boy collectively. The boy should have gone through the right process and punished according to the law.

I feel very unsafe after watching this video. Very hard to believe, YOU CAN NOT SHOOT AN UNARMED PERSON specially when you have the situation under control with more than four armed Rangers standing in front of the man.

DHA Karachi Real Estate Fraud

Have you ever rented an apartment, portion or villa in DHA Karachi? Well a lot of people have done that and mostly get what they want by contacting a real estate agent. For every rent deal there is a tenancy agreement that is filed but be very cautious while dealing with these real estate agents that are available in each and every commercial area in DHA.

Nine out of ten times you will be asked to sign a contract for no more than 11 months but did you know that all contracts with 12 months duration are to be registered with DHA and all the tenant information is to be given to DHA. But unfortunately people are easily deceived by the agents, me being one of them.

Remember by signing a contract under 12 months you also are at risk of the following

1. Get ready to kicked out any time without anyone giving a dam.
2. If you decide to go to the court the first think that will be asked is that why did you do a 11 months contract which in my view has no meaning.
3. You let the property owners Not pay any property tax and still make money over their property. Because to lease a property legally you need to clear taxes and get your completion registered with DHA, it then becomes DHA’s responsibility to enforce the agreement as well.
4. You pay more rent than the market rate.
5. You keep yourself at complete risk but don’t make it mutual with the property owner.

The owner of the property is required to conduct maintenance and repairs after a certain amount of time, the house need to be repainted after a given amount of time, you should get water in the line of from DHA all this and much more but yet we say yes to the agents, give them commissions, do whatever they ask us to do just to get a place that you can call home.

I am sure if you are looking for an apartment, you will first go and get the Sunday Newspaper , 95% or even more ads on the classified section are from agents who have only one objective ‘GET ONE MONTH COMISSION AND FORGET EVERYTHING ELSE’ , trust is hard or nearly impossible to find. Forget newspaper, even if you look at real estate portals like www.bastee.pk www.zameen.com etc are also flooded with ads from agents, you don’t know where to look someone who you can trust and have the peace of mind that he will not bully you.

Until about 8 months ago I was living in an apartment for the past 7 years with no trouble the place was owned by someone who is a family friend, I used to pay rent as per market but It was so peaceful.  But then I made the mistake of thinking that all property owners are like them, this mistake has cost me something which I value the most “Mental Piece”.

I found a place which looked nice and spacious, when we visited the place the owners were living there and we immediately liked what we saw. I decided to make them an offer (mistake I did not meet the neighbors), Immediately after I made the offer I got to meet the owner.  I told him that I have a some questions about the place before I proceed any further, He stopped me right there with aggression and said that before I let you stay at my place I need to know what kind of people are you.  He took a one hour interview from me and my wife and he said that for me it is important that ‘Shareef family people’ live at my place, I don’t want to be receiving complaints from the building people. We were able to satisfy him and asked the following questions.

1. What is the water situation? Answer: Oh we have been living here and we have had no water problems ever, you just have to pay the monthly water bill on time. Also a big plus is that this house is the only one with an extra water tank. So I was like Great!
2. I see some repairs required here, so I would need the locks changed, my oven fitted in the kitchen, the kitchen cabinet fixed, and a few more think. Reply: You don’t need to mention all this, we understand what a family requires
3. How much advance rent and deposit will I be required to pay? All sorted out, I ended up paying 150k at beginning with a monthly rent of 18k

I gave an advance payment of 10k and I was to get passion within a week. A few days after that I was called by the agent saying that you need to pay the advance amount and sign the contract so that we can get the repair work done and get the place ready to move in and I was like ok. So I also signed the 11 month contract and gave the advance payment with nothing tangible in hand. All because I trusted these people.

Any ways finally the day came when I got the keys, when I walk in all I see is that a new paint job was done and nothing else, all the fancy lighting was removed with wires hanging out, one room striped off from a fancy fan which I saw on my first visit, generator wires removed even AC power plugs removed along with the wires, no locks changed, no fixes made in the kitchen, and a hundred more things. I was almost in a position to say go to hell with your money and leave but then I had no other choice but to move in. The very first day I went to see where the water motor is and I saw about six empty bottles of Blacklable  with proper packaging, and I was like SHOOT what did I do. From that day on words I keep hearing the people from ‘Flat  x’ had a fight  with people from ‘Flat Y’ and there is no water because the ‘Flat number Z’ did not pay their share.  Recently someone opened fire on the other party over a misunderstanding regarding of paying each other’s bills. I think about Rs 900 or something and the idiots said all the bad words in their vocabulary.   The list goes on from day to day every day a new incident.

This is what happens in DHA Karachi, a family person like me can’t find a decent place to live in, but if anyone of you is reading this and knows someone who can get me a place near DHA Phase 1, 2 or 4 then place drop me a comment. I just have a few more months before I have to shift.

WHY SHOULD I PAY TAXES IN PAKISTAN

As far as I know Taxes are meant to provide services and facilities to the citizens of a country. Definitely I don’t see that happening.  I have been paying taxes on my income since 2005, now it is a good 6 years and almost a million rupees paid to the Government of Pakistan.  I am a salaried person who works for a technology company. I am happy with what I do, I am also happy with the tax I give but I am NOT happy with how my money is being spent.  I definitely don’t want to be responsible for paying for VIP movements luxury cars etc.

Today I promise that I would pay double the tax if I am given the option to chose how my money is spent.  If you ask me I would like all my money to be spent in nothing but education. I am sick of uneducated idiots running this country who don’t know a shit about how mass education is policy is implemented and they don’t even care to get proper consultants to do the job for them.

I buy fruit at least once a week and when I have to give him RS 200 for one apple, six bananas, and three peaches I think  hard as to how much money this man makes??? The answers is more than 5 lacks in a month and guess what he pays NO taxes. In my view he has no right to complain about anything. FBR has failed to collect taxes for these people and if this continues to happened the economic situation of Pakistan will continue to go down.  Whenever KESC has some problem, the fuel prices go up, or any other problem it is these people who hit the roads and salaried people like me are more worried that how will I go to work the next day because going to work is my bread and butter and that is how I feed my family.

For some reason my blood boils when I see this disparity, just because I work for a registered company it is easy for the government to collect taxes from me but what about those land lords, Gold traders, real estate trading, foreign exchange trading and a million other verticals.

I would leave you with some points to consider

1. Do you pay taxes? If not make sure you do because if you don’t you don’t have the right to complain.
2. Make sure you file your tax returns, get benefits from tax returns against, WHT on bank accounts, mobile bills, utility bills, etc
3. If you know someone who wants to know how to pay taxes or he/she is confused about the process just drop a comment here or simply visit www.fbr.gov.pk , I know a few people who might be able to help them
4. If you are buying goods try to buy from people who pay their taxes.
5. Never bribe people to get your matters sorted with FBR faster, everything is now online you can do it online www.fbr.gov.pk and their hot line is very helpful.
6. Keep your chin up if you pay your taxes and show ownership towords your country because it is yours.

Pakistan Independence Day Celebrations at Karachi Sea View

Green everywhere, Pakistani flag on each car, green painting on cheeks, crazy dances, madness with motor bikes, firing and fireworks, lights on Government buildings, dances, sea view, freedom, happiness, joy, and a lot more is experienced every 14^th August in Pakistan. I don’t know about other cities of Pakistan but in Karachi if you want to see how mad and crazy people get at these occasions you should hit a place which everyone know as Sea View. I actually went there this 14^th August to shoot a few clips which would make you people believe as to how crazy people can get.  If you ask any decent person he/she would say never go to sea view on 14^th of August, or EID, or any big holiday because people really go crazy. I actually wanted to have some fun so I went for it.

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The kind of people you will find here are normally from SEC C or below. These people don’t normally have much options when it come to family entertainment. Sea view is the only place where no one is charges any money to come and have fun normally rent cars, wagons, or even trucks and just stuff people in it. The most common vehicle you will see at sea view is Motor Bike and that too if it is 14th August without cylencers to get noticed.

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If you talk to any of these people you will immidiately feel that things happening arround them dont really affact them they will continue to do what they do and continue to thing what they think. I see a lot of potential in this man power in our country which can be used for something which benefits the country and themselves.