Tag Archives: Pakistan

The Merchants of Death

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In a world stricken by a pandemic that has left millions sick, displaced and dead, life has become a conundrum. As the vacillation between life and death continues, the clock keeps ticking as the merchants of death fleece and exploit desperate families looking to save their loved ones.

It is ironic that life and death have always remained a tradeable commodity since the proliferation of healthcare services and hospitals. Due to this pandemic, the sham we have believed ourselves to be living in the guise of the citadel of faith is all illusionary. Deep within, despite all the faith and belief, we advocate, human avarice remains a distinct reality that we cannot avoid.

We always talk about optimism and hope, to remain positive and have faith in the divine but for what? As people struck by the virus end up hospitalized fighting with life and death, those at the forefront of this battle, doctors, nurses, ward boys and all other medical staff who are putting their lives in danger.

It is heart-wrenching to see the family of patients running from pillar to post to arrange life-saving medications and injections to save their lives. This is where the merchants of death masked as the saviours of humanity appear with a magic wand promising the availability of all those medications those families are seeking. They act angelic in the disguise of a devil hoping to deliver life in exchange for tons of cash to line their pockets.

Hoarding and black marketing have existed since aeons, there is no doubt about it. However, these merchants of death have no qualms in exploiting the desperation and misery of those families by which they would somehow be able to save the life of their loved ones.They wield influence and power and are the fortune holders who hold the elixir of life for those patients who need those life-saving medications or injections for their very survival.

Everything sells, the desperation of families compels them to go to any length to act and do anything they can. In such situations, morality or ethics get thrown out of the window, humanity in its very essence becomes folklore. We talk about deeds, goodness, kindness and empathy but amid this pandemic that has swept away everyone across the globe all these aforementioned things are just mere formalities. There is not an instant where humans will not resort to such practices and try to make the most out of such situations.

The sadistic tendencies of such souls are not surprising. They possess no fear of life or death, their greed fuels their desire and lust for money. Life is like a pendulum; it must stop swinging at some point in time. Life and death indeed are the domain of the divine and us mere mortals can just cease to exist at a snap. However, such things do not instil fear in the merchants of death, but such individuals are soulless and beyond reasoning. Even at the risk of being eternally damned, they would much akin to the Pharaohs of Egypt take their earthly belongings with them to the next world.

How ironic that these merchants of death are not only prosperous but are able to live and sleep peacefully in the wake of this exploitation. For them, life and death are like a roulette table where they keep gambling till they win or lose. But in existential circumstances, they are the ones who hold total command and control which allows them to execute their victory in whatever direction they deem feasible. Opportunities have arisen in the most unlikely of circumstances and the merchants of death have been activated to enrich themselves.

As convoluted, it may seem, but the only way to thrive in the real world, the world of sin is to be a ruthless sinner than your enemy. This is the mantra followed by the merchants of death, who defy all decencies to act in this in manner. They are no less than auctioneers who would sell anything to the highest bidder without having an inch of remorse or shame. Their actions as pretentious they seem are borne out of desperation to maximize exploitation and miseries of others.

As for those in agony and facing death at the hands of this pandemic, prayers are the only solace for families to hope God provides a miracle. As for the merchants of death, their business will thrive irrespective of the situation, their sins and road to perdition will be for God to decide.

A legendary architect: Zaheer ud Deen Khawaja

21 Monday May 2018

Posted by in Architecture, Biography, General, History, Humanity, Pakistan, Struggle, Tributes

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“Travelling is the best way of getting acquainted/accustomed to other cultures, which teaches us a lot about their customs and values said Zaheer-Ud-Deen Khwaja to me, one of the most renowned architects produced by Pakistan almost 20 years ago.” These words, were like pearls of wisdom for me along with many other exchanges with him, that helped transform my thoughts into something more diverse than they may have turned out to be. He had played a pivotal role as an architect who was internationally recognized and won many accolades/awards within his own capacity for Pakistan, but the selflessness this man had displayed throughout his life is worth exploring.

For me, having personal access to him was trivial courtesy of him being my mother’s mamo and brother of Safia Manto, my grandmother. I called him Zaheer Nana, out of sheer love and respect for a man who was revered by the whole family for his wisdom, knowledge, balance and impeccable honesty which may be unbelievable to my readers currently. He has been forgotten with time, achievements of his groundbreaking in many aspects, languishing and largely written off.

I discerned a few decades ago, the role of architects in that era wasn’t as celebrated and given equivocal footing, as say someone who was a writer, an actor or a poet for example. But, what Zaheer-Ud-Deen-Khwaja achieved was unprecedented at a time when broadcast media and the internet did not exist.

Zaheer-Ud-Deen Khwaja, was born in Kenya in the early 1920’s where his father Qamar-Ud-Deen was employed as Public Prosecutor in Zanzibar a British protectorate in those days. His father had originally settled in Karatina, about a hundred miles from Nairobi so due to rudimentary schooling available, the area was majorly populated by traders from Gujrat, India who ran the primary school there. So, his initial instruction medium of education was hence in Gujrati. Qamar-Ud-Deen, his father who was serving in Zanzibar as a Public Prosecutor, headed by an Arab Sultan died an untimely death when he was assassinated for being mistaken as a British Police officer due to his fair complexion in 1936.

The rather unforeseen seen death of his father, must have been a major catastrophic event in their lives, but their mother who was uneducated but a towering personality in her own right took over the family reins. Thanks to the representation of his uncle, Shams-Ud-Deen, a member of the Legislative council and an influential person in his own right, ensured that the widow of Qamar-Ud-Deen was provided financial help by the British Colonial Government, a pension for the entirety of her life, bursaries for the four sons till the age of eighteen and completion of their education.

Also, allowances were allotted for his three sisters till they got married. Considering these events, Miss Qamar-Ud-Deen took the momentous decision of migrating to Bombay (now Mumbai), India. After arriving in Bombay, aged 14 he found himself to be the head of the family, but his mother as mentioned earlier was a woman of virtue and considerable intellect who had an immense influence on her children, which left an everlasting impact on all of them during their respective lifetimes.

Restarting his education, he completed his High School from St. Mary’s High School, Bombay and decided to pursue Architecture on the advice of his cousin Zafar-Ud-Deen, although as per his memoirs he barely scraped through Art as a subject in his Senior Cambridge examinations!  He took admission in the renowned Sir J.J School of Art where he pursued his architecture. It was a time he remembered rather fondly, with his initial struggles in the first two years at university and the development of a close bond with his Professor Claude Batley who was the Head of the Department of Architecture too. During the third and fourth years, all the students were encouraged to visit the northern and southern parts of India, to get abreast of the finest traditional architecture and diversity it had to offer. By the fifth year, doing an apprenticeship was mandatory in a firm of architects and he was attending of 2 hourly classes in the morning.

He then appeared for an external exam of the Royal British Institute of British Architects, as the diploma offered by the college he attended was not accepted internationally back then. After successfully passing the external exam, he applied for a post-graduate scholarship on offer by the Government of India, which he received for a degree in Civic Design at the University of Liverpool, UK. While aboard the ship to the UK in October 1946, he was also accompanied by a future Nobel Laureate and renowned Physicist Professor Abdus Salam, Aslam Raza who later became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and Ikramullah Niazi, a P.W.D engineer and the father of iconic cricketer turned politician Imran Khan.

Besides completing his post-graduation at the University of Liverpool, he also got the opportunity to travel around the whole of UK and visited a host of other countries in Europe for which the Government of India generously provided financial assistance. By 1948, after being elected as a certified member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, he made his way back to Pakistan in October of the same year.

Upon his return to Pakistan, the scholarship he had been awarded by the Government of India contained a clause or a surety bond which bound him to serve them in an individual capacity to the field he was linked with. Apparently, at that point of time he was ironically one of the only qualified architect and town planners available within Pakistan! While job hunting for a few months, he landed up a job in East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh) as Assistant Government architect in Chittagong at a salary of Rs 800. The time spent there was remembered fondly, along with this comradeship and close bonding with his Bengali colleagues of that time who never forgot him for his sincerity and kindness he had meted them with. After his marriage to his beloved wife Tahira, in December 1950 and with whom he shared a beloved bond of almost 55 years till her death in July 2005.

After a year’s stint in Chittagong and Dhaka, he was offered an important position of Architect and Town planner of Thal Development Authority (TDA) in West Pakistan to oversee a multi-million regional planning covering an area of six million acres of desert which he graciously accepted. As he narrated it in his memoirs, the five years spent involved in the development of this region was one of the golden periods which included designing of the Quaidabad hospital by him as well.

The Thal Development project is listed by the Britannica Encyclopedia is listed as one of the most important development projects in the world. After his association with TDA for five years, he embarked upon taking charge of Pakistan P.WD  in the then capital city, as Chief Town Planner and Architect on the direct orders of the then Prime Minister Huseyn Suhrawardy who wished to enlist his services in end of 1957.

Also in 1957, a Quaid-e-Azam’s Mausoleum Architectural Competition to build a budding memorial to the founding father of the nation was held for which he was assigned to select a jury of assessors for this momentous project. In a rather unfortunate turn of events, the design awarded as the winning one was not acceptable to Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah and she hired an architect of her own choice from India who designed the current mausoleum built in honour of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. During 1958, as the architect-in-chief of the P.W.D and later with the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), he was actively involved in the planning and execution of the Korangi township, and various other projects during the time spent there. In his period spent there, he dealt with the growing developmental issues of Karachi which was experiencing rapid urbanization due to being the economic hub of Pakistan and remains to this day.

Also, in an interesting incident narrated in his book with the founder of Dawood Hercules, Ahmed Dawood is shared in this snapshot:

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His achievements remain unprecedented, but he was a family man, a principled father, a dutiful husband to his beloved wife Tahira and a doting grandfather to his granddaughters Mahvash, Sarah, Anam and Alizeh.

#WorldDisabilityDay What a display of courage by the Punjab Police!

03 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Humanity, Tolerance

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Insanity has its limitations. As the world disability day is being celebrated globally with so much fervor and zeal in Lahore, Pakistan, the disabled protestors are being showered with batons by the police! The behavior of these policeman is inexplicable and deplorable. Benign in action and harmless in nature, what was the reason for this unjustified baton charging on these special people who were protesting for their undue rights? The problem stems from the very fabric in our society, where people with disabilities are considered a liability and are lamented upon. They are outcastes in society, deprived of the rights that are only reserved for the abled. We despise them, swear on them, and lack the patience to treat them with affection and due care they are worthy off.

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The treatment meted out to disabled people is something that is a taboo and does not carry much weight in a society that is predominantly selfish in nature. Being labeled as ‘disabled’ can be equated to being tainted and carries a stigma with it. It is ironic to see disabled people being sidelined and shockingly discouraged to say the least. The psyche of these people is dented by maligning and making fun of them, not realizing what repercussions it can have. The sensitivity of their emotions is blatantly misunderstood and exploited by senseless people lacking any considerable level of humanity that can be associated with such bigots. Majority of us abled people, do not even have a sense of realization of the difficulties and problems that these people must have to go through on a daily basis. They are discriminated against, subjected to undue levels of mental torture and restricted at every given level. They are made to realize of their helplessness and set aside at every echelon of society. They are duly rejected and considered incapable of performing any meaningful tasks that could aid society in any given manner.

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Over a period of time, the value of disabled people to economies around the world cannot be underestimated. They are honorable citizens in society, have equal rights, given due priority and protected from abuse and unjust discrimination. In Germany, for example patients detected with autism are being hired in renowned organizations like SAP, because of their uncanny ability to decipher long sets of data and unbelievable memory retention skills. They are adding value to the organization and to the economy on a whole, making them self-sufficient and responsible at the same time. In a country like Pakistan, where official figures of disabled people is around 5 million but the real number may be much higher. It is surprising to know that no official survey has ever been carried out to highlight the plight and marginalization of this segment of society. Although, NGO’s and other private organizations are tirelessly working to bridge the gap by raising constant awareness regarding the issues being faced by these people, the efforts are falling short. By official government policy, only 2% of the quota of the workforce is allocated to people with disabilities. Considering Pakistan’s population is over 180 million and growing at a staggering pace, the amount of people born with disabilities would only be increasing. There is a shortfall on part of inadequate government policies to address their issues, lack of awareness among large segments of the populace including the educated elite is mind blowing.

The behavior exhibited by the police today in Lahore, highlights the impending reality that brutality is a foregone conclusion and they can persecute anyone they consider as a ‘threat’. They were shoved, pushed aside by the police and maltreated in ways that was highly unjustified and objectionable. From my own personal experience, I can vouch for the fact that disability is given no due consideration, special treatment is scarce in quantity in our country. For example, many shopping malls in Lahore advertising car parking facilities for the disabled are actually being utilized for parking cars by the abled! Buildings lack appropriate facilities to house the disabled and their movements are hampered as a result of it. In normal circumstances, priority is given to people with disabilities, starting from standing in queues to cinema houses where special seats are specifically reserved for them. On a positive note, Cinepax situated in Fortress stadium, Lahore has implemented a strict policy of aiding people with disabilities, by providing them with wheelchairs and escorting them to the cinema hall without incurring any extra charges. It is something to be welcomed and respectively appreciated. The road towards recognizing the due rights and special treatment for disabled people is full of hurdles, a lot of awareness still needs to be raised. I do sincerely hope, that the incident we witnessed today is never ever repeated again.

Credits for 1st Screen grab: http://www.dawn.com/news/1148521/police-baton-charges-blind-protesters-in-lahore-several-injured

Credits for 2nd screen grab: http://tribune.com.pk/story/801148/police-manhandle-blind-protesters-in-lahore/

 

 

Water Scarcity and Wastage in Pakistan

17 Thursday Apr 2014

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 Pakistan is among the most distressed category of water scarce countries in the world.The per capita availability of water has reduced to an alarming level of less than 1,000 cubic feet. Water is the vehicle that powers our agriculture sector it contributes about 21.4% of the GDP to our economy and hires almost 40% of the workforce in it. Have we ever imagined the spectre of a looming water shortage and crisis being predicted in a decade’s time by experts? Has our government ever realized what it would mean for our economy; for our very livelihood and what catastrophe can it have? I doubt any kind of policy has been worked out by our present government or the ones gone previously. A campaign is being run by the Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaaf (PTI) and seminars being held in different cities to highlight this issue.

Water should be treated as an economic good which should be taxed. Its price linked to amount of usage and consumption. According to the report released by the Asian Development Bank in 2013; Pakistan’s storage capacity in case of an emergency is limited to a 30 day supply far below the recommended 1,000 days for countries with similar climates. With a massive increase in population; the usage of water is also exponentially increasing but nothing is being done to address the chronic shortage of water that is supposed to hit us in the next decade or so.  It is a dwindling resource; population growth is exacerbating the issue of water shortage in the country. Global warming is causing a change in climate patterns ; which has resulted in a lessening of melting of glaciers; reducing water flow as a result; lack of dams for storing rain water, boring and drilling of land for irrigation purposes. The discharge of water from untreated industrial and domestic waste is the cause of the supplies getting contaminated and the mixing of sewerage and water pipelines worsens it.

The promotion of awareness campaigns to not waste water need to be initiated from the ground up. Efficient usage of water needs to be envisaged; the usage of tube wells all day long needs to be reduced and divided into fixed intervals. Big reservoirs or water tanks need to be installed by WASA , and water appropriately discharged to the localities for usage in their homes. Boring of land in homes needs to be banned altogether; the individual doing it should be heavily penalized and reprimanded. Efficient usage of water needs to be promoted ; filtration plants need to be installed at the premises where water tankers exist to avoid contamination. All localities in the cities should be checked by taking samples of water to test out for contamination purposes every few months. The price of water being used should be exorbitantly increased; to make people realize that water is a national asset. Strict penalties need to be slapped for wasting water example is the watering of roads and gardens in their homes. Inspection teams need to be deployed for this very purpose to check whether water is being stolen or not by any individual or institution.

Pakistan needs to envision a future where water will be in scarce quantity as stated by many experts. Steps need to be initiated at Federal and Provincial level to prevent water wastage and create methods to avert this crisis on a war footing. It threatens our nation’s very existence; its present and future are massively dependent on it.

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More reading resources:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/business/20-Jan-2014/country-heading-towards-water-shortage

http://spearheadresearch.org/SR_CMS/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Pakistans-_Water_Crisis_part-1.pdf

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-7-239995-Water-shortage-to-turn-Pakistan-into-a-failed-state-PEW

http://tribune.com.pk/story/553491/water-sufficiency-pakistan-faces-dire-threat-of-water-scarcity/

http://tribune.com.pk/story/231905/pakistans-water-crisis/

Net Neutrality in Pakistan

27 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by in Internet, Net Neutrality, Pakistan, Technology, Websites

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The guiding principle to the preservation of a free and open internet is “Net Neutrality”. It means that ISP’s may not discriminate between different kinds of content and applications online. It guarantees a level playing field for all websites and internet technologies. The question arises as to how we should apply the concept of “Net Neutrality” in the context of Pakistan. Net Neutrality has primarily garnered a lot of attention in the United States, and has been the subject of intense scrutiny and various lawsuits over the last 4 years or so. My focus is to make it relevant in the context of Pakistan and how can it affect us in the longer scheme of things.

      In Pakistan, many would argue the concepts very mention would be nonsensical and idiotic. Our telecom and internet sector is predominantly dominated by PTCL; one of the largest providers of fixed line telephone, broadband and wireless internet services. Besides being in the business of providing the aforementioned services, PTCL is also involved in leasing bandwidth to all major ISP’s operating in Pakistan. Majority of the submarine cables landing in Pakistan, are owned by a consortium of telecom companies including PTCL which is a major stakeholder in it. Besides it, the only company providing bandwidth leasing services to ISP’s is Transworld Alliance ie TWA. This gives PTCL a whopping control over the whole telecom sector.  It stifles competition and gives them absolute price setting power and ability to manipulate the market to their whim. Since the advent of mobile providers like Telenor, Warid and China Mobile, the market opened up to healthy competition bringing down the call rates that were quite exorbitant before the deregulation of the telecom sector in 2004. Before this, Mobilink was the sole provider of GSM services in Pakistan for almost 10 years since 1994/95.  It virtually controlled the Pakistani market in the presence of providers like Paktel and Instaphone.

The critical aspect to understand is the unlimited control that PTCL is exhibiting in the realm of internet services in Pakistan. A key indicator is the growing use of VOIPs and preference of cellphone usage in Pakistan. Due to low calling rates, the use of fixed line telephony services has reduced drastically in comparison to the ease of access offered by cellphones. This has hurt PTCL revenues sharply in the last decade since it was sold to Etisalat in 2005. Due to exploding growth of smartphones and widespread Wi-Fi internet access availability in the urban areas, the use of VOIP services like Skype, Viber has grown tremendously. Due to the ease of convenience that it offers and the biggest thing is, it are free! As per net neutrality, PTCL should be offering a level playing field to all competitors and not prioritize their fixed line services which is in effect; detrimental to the consumer.  Due to exponential growth in VOIP services, PTCL has blocked the ability to make calls over Skype to landline numbers abroad which is a gross violation of the principles of net neutrality. Degradation in services like Skype and Viber which people use to contact their loved ones abroad causes significant hurdles for the consumers. It forces them to use fixed line or wireless telephony services to contact them instead. Alternatives do exist, but the majority using Skype or Viber like applications do not possess the knowledge or are tech savvy enough to determine which other services to use instead.

     Interestingly, another example of net neutrality could be a deal signed by PTCL with the Jang Group of Newspapers, who own the famous television channel Geo, and the English newspaper; The News. This would involve the Jang Group paying PTCL money to offer prioritized internet traffic to its news portals like Geo.tv and TheNews.com.pk during peak hour usage. For example in the evening when people come back home and log onto the web and access news websites. This could happen possibly that competing websites like ARY and Dunya news websites either would be very slow to access due to a deliberate slowdown in internet traffic by PTCL. This would force the consumers frustratingly to switch to websites like Geo which are readily, easily accessible due to the prioritized speeded up traffic being provided by the ISP. This ultimately would work to the benefit of PTCL, which would either hatch up a package offering speeded up internet access in form of a paid upgrade to the consumers, or offer tiered internet services depending on the level of usage of the customer. A customer or even a company in need of speedy internet access would hop onto this bandwagon and save themselves from the misery of slow internet access on websites that they want to access. This would mean more revenue and profits could be generated by PTCL and make it immune to competition. And hence it will not make significant investments in its infrastructure to provide better internet services to the customer. PTCL would know it well when they can rake in significant revenue by just hatching up prices and slowing down internet access deliberately. In a market totally dominated by them who would dare challenge them? Even the government due to the significant market share and fear of investor unrest would not take on the behemoth known as PTCL and would put its hand up.

    The mention about video streaming and IP TV access in respect of net neutrality was purposely ignored. Till now the level of streaming and data consumption in Pakistan is not comparable to the West; due to a lack of high speed internet access. With the advent of 3G and 4G services; whose licenses are being auctioned shortly; Net Neutrality will garner significant importance and the netizens of Pakistan will realize what lies ahead of us as the use of data services would grow exponentially in the coming few years.

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*Net Neutrality definition has been taken from the website www.savetheinternet.com  citation 1st paragraph*

Internet And Bannistan In Pakistan

19 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Censorship, Internet, NetFreedom, Technology

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 I was ceased to be amazed by the censorship policies of our telecom authority ie PTA. Three very well respected technology websites Gizmodo.com, Lifehacker.com and TheVerge.com were blocked by our ISP’s on the instructions of PTA. I was flabbergasted and overawed by the audacious and stupid ban put in place on these very good sources of information for technology related news and happenings.  These websites as far I have known have never housed any disconcerting content that would give rise to it being deemed ‘harmful or inappropriate’. If the authorities feel that these websites mentioned above are responsible for hosting “objectionable” content; a reasonable explanation should suffice detailing every aspect of why these websites were blocked in the first place; and what kind of content did they deem was objectionable which led to the blockage or ban on these websites.

       Everything is under the radar of the state; massive surveillance and privacy violations are being conducted on a daily basis and rights to freedom of speech being curtailed on the internet. The blocking of websites is the first of many missteps that the state undertakes to block the right to access as basic a thing as information on the internet. The absence of any clear guidelines and policies and a sudden blocking of a website is not only erroneous but also practically stupid so to speak. The websites that are hosting transparent and harmless content in nature and are in no way offensive or harmful to the States very existence; why the hell is it blocked? Is there a legitimate reason to block these websites without any prior notification? Is there any mechanism under existence to ban or block these websites? Do any kind of legislations exist in the power of the state to empower the telecom authority to block any website at their whim without any practical reasoning? Are notifications issued to the ISP’s or an official press release made by the concerned stakeholders that a certain website or websites have been blocked due to this and this reason?

        In these circumstances; a pronounced absence of laws and guidelines for blocking websites is just mind boggling. One fine morning, we get up and see a website we view daily is blocked! Then the very next day it is ‘miraculously’ unblocked!! The formulation of polices and guidelines is an utmost necessity in this digital day and age; laws need to be enacted by Parliament and passed through so a proper mechanism is in place to facilitate the closure or blockage of these websites. On a personal level; I am not in favour of disbanding or blocking any websites and denying the netizens of the right to access information in any given way. Blockage ensues frustration at a level even for genuine purposes; like people doing research who have to view Youtube to view a specific video that is interlinked to their work and also for example upcoming musicians; startups etc who have to rely on free mediums to disseminate information about their specific ventures. Due to these blockages; various pedigrees of business and upcoming artists and talents that need the medium to showcase their talents are being curtailed; unnecessarily. The underlying frustration of those ‘genuine’ users is to circumvent these blockades and resort to using Virtual Private Networks or proxies to access these ‘banned’ websites.

        Absurd bans like these make no sense at all and have no valid reasoning and explanation. If for some apparent reason; the websites mentioned above are guilty of hosting content that the State finds ‘objectionable’ to its liking; it can take the step of simply blocking that particular URL and not blocking the whole DAMN WEBSITE! Emancipation of information is being curtailed by the State at every level and it is their prerogative to deprive the netizens of their basic rights to access it. Blocking and massive filtration of the internet will not stop the seeds of discontentment from sprouting up. Proactive policies need to be formulated in regards to the Internet in Pakistan; guidelines need to be developed and a framework promulgated to ‘Censor’ content if NEEDED! By blocking websites which emanate knowledge and add value in every respect of the word; it will only harm us in the longer run.

        The internet is also a great resource of learning; besides the ‘Objectionable’ content it also houses according to the said morals and virtues of our State. If the State encourages instead of discouraging the people to view the internet; it can help the populace to be empowered in every given way whether it is in the field of education; the economy and it will only add value and make them that much aware of the happenings in the world. The internet can galvanize a revolution of knowledge and learning in Pakistan; and with a massive chunk of the 180 million population under the age of 25, we have to encourage the use of the internet proactively. Bannistan is not the solution to our problems; it only aggravates them!