Success Story:

Building the Future - A Day at a time

Thursday, 22 August 2013

Pairi Mai a resident of Rajan Pur district found her family in financial turmoil very early in life. Her father who was the only source of income for her family died when she was only ten years old. Abiding by family traditions she was married in very young age that prevented her from getting formal education.

Life was uneventful till one day her husband lost both of his legs in a road accident. This was a daunting phase for Pairi Mai as her husband who was the only source of income for her family was not able to continue his work due to disability.  With having no formal education it was very difficult for her to earn a decent livelihood for her family comprising three dependents including her husband and two children but a strong resolve to leave no stone un-turned motivated her to start  stock and dairy farming business.

Starting a business is never easy especially for a woman living in rural areas where financial and social problems are rife. With having a strong resolve towards providing a promising future for her family Pairi Mai overcame the psychological and social barriers and approached Khushhali Bank Limited for financial assistance. Khushhali Bank Limited, a pioneer Micro-finance Bank in Pakistan, not only provided her initial finances to start her business but also guided her with best possible financial and business advisory that helped her become a successful entrepreneur.

Life is all together different for her as now she is a successful entrepreneur with an ever growing Stock and Dairy farm business. This business has a great impact on her family financial status as now she is having decent finances to support her children to get education in top school of the city and baring other expanses of her family. She is a role model for women empowerment for the whole society and looking at her success those people of her society who were working as an obstacle for her are presenting her as a role model to their wives and family members.

Fired with the resolve to create

• Monday, 03 June 2013

Homer Baloch

Rawalpindi: In a time when poverty has compelled the number of poor women in our society to adopt unjust ways of income or to commit suicide after finding no way to fight with reverses of fortune, Samina Sadiq, 35, resident of Dhok Elahi Bux and a beautician by profession, wants to become role model for underprivileged women by fighting with all the menace of society.

Samina found herself back at square one with two kids and the small society stigma of being divorced women when her husband left her stranded with no financial or emotional mainstay couple of years ago. After finding no way to feed her children, a desperate lady also found only solution of all her plights in suicide. “I had decided to finish myself along with my children after failing to get any type of support from the people sitting in power corridors,” said Samina while sharing her plights with The Spokesman.

“But my friend advised me to become a role model for other woman by earning livelihood through hard work instead of joining the list of those females who bowed themselves before the cruelties of society,” Samina added. Fired with the resolve to create a better tomorrow even if the past was marred with pain, she decided to start up a small beauty establishment. According to her, the reason behind this decision was simple. Narrating the story of her bad days, Samina said; “Finally, my friend came forward for my support and advised me to take a loan from local bank and started a business of beauty parlor so that I can earn livelihood for me and my two kids as well,” said Samina. With her goal clear in her mind, she approached Khushali Bank Limited for financial support to facilitate the execution of her vision. 

Today, Samina is running a beauty parlor since over five years. She is the primary supporter of her family through her business and at 15,000 a month it is enough to fulfill her dream of giving her children a better life. 

Capital Police:

Capital police website lacks everything but the IG

• Thursday, 14 March 2013

Homer Baloch

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Police seems active only in promoting their high-ups instead of facilitating the residents of the federal capital, as their official website only shows the picture of IG Bani Amin Khan, leaving off the shelf the crime data of 2012 and 2013 and any updates of the survey regarding religious seminaries and mosques.
On the other hand, in a strange move, the ICT police have displayed the picture of a private mall as a landmark instead of uploading any national building, landmark or monument’s picture.
According to details, the website www.islamabadpolice.gov.pk of the ICT police which was developed to facilitate and assure the interaction between the public and the police department has not been updated properly by irking the citizens who access the website to get basic information. The data available on the website tells that till January 2012, the number of mosques in the capital territory was 712 among which 105 were registered. However the number of Madrissas was 228. Whereas according to some sources, about 50 new mosques and 15 Madrissas are formed during the last year.
Same is the case with the crime statement available on the website. The statement is of year 2011 which tells that 6793 cases were registered and 6097 Challans were submitted in the year; however the crime statement of 2012 has not been uploaded on the website yet.
There is a list of all 18 police stations of Islamabad available on the web among which, the web links for the details of two police stations namely Police Station Bharakahu and Police Station Tarnol are not accessible for the public, however the telephone numbers of Kohsar Police Station are also not updated, The Spokesman has learnt.
Moreover, there is also a picture of a private mall ‘centaurs’ is displayed on the website, instead of displaying a picture of any place, building or a landmark having a national significance like Faisal Mosque or the National Monument.
Kiran, an official at web section of Islamabad Police Headquarters told The Spokesman that, “as being a government officials we have no authority to update the data on website without getting approval from higher authorities. In January, we requested the authorities for the latest data during our meeting, and the director has also forwarded the letter and we are still waiting for the latest data”. However Dr. Sultan Azam Taimoori DIG Headquarter when contacted said, “Although the picture of Centaurs (mall) on our official website is not logical, it was uploaded just to decorate the website. However there are some issues regarding the timely updating of the website just because we have to deal with various other matters as well.” 

Yearnings of a perfume seller who doesn’t know her age

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Photo by Homer Baloch

Homer Baloch

ISLAMABAD: If you ever visit the Aabpara Sunday Bazaar, you will see a shy girl covered with a shawl, selling perfumes outside the bazaar. At the first glance, she gives a rough and tough look, but conversations with her have revealed a stark similarity with the yearnings of any other girl of her age.
Farzana is not even sure about how old she is. Age is not important in the background she has come from. However she is sure that she's not as old as she looks – thanks the hard times she has gone through.
Her biggest concern is how to earn enough in a day to support her family consisting of her old parents and a married brother. Her brother, Naimat, is attached with the same business of perfume selling but is much experienced as according to her, he is selling perfumes since she was an infant.
From the beginning of her day until the sunset, she earns almost 500 rupees from this business, which is though not enough to support them, but better enough than nothing. She says several times she tried to put her business inside the Sunday Bazaar area as that is more secure and prominent than the footpath but it costs Rs. 500 per day which almost her total earning. She says if she gets inside and pays the rent then what will be left back to be taken at home, where her poor father and old mother are expecting her to bring enough money that can get them proper food and medicine.
Going through the hardness of the day, Farzana rejoices her work, not caring about her health as she was found coughing all the time she was talking. The place where she has placed her stall has no proper shade or covering area to protect her from sunlight and cold but she has no other free place in view where she can be protected as well as earn.
Her eyes were brightened when she began telling about her life. She said she is living in a rural area of Islamabad along with her parents. Her brother is married and living somewhere else with his family, and is running the same business of perfumes in Rawalpindi. She said though her brother is contributing his earning with her family but that is not enough to overcome their expenses.
When asked about selling perfumes, instead of garments or jewelry like other women stall holders inside the market, she replied that the main reason is that she has seen her brother selling perfumes since she was born, and secondly her mother did the same business for many years but left when she turned old and is now seriously ill. She had to replace her mother to run the business and their life circle.
Farzana is satisfied with her work, but not with society as according to her working women are not welcome. She said everyday she faces different kind of people, some pretend to be nice but most of the men visit her stall not to buy perfumes but to tease her when they see a girl selling perfumes at the footpath. When she was asked about complaining to the police, she blamed the police for not being concerned about such issues, and she cannot even tell her family about is as they will ban her working and incase they did, it will be very hard for them to live as they do not have enough financial support. She said she has learned how to treat those misbehavers but still, it is very hard for a woman to work outside.
She said she has sold thousands of perfumes, but the fragrance of her life will come when she gets married and that, too, to an educated man, as she herself is illiterate, who will take her out of her misery and help her become successful.

Aabpara Market without parking space

• Saturday, 09 February 2013

Photo by Author

HOMER BALOCH

ISLAMABAD: Despite the fact that the concerned authorities should provide proper parking area to the people visiting markets, the visitors have no other choice but to park vehicles on roadside or empty area near Aabpara market as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) could not open the planned parking area on time.
The main commercial hub of the capital turns into a crowded place when a large number of people visit every evening but they find it hard to park their vehicles as the market has no proper place or space for the parking. Ikhlaaq Ahmad, a visitor, told The Spokesman that, “I came here to buy some medicines but it took me almost 10 minutes to find a space to park my vehicle as the market has no proper place for parking.”
He said that the slot allocated on the other side of road for parking was insufficient. Ali Ahmad, another visitor, stated, “I had to park my car far away from the shop I needed to visit because I did not get any space nearby that shop, and it looks like the concerned authorities has no planning to facilitate citizens.”
All Pakistan Anjuman-i-Tajiraan Vice President Muhammad Ajmal Baloch told The Spokesman that the traders were also facing problems regarding parking slots as they also need to park their vehicles at market. He said that the issue would be solved as a new parking area in the market would be opened for the public in the next week, and hopefully, the CDA chairman himself would inaugurate it.
“Every day I park my vehicle at the residential area which is close to Aabpara because it was turning very hard for me to find a parking space near my shop daily. There are many other shopkeepers who are either somehow managing to park their vehicles nearby their shops or in market, or are turning towards the residential area for this purpose,” said Rashid Ali, a shopkeeper of the market. A traffic official requesting anonymity told The Spokesman that the parking issue in Aabpara has caused a big problem regarding traffic because many of the visitors park their vehicle close to road which disturbed the whole traffic system. A few years ago, the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) had requested CDA to allot a parking area to shift out the burden on roads, and the civic body then had announced the parking area but the project could not be finalized due to some internal politics.

CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said that opening of the new parking area in Aabpara was delayed due to some internal issues of the civic authority regarding the approval. But soon, he said it would be opened for the public parking and the parking issue would be resolved soon.

Saidpoor village's transportation:

Capital’s rich village has poor transportation system

• Friday, 08 February 2013

Photo by SALMAN MUSHTAQ for The Spokesman

HOMER BALOCH

ISLAMABAD: Saidpoor, historically a rich village, is located at the foothill of Margalla near F-6 Sector where a few years back the village was renovated into a model one with major development carried out by the civic authority. Since, a number of posh hotel chains have opened up; however, the residents are still deprived of adequate transportation facilities.
The population consisting almost 3,000 people is not provided any direct route from their town to the major markets of the capital like Aabpara, G-7, G-8, and most interestingly Jinnah Super which located very next to this village, makes the situation regrettable. Most of the people in the rural community are doing low income jobs and every morning they have to go to the capital city for their work, for which they need to change two to three public transportation vehicles to reach their work place on time which irks the movers with a loss of time and money.
Rustam Ali, a resident of the model village, told The Spokesman that a lot of students and working people like him were living in this area by sharing a room or a place as the areas nearby were very expensive to live. “We are finding it very difficult to reach our offices and other places on time because we are not provided any direct route to the main commercial areas of the city,” he said.
Rawalpindi-Islamabad Transport Association Chairman Sultan Awan told The Spokesman that keeping the recent high rise in fuel prices in view it looks difficult to provide a new transportation route to the areas where the transporters could not get passengers in numbers. “It is true that people in those areas are facing problems regarding their transportation. Though few vans are running between Peshawar Morr and Margalla road but still they usually hire a cab to reach their nearest Super Market in F-6 to get to a further route for G-6 and other sectors,” he said.
When contacted, an authorised person of the Capital Territory told The Spokesman that ICT allots new transportation to any area when its residents register application but no one has registered any application to us yet. “It is the first time that someone has contacted us about transportation issue of the cultural village,” he said.

Authorities asleep over Embassies' encroachments

• Monday, 04 February 2013

Homer Baloch

ISLAMABAD: A number of foreign embassies have encroached upon public land in the residential areas of the federal capital, violating the bye laws of the Capital Development Authority, which is criminally silent on the issue. Although foreign missions have been allotted the entire sector of G-5, known as the 'Diplomatic Enclave' to construct their embassies, a number have established their offices outside the designated area over various pretexts.
“I have been appointed at this building for last six to eight months. We are here on a temporary basis as our new building in the diplomatic area is under construction”, said a security guard at the Kuwaiti Embassy in sector F-7 which has barricaded the surrounding area including the public footpath.
The state Immunity Ordinance 1981 clearly mentions that according to Section 86-A (1) c, a suit may lie against the diplomatic agent if he “indulges in any professional or commercial activity exercised by the diplomatic agent in Pakistan outside his official’s functions”.
The city's residential areas of F-6, F-7, F-8 and G-6 are replete with offices and houses of diplomatic missions which can be recognized by their grotesque high concrete walls and barbed wire fences which are a hindrance to pedestrians as they are located outside the respective compounds.
“We have placed the barricades here for our safety. I know neither about any order given by IHC about this sort of encroachment, nor any CDA official has arrived here yet to inspect us”, said a security person at the Portuguese embassy while pointing at the barricades placed on the footpath outside their boundary wall.
The Spokesman also witnessed barricades and concrete walls constructed at the footpaths by the embassies of Greece and Czech Republic respectively. “We have arranged the barricades here for our safety. Previously these were partially covering the road in front of the embassy, but later we removed the obstacles as Islamabad High Court ordered”, said a person at Greek Embassy.
None of the concerned authorities were ready to own the issue of encroachments and shifted the blame to other officials.
Absolving the CDA of being responsible for checking encroachments, spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said “the Foreign Office is the authority that handles the issues related to the diplomatic offices and it reviews the allotments in diplomatic enclave".
“We are also inconvenienced with the illegal construction of the embassies but we are waiting for court orders as we were given in the past to remove these sorts of encroachments. But barricades' removal does not come under our purview and should be tackled by the Islamabad Capital Territory administration”, he added.
Although the Foreign Office acknowledged being responsible for security issues of the embassies, it claimed that the encroachments fall under the purview of CDA and it should check whether any rules are being broken.
When contacted, An authorized person from Czech Republic embassy told the spokesman that, “We are officially allowed by the Foreign Office to place barricades and security arrangements outside their territory and there is nothing illegal in it”, while on the other hand, an authority from Omani embassy said It is the Islamabad Police who has installed the barricade and they have no connections with the its placement.