Bilal Zuberi

As readers of this blog may know, I recently got married. Among other things that came with my wife are a few plants that I now find myself responsible for. Now if you knew me, you would understand why having plants at home is a huge deal for me. The only greenery my house had seen for the past decade was in the form of saag paneer or home-made salads. Real life plants are a fresh addition.

Now that I am once again taking care of plants, I am reminded of my garden (also called lawn by my brothers, and bagheecha by my parents) in our house in Karachi. I have many memories of the bagheecha, and continue to add more each time I visit.

I grew up in a small house in very urban Karachi, but by some clever designing, and probably minor land grab, my family has been able to include a small garden inside the house and in a narrow fenced-in (read ‘grilled‘) strip outside the primeter of the house. It is is barely the size of my current bedroom, but serves numerous purposes.

Guest Post by Babar Bhatti

With some luck the Pakistani Internet user base may get a long overdue and much deserved break. That is, if the recent bandwidth rate cuts proposed by PTA are implemented and that’s where the battle is. Here’s a bit of history of the PTA vs. PTCL bandwidth rates controversy.

PTA is the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the autonomous regulatory agency; and PTCL is the, now privatised and run by Etisalat, Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited, the leading telecommuinication provider in the country. (See earlier ATP Post on foriegn interest in Pakistan’s telecom sector).

In an effort to accelerate the spread of broadband services in Pakistan, PTA cut bandwidth rates significantly in June and asked PTCL to apply the new tariff rates. This decision was based on a policy paper (PDF version here) by PTA in April – which concluded that lack of competition and high international bandwidth rates are harming consumers and businesses.

The drastic reduction in bandwidth rates created a chain of events. Instead of complying with the PTA decision, the Etisalat–run PTCL took the legal course. In August, the Lahore High Court reversed the PTA decision on reduced bandwidth rates. In essence, then, the consumers have not yet recieved the benefit of the rate cut by PTA.

Guest Post by S A J Shirazi

Though “the name Sher Garh was given by the Governor of Molten, Faith Jang Khan after the name of Afghan King Sher Shah Sure,” wrote Abbas Khan Sarauni in his book Tarikh Sher Shah Suri (History of Sher Shah Suri).