No mobile phone service for two days
ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: The government decided to suspend cellular and PTCL’s wireless telephone services for the 9th and 10 of Muharram in 49 cities across the country. The suspension will be in effect from 6am to 10pm on both days.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that pillion riding is already banned in the country, urging the nation not to take bikes on streets till 10th of Muharram. He said that mobile phone services would be suspended in 49 cities across the country.
Fourteen cities of Punjab which will face cellular services suspension included Lahore, Multan, Sargodha, Attock, Rawalpindi, Jhang, Raheem Yar Khan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, BhakKar, Pakpatan, Nankana Sahib, Dera Ghazi Khan and Muzaffargarh. In Sindh, the services will be halted in Karachi, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Sukkur and Larkana. Meanwhile in Azad Kashmir the affected cities will be Muzzafarabad, Kotli, Neelum, Rawlakot and Mirpur. Rehman Malik said that the cellular services would be suspended in 10 cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 11 cities of Balochistan.
In Balochistan province, the cities included Quetta, Qallaat, Khuzdar, Turbat, Gwadar, Panjgor, Mastung, Kohlu, Dera Bugti and Hub while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the cities included Kohat, Astarzai, Bannu, Laki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Nowshera, Haripur, Charsadda, Mardan, hangu and Parachinar.
The federal minister said that the mobile phone services would also be suspended in parts of Gilgit while in Islamabad the services will be halted in sectors G6 and G9. Malik said that newspapers hawkers are allowed to circulate newspapers while using motorcycles from 6AM to 10 AM. He advised the hawkers to carry their service cards with them.
@Saira Syed: Well, just went through your reply containing a lot of references as usual. But I think you have taken everything personal but make sure this is an academic discussion which enlightens everyone to clear his/her viewpoint on things which he/she preaches.
We appreciate your bold admission which is seldom found in Chitrali women but you went out of the track and in that context, I had to use the word “enlightened moderation”. I never wanted to have any pessimistic view as you perceived but just tried to reproduce your own words through my pen.
I never opposed girls’ education, which, in a society like ours is key to progress. I will repeat that girls’ education does not mean you will cross all the limits of decency. If you still think this is called advance thought, enlightenment, a step in the right direction, women empowerment etc, I am afraid to say you need to revisit your thought process.
I do not have anything negative in mind while writing the piece, which you took to heart. May be I am a bit critical in responding to some friends but this is just for the sake of putting things in the right perspective, which you have all the right to defer. Good luck and carry on!
@Saira Syed: First of all, it is a not a social media, but an online newspaper of Chitral, which provides best ever platform to Chitrali youths to express their feelings about different issues faced by the people of the area. We appreciate women’s participation in such debates to express their points of view but they should take care of their culture and other things as well. There is no legal bar on women to speak their heart out. But the way you have tried to express your feelings is not decent. Whatever you deemed fit to share with fellow Chitralis is not even acceptable to people in big cities.
Brother Ahmad: Thank you for your point of view about my comments which I think is everybody’s right in civilized society. Actually It was just a funny comment on government policy and about a very famous past comment by the honorable Minister. These types of comments are very common in our social media, print media and electronic media now a days; it was nothing to do with religion or any culture.
You said that you had very positive image about me before this comment but brother sorry to say I didn’t find any positive comment from your side on that sagacious topic. Now when you got the point of score, you didn’t waste time to jump in the ground with your own language and frustration.
Here I must highlight some realistic gender issues in our society which always cause discouraging women to participate them in any forum of life.
The constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan has given equal rights to both men and women. But according to the Human Development Report 1999of UNDP the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) rank of Pakistan among 185 countries registered with UN is 100. So being women we are already facing lots of gender issues in our daily life.
There is always a minority mindset that used to interpret religion as a tool to keep away women from power and even from education (where the1st Qur’an verse is about education).
Another reason of your reaction might be that pessimists have an underlying attitude that their experiences will usually (or always) be negative and they also believe failures are the others fault. Unfortunately, pessimistic thinking is linked to depression; it has nothing to do with someone expressions.
At last I never hesitate to beg for apology if anybody is hurt from my any comment or points of view, being a human these errors are part of our actions that can’t be denied. I hope brother, now you will be very clear about.
Saira Syed
Lahore
Woah Saira!! Your comment left me bewildered!! Babe its a Chitrali website, tone down a bit. We in Chitral are used to very modest expression in the most bitter of arguments!! Definitely disappointed!!
Saira Syed gave us a long lecture some days back, citing Quranic verses and Hadith. We being people of the word believed her but this time she turned out more vigorously denouncing the very basis of women in Islam in general and Chitral in particular.
So at last you have opened up by quoting a statement of Rehman Malik. If you have ample knowledge of Quran and Sunnah, woman in Arabic means a thing to hide. Hurrah, you have openly used the word “sexy” by pressing you lips in your teeth. The Chitrali society still preserves its culture, norms and has the know-how of Islam too.
A person is judged by what he/she utters. I was impressed in the first instance and had developed a very enlightened image of you. I just want to make it clear that enlightened moderation is not all about things like girlfriends, mixed parties, belly-club dancing blablabla etc. We being Chitralis should be very careful while portraying ourselves. Girls’ education does not mean you will start harping western tunes or act like derailed burger-class girls who could be seen half nude, puffing cigarettes/shisha in vanilla, strawberry flavours as a sign of enlightened moderation.
Mr Malik’s experience and knowledge gave us a lot to learn and that is… If we don’t study and make ourselves knowledgeable that’s what will happen to all of us. NO respect and no sense of the world.
Secondly, I am just glad that the jealous wives/girlfriends have gone back into their holes, and are not on a killing rampage as they were the last time Karachi bled. I wonder where these women were trained to shoot sniper style and organize mayhem in a country like ours. That’s one for women empowerment – I think. So watch out boys/men, we women are sexy, deranged and dangerous and not necessarily in that order (On the basis of a previous statement on Karachi killings by Malik Sahib).